Pub's history may date back to Civil War battle

A landlord with a keen interest in history has claimed he has uncovered evidence his pub may have existed at the time a significant battle.

Darren Snell said The Black Lion in Nantwich, Cheshire, featured on a map which indicated it was at least 40 years older than initially thought.

Mr Snell said he was working on getting the dates corroborated with other sources, and he had also uncovered other records which suggested the pub might date back to 1605 or earlier.

If that were the case it would have been standing during the Battle of Nantwich.

The skirmish between the Royalists and Parliamentarians gave the latter their first big victory of the English Civil War.

Mr Snell said the discovery stemmed from an image of the pub that had been taken by a customer.

It was posted on social media, prompting somebody to get in touch with a map dated to 1624.

The date on the pub's door is 1664, which many had taken to be the year when it first opened.

Mr Snell said he believed the date might instead refer to when the door was fitted or repaired, rather than referring to the whole building.

"It certainly seems as though it could stem back to 1624, which is 20 years before the great Battle of Nantwich," he said.

He added there were also records detailing a former landlord, with relatives buried in the early 1600s, suggesting the pub might have been standing in 1605.

He had long thought his predecessors might have served soldiers who fought in the town's famous battle, he told BBC Radio Stoke.

"It's more than likely, anyway. Sitting around, looking around, you look at the old beams and suchlike – the wattle and daub on the wall as well."

"It's nice to see every year when we have the battle re-enactment, all the guys come in in full regalia and you just think 'this is so fitting for all this, it really is'."

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