An anonymous letter has prompted a war of words in a shop window in Shropshire after a resident fired off a missive complaining about the state of the building.

Both letters have been put up in the window of Tanners wine merchants in Wyle Cop in Shrewsbury after the company received the letter through their door about a week a go.

The anonymous letter stated: “What a shame this property is being left to deteriorate. Some sympathetic restoration by you or landlords of this listed building is needed.

“A reputable firm of your standing should not have let this go so far! So come on Tanners do the business and keep historic Shrewsbury looking tidy.”

The letter was signed “concerned local resident”.

The response from James Tanner, on headed notepaper, states: “To the sanctimonious and unpleasant person who sent us this anonymous missive, do your research.

“The building photographed neither belongs to, nor is operated by Tanners.

“If you have lived in Shrewsbury long enough you will know that most issues can be resolved amicably.

“A politely phrased and signed request to the property owner may well work. If not there are correct channels to go through via the historic buildings people at the council.”

Robert Boutflower, private sales director from Tanners, said he was not sure which building the picture belonged to but he believed it was a neighbouring property.

He said: “No one saw who delivered it. The letter from James Tanner makes it quite clear we like to think we are responsible.

“Our main issue is please don’t have a dig at Tanners, we try and do our best to keep our building together as much as we can.

“The letter from James says ‘let’s be more friendly about these things’.

“If they’d come in and told us and it had been our building we’d have said ‘thank you we’ll look into it’.”

He added that Tanners had occupied the building since the Second World War and had not received any complaints before. He said the letter had caused some customer amusement.

By Emma Kasprzak