We visited a pub on the Staffordshire/Shropshire border which has built its own community and become a place for celebrations and events
This pub straddles the borders of Shropshire and Staffordshire and has become its own community, full of great food, a wide variety of drinks and knowledgeable, personable and friendly staff.
The A454 road out of Wolverhampton heading towards Bridgnorth takes you out of the urban sprawl and into rolling hills and countryside as you head through Staffordshire into Shropshire.
The view is a lovely one, full of green fields, farms and small communities and which also has a pub which has made use of its relative isolation, sitting halfway between Wolverhampton and Bridgnorth, and become its own community and a place to go to enjoy quality food and drink.
The Inn at Shipley is in an original Georgian building which dates from 1771 and was formerly the Thornescroft Restaurant before it was acquired by Brunning & Price in 2013.
The Grade II-listed house has lost most of its original windows and external doors but still looks as it did in 1771 and retains its original floor plan and also has a high proportion of its original doors and fittings.
It is a prominent sight on the A454 from either direction and has been managed by landlady Kayleigh Blake and her team since 2022, with Ms Blake saying it had been a place she had always wanted to manage and which still carried a high standing in her family.
She said: "I do know that my nan still won't come here because she remembers the Thornescroft and considers it to be too posh, having been a restaurant which was very much white table cloths and silver service.
