I visited a Shropshire pub where a composer was born, now attracting tourists and locals who love Green Monkey lager and live music
Set within the walls of Whitchurch town centre is a pub which attracts tourists taken by its vintage look, is popular with locals for its friendly atmosphere and which has a notable place in British composing folklore.
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The town of Whitchurch in north Shropshire is a very pretty one, full of idyllic sights and notable buildings and attracting tourists from all over the county and further afield.
Take a walk along the High Street and you'll find plenty of historic buildings worth a second look.
If you take a turn down St Mary's Street, you will find a building and pub which carries a lot of history and heritage going back nearly 200 years, including being the birthplace of one of the nation's foremost composers whose work includes the light opera Merrie England.
The Old Town Hall Vaults was built in the 1830’s as a merchant’s house for a trader on the High Street and was one of the first houses on Back Street, as it was then known, then became the Corn Market Inn when the street name changed to St Mary's Street.
It was during this period that the pub become the birthplace and home of German Edward Jones, who was born on the ground floor on February 17, 1862 and later achieved fame and fortune as one of the nation’s foremost composers, Sir Edward German.
The pub then changed its name yet again to the Old Town Hall Vaults, due to its impressive vaulted cellars, but is still affectionately known as the ‘Backies’ to the locals.
