Refreshed loggerheads

 

The pub-sign on the famous Loggerheads Inn in Shrewsbury was definitely in need of a spruce-up – and what better time to have it done than during the loggerheads’ 600th anniversary year?

So, for a few weeks this year, the pub was sign-less, while the renovation took place. 
But now, all is well, and the sign is back – all shiny and refreshed!

For those who don’t know, the pub goes back to the 17th century and was originally called The Shrewsbury Arms.  However, as the arms of Shrewsbury are better known by their nickname “the loggerheads”, the regulars started to call it by that nickname – and the moniker stuck.

A new book has now been published to celebrate 600 years of the loggerheads - click here to find out more.

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Belle Vue view

It’s a great shame to see that the nineteenth-century Belle Vue Tavern, a proper community pub in the suburb of Belle Vue to the south of Shrewsbury, has closed.  Dave the barman was always a welcoming and considerate landlord, who would tell the stories of the old pub with relish.

Like a number of pubs locally*, its pub-sign features the loggerheads.  Curiously, the pub-sign was only recently changed - and the words ‘Shropshire Ales’ were removed (see old sign, right).
It’s not clear if there was ever a brewery called ‘Shropshire Ales’ or whether the old sign simply meant that local beers were sold there. If anyone knows the answer to this mystery, please email us, or use the Comments box below.

For information:  the pub’s former name was The Old Plough, but has been called The Belle Vue Tavern since 1991.  

* other pubs bearing loggerheads in their signs include the Shrewsbury Arms (both the one in Shrewsbury and the one in Chester), the Loggerheads Inn, the Bricklayers and the Heathgates.  Also, the Shrewsbury Arms at Albrighton has an heraldic reference to the arms on its pub-sign.

 

A new book has now been published to celebrate 600 years of the loggerheads - click here to find out more.

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Croziers plus loggerhead

Another single loggerhead. 
At the Shrewsbury Arms in Albrighton in east Shropshire, it's obvious that the pub's name is associated with the Talbot family, the Earls Of Shrewsbury (the biggest land-owners locally until the beginning of the twentieth century).
But why the two croziers (aka bishops' staffs)?  The seventeenth century earl was a priest (and is buried in the church opposite the pub); is that why?

Please let us have your thoughts...
(See answers to this mystery in the comments field just down this page). 

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