Barmaid Veronica Bond and landlady Lily Lewis with a shield for one of  her displays, which she won in 2005.

Dogs, monkeys and astronauts have been brightening up a Shrewsbury pub window for years. But now the attractive decorations are coming to an end – because the landlady has run out of ideas.

Lily Lewis, landlady of the Albion Vaults in Castle Gates, started the decorative window displays during a Shrewsbury Flower Show contest and decided to liven up the character of the pub by continuing them.

See some of Lily’s designs below 

But now, after hundreds of displays, the curtain has now come down on the custom.

Lily, 70, who has run the Vaults with her husband Terry for the past 12 years, said she had done so many displays it was difficult to come up with new ones all the time.

The pensioner said she had also been busy working on creating a “secret garden”-type experience for customers at her tea garden in Smithfield Road, with a Chinese-theme based on dragons and buddha figures.

She said: “I started the window displays about five years ago after I entered a Shrewsbury Flower Show contest and I thought I could do with something like that for my bar.

“I get my ideas from films and stories and things that happen in town and I think I have done about every fairytale in the book. In the end I just ran out of ideas.”

Lily said she started doing the displays with her barmaid Veronica Bond, but had to do it on her own after she became too busy to help her. Themes used by Lily for her window displays include outer space, patron saint days, religious festivals, major town events and animals.

But she claims her favourite was one based on the movie 101 Dalmatians starring Glenn Close.

To complete the display Lily drew the 101 dalmatians on card before cutting them out and placing them in her windows.

Another reason Lily’s artistic displays have had to be curtailed is because she has run out of room to store all her materials.

She said: “I have also had to stop doing it because my shed was so full of papers and I had to make way for a smoking area for the pub.”

But those who regret they may never get the chance to see Lily’s artistic skills again do not need to fear just yet – she has not ruled out doing them in the future for special occasions.