MENU

Pack Horse, St. Nicholas Street

The Pack Horse was one of the staging houses on the Shrewsbury to London run, but dates earlier than the coaching era, for it is said to have held a licence since 1485. It had great accommodation, and on one September Hop Fair Day, the landlord stabled as many as 119 horses in one day. Joseph Coombs purchased the inn in 1920, and sold it in 1935 to Messrs Hanson's, the Dudley Brewers. The inn had an imposing Georgian front, stuccoed, with a life-sized stone pack-horse over the coach entrance, but Hanson's proceeded to ruin it by stripping off the stucco and pinning mock timbers on the front to make it a 'Ye Olde Worlde Inn', and so spoilt a genuine old coaching inn. They did the same to the Talbot in Barbourne, which was part of a fine Georgian terrace.