A historic Shrewsbury pub has been put up for sale with leaders behind a £15 million project to restore the town’s old canal saying they are considering putting in a bid for the site.

The Shrewsbury and Newport Canal Trust wants to convert the Canal Tavern pub in Castlefields into an overnight mooring station, possibly with a chandlery and restaurant.

The pub has been closed since October last year and has now been put up for sale by way of informal tender with no guide price on the building.

Chris Chambers, chairman of the trust, said the pub dated back to the 1800s and said it was a listed building. He said members of the trust would be discussing whether to submit an offer at at their meeting on March 19 in Newport.

Mr Chambers said he had written a report about how the building could be incorporated into the trust’s plans.

He said: “We would like it to be a gateway to Castlefields. It’s a really good scheme there for leisure and we have said open space doesn’t have to be green – it can be blue, which is water.

“We would like to see a canal feature in there with water and then houses around it.”

He said the trust wanted a regular dialogue with Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council about how it could work in partnership with the authority.

James Evans, from agents Samuel Wood, said the closing date for expressions of informal tender was March 23.