We visited an historic Whitchurch pub which has an iconic look and is a place for foodies and drinkers to enjoy
It's an historic town centre pub which has aims to serve the community with a quality offering of food and drink, as well as be a welcoming place for anyone who steps through the doors.
To have a good knowledge of what makes a pub work, it can be handy to have been a customer of it in the past.
By having been a customer in the past and having had the chance to see how it works, how the staff interact with people and to get a feeling of the ambience of it, it can help that person to run in in the style they and the regulars would expect.
One pub which is run by a previous customer who aims to keep the traditions of it going is the Black Bear in Whitchurch, a building built as a high-status timber framed town house in the late 16th century.
In 1670, it was owned by John Eddowes, who had other property in St John’s Street and various members of the Payne family, notable innkeepers in Whitchurch of the period, were recorded at the property until 1720.
The building, along with several others close by, was substantially remodelled in the late 19th century and in 1896, it comprised four rooms and a bar downstairs, with a further six rooms on the first floor for up to ten lodgers, while by the early 20th century, the building was owned by the Shrewsbury & Wem Brewery.
The pub is now owned and managed by Pubs Ltd, a small family-run pub group, and is managed by landlord Alistair Logan, a Whitchurch native who said he had enjoyed the feel of it in the past as a real ale pub and a pub of real character.
