Whitchurch Town Trail: Green End

This curved, narrow street once provided the main eastward route into and out of Whitchurch. From the Bull Ring at the southern end of the High Street, it formerly ran as far as today’s Police Station in Station Road. Today it terminates at its junction with Brownlow and Bridgwater Streets. Richard James points out, in Shops and Shopkeepers of Whitchurch (WHAG, 1998), that ‘when the road widened in 1877 to make Bridgwater Street, several houses and shops vanished.’

Green End was probably named from the Bull Ring area, also – or previously - known as The Green, the open space with a pond found in most old villages and small towns. So this street began at the Green end of the High Street.

What went on here?

The Poor Rate Valuation Book of 1827 reveals a balanced variety of domestic and commercial/trade properties. It describes well over half the 134 properties listed simply as ‘House’ or ‘House and Garden’. Other property descriptions include:

Maltkiln
Stables
Public House
Brewery
Shop
Slaughterhouse
Timber Yard
Ropewalk
Tanyard
Wheelwright’s Shop

The highest valuation in the street is £21 per annum for a ‘House, Garden, Tanyard and building’, owned by Mrs Pritchard, who owns five other properties in Green End.

Shops and Trades

Some of the trades and services in Green End from the 19th century onwards:

Bakers:
George Brown (1888-1900)
Mary Williams (1888-1905)
Walter Thomas at Nos 65-67 (c.1905-1950)

Cabinet makers:
G. Welsh (1822-35)
Thomas Arrowsmith at Nos 26-28 (1822-35)Joseph Arrowsmith up to 1895

The last known tallow-chandler: John Lewis at Nos 8-10 (1868-1916)

Find out more about the town’s retail history from
R.B.James: Shops and Shopkeepers of Whitchurch (WHAG, 1998)

Listed Buildings

North side: Numbers 15, 17 and 63
South side: Numbers 18, 20 and 22, 24, 56 (Talbot House), 58 (Weston House)

Numbers 15 and 17
Built probably around 1740, they were originally a single block with No 15 the western wing of the main house, with a carriage entry between them. No 17 is listed Grade II*, and noted in the English Heritage description as ‘a fine and complete example of an early 18th century town house.’ In her Vernacular Buildings of Whitchurch (Logaston Press, 1999), Madge Moran reports ‘ . . . the main house is in a state of disrepair and presents a forlorn aspect to Green End.’

By 2006 that sorry description no longer applies. Renamed Corser House (after the family who occupied the house during most of the 19th century), the entire building has been restored and renovated. It is now used as a Business Centre and once again makes a valuable contribution to Green End’s streetscape. Research is underway to establish how far Shrewsbury architect Thomas Farnoll Pritchard contributed to the original design.

Number 18, Jones’s Coffee House
Built during the mid-17th century, probably as one of two dwelling houses. The left-hand unit was demolished around 1831 to allow cart access for the timber yard located behind Nos 18, 20 and 22.

The earliest Deed related to the property is dated 13th April 1676. Madge Moran’s (1999) research among similar documents shows that significant local names are associated with the property, including the Earl of Bridgwater, the ‘talented Cotton family’, and William Turner ‘architect, dealer and chapman.’

The Deeds reveal rents including one peppercorn in 1820 and £10 per annum in 1876. The property variously changed hands for £70 (1864), £508 (1901) and £1,000 (1927 and 1939).

Find out more about the remarkably full documentary history of this property in the ‘Precis of Deeds’,
Vernacular Buildings of Whitchurch, pages 142-146.

Numbers 20 and 22
Said to be one of the former coaching inns, these two 17th century houses are now offices and shops. The buildings were enlarged in the early 19th century. Like many old buildings, their windows have been replaced during both the last two centuries.

Number 24
Built as a dwelling house in the 17th century, this building is now a shop.


Number 56, Talbot House
Dating from early/mid 18th century, this free-standing three-storeyed house has been used more recently for offices and now houses a dental practice. It is one of the few larger, brick-built Georgian houses in Green End. Its name calls up the Talbot family whose history has been closely embedded in Whitchurch for centuries.


Number 58, Weston House
Another free-standing building, it was formerly Hughes’s Commercial Hotel, probably built in the late 18th century. It has the longest street frontage of any building in Green End as well as a notable array of chimney stacks. The building is now a residential nursing care home.

Number 63
This small late 17th century house had become a shop by the 1980s, and most recently an Italian restaurant.

Lost Inns and Pubs

Today there are only two pubs in the street:

The Wheatsheaf dates from 1868, proprietor Martha Hughes, though there may have been an earlier inn on this site with a different name. In 1896 there were 8 bedrooms and stabling for 30 horses by day and 18 overnight.

The Fox and Goose is first recorded in 1797, occupied by Ann Court. The 1896 accommodation offered 7 bedrooms and stabling for 60 horses (day) and 22 (night).

Lost without trace

Nothing, not even their location in the street, is known about these:

The Cock (1709)
The Red Lion
The Bull’s Head
The Queen’s Head


Other Inns

The Crown and Mitre, at No 9, (first listed 1822, landlord Robert Jones)

The Hawk and Buckle, at No 28 (1817 record of proprietor George Jenkins), later The Cheshire Cheese (1822), then George and Dragon (1846)

The White Lion, corner of Deermoss Lane (1868, Richard Porter), demolished c.1950

The Sign of the Talbot Inn. Long believed lost without trace but recent research points to its location probably at No 54, next door to Talbot House (Charles Clay listed as proprietor around 1760)

Find out more about The Talbot Inn’s history
and many other Whitchurch hostelries from
RB James: Old Inns of Whitchurch (WHAG, 1998)

Other Noteworthy Buildings

Baptist Chapel
The Whitchurch Baptist congregation was meeting at ‘a house in Jarrett’s Yard, supposed to be in Green End. On 1st May 1814 the meeting place was removed to a house in Green End on the site of the present Chapel [built around 1820]’ (TC Duggan: History of Whitchurch, Shropshire, 1935). The Chapel was enlarged and improved during the later 19th century. Additions included a schoolroom and gas installation. The building is now used as a night club

Oddfellows’ Hall
Built 1901. Members of the Independent Order of Oddfellows had previously met at the Crown and Mitre, No 9 Green End, and later at the Working Men’s Hall, Castle Hill.

Number 19
One of the oldest buildings in the street? Duggan’s History (1935), records that this property, then occupied by Mr Ayton, dentist, ‘has an iron hearth-plate built into one of the grates which is dated 1641.’

Find out more about the town’s very earliest history,
as well as more relatively recent aspects,
from TC Duggan: History of Whitchurch, Shropshire (Whitchurch Herald Ltd., 1935)