Ian Haycox Photography
Lady Sarah at the Blood Tub
Monochrome image of a haunted English inn.
A young female, Lady Sarah, makes after hour visits smiling whilst walking through the pub before vanishing.
History.
The inn that we have today is an amalgamation of two former public houses, the Market Vaults and the old Hole In The Wall. The inn is also on the site of a much older hostelry the Gullet Inn, which was mentioned in accounts for the town as early as 1527. For almost two hundred years it seems to have been the favourite lodgings for travelling performers, which we see from the same accounts when Lord Willoughby's actors, who were staying at the Gullet, were rewarded by the town council with 3s 1½d for their performance. In 1630 there is also mention of the inn having its own indoor tennis court for Real tennis as played by Henry VIII. The inn was sold in 1788 and was closed by 1793.
The section of the inn that faces Shoplatch and runs into the Gullet Passage has the date of 1863 embellished across the front of the building. It was first recorded as the Market House in 1868 the year before Shrewsbury's new general market was opened on the opposite side of the road. It has also been called the Market or the Market Vaults but to the locals it was also known as the Blood Tub. There has been some speculation about the origin of this name, with some believing that it referred to the colour and texture of the beer, while others thought that it was once a good place for a brawl.
Lady Sarah at the Blood Tub
Monochrome image of a haunted English inn.
A young female, Lady Sarah, makes after hour visits smiling whilst walking through the pub before vanishing.
History.
The inn that we have today is an amalgamation of two former public houses, the Market Vaults and the old Hole In The Wall. The inn is also on the site of a much older hostelry the Gullet Inn, which was mentioned in accounts for the town as early as 1527. For almost two hundred years it seems to have been the favourite lodgings for travelling performers, which we see from the same accounts when Lord Willoughby's actors, who were staying at the Gullet, were rewarded by the town council with 3s 1½d for their performance. In 1630 there is also mention of the inn having its own indoor tennis court for Real tennis as played by Henry VIII. The inn was sold in 1788 and was closed by 1793.
The section of the inn that faces Shoplatch and runs into the Gullet Passage has the date of 1863 embellished across the front of the building. It was first recorded as the Market House in 1868 the year before Shrewsbury's new general market was opened on the opposite side of the road. It has also been called the Market or the Market Vaults but to the locals it was also known as the Blood Tub. There has been some speculation about the origin of this name, with some believing that it referred to the colour and texture of the beer, while others thought that it was once a good place for a brawl.