The Crown

On the night I went up Lord Hill Column, my fellow explorer and another friend, who occasionally joins me but wasn't this time, joined me for a short drink at a pub in Shrewsbury called The Hole in the Wall. There I ended up chatting to one of the ladies working on the bar, who told me about a pub with underground tunnels underneath.

The location really got my interest- this pub is right next to the Abbey.

Now, if you've been following this blog you'll know that generally all underground tunnel rumours in Shrewsbury come back to the Abbey, and that they get pretty wild to the point that I generally dismiss them. I did once ask in the Abbey about whether or not they did have underground tunnels, and I was told no. However, much of the Abbey is gone, and paved over by the surrounding roads. What is left is still impressive but only a fragment.

When I found out that the Crown might have something, my thoughts instantly went back to St Mary's Church, that I'd been told by staff there had once housed tunnels to the surrounding buildings, including the Yorkshire House, until the tunnels started to collapse in the 1920s and were bricked up. Maybe the Abbey had a similar thing going on, and that The Crown had a remnant of it.

I went to the Crown to ask about it, and the gentleman I spoke to told me that even though he worked there he had not yet explored the downstairs to its fullest extent.
Well that just made me even more intrigued.

I was shown the way down to this area, and immediately understood why it wasn't in frequent use- the doorway is actually in the ladies toilets!
I ventured down the old stairs, along a narrow coridor in the direction of the abbey. It split left and right. The right hand tunnel has me particularly intrigued.

To the right was a flooded tunnel, which isn't immediately obvious in the photo until you notice the bucket reflected in the water in the corner. The arched tunnel was coated in cobwebs long undisturbed. The most curious aspect of this is the random shelf, but the most infuriating aspect is the sharp left turn. Why is this infuriating? Because this was the one part of the complex I did not explore, due to the water being too deep. This turning would have gone out from beneath the premises, under the road in the direction of the Abbey. The question is how far does it go?

However, there was more that wasn't flooded. I instead took the left hand turn from the original passageway and found it to be quite an expansive complex.

I had to duck under these obstructions, but as you can see, the flooring is Victorian tiles that come to an abrupt cobbled end.
That's right, cobbles. Like the kind you see on old victorian alleyways and shuts outdoors! What is outdoor flooring doing underground?

In this cobbled foor room was an interesting feature- a large doorway facing the Abbey that led nowhere, and was full of rubble.

But amongst this rubble, the camera flash does reveal what looks like a brick archway, only a few feet off the ground, perhaps a downward slope in direction of the Abbey, now inaccessible.

Beyond this blocked doorway was another small room, from which I took another shot back at the cobbled room I'd just come through.

This new room turned away from the Abbey, and I was told that nobody had actually been beyond this point. That would soon change.

As I ventured through, the tiled floors faded away to sand, but I realized that there was a tunnel on my right that actually folded back in the direction of the Abbey once again.

But once more, it came to an abrupt end, and while I can't be sure where this is under, I do believe it may exceed the premises of the pub and was perhaps under the street. Regardless, it doesn't go as far towards the Abbey as the flooded tunnel.

The final room was decorated by a plank of wood propped up against what seems to be an opening from above that I was told is not being used.

And there is of course, a final shot back at the tunnels from this final room.

So in conclusion it's a very interesting little complex, and I have no doubt that it exceeds the building that it is underneath. It has a part yet to be explored, and so far has the strongest evidence that the rumours of underground tunnels leading from thr Abbey are actually real. Granted, the Crown is nowhere near the castle or other notable points in Shrewsbury, but as we know, there is something beneath the castle too, and it's easy for these kind of rumours of connectivity to circulate if both buildings are home to underground tunnels, even if they aren't connected.

The cobbled floor of that one section remains a mystery but it is also worth noting that the flooded part is the only part of this entire area to have an arched ceiling instead of a flat one- which indicates that it might actually go somewhere.
It is worth a revisit in the summer when the flooding receeds.

But the Crown itself is worth a visit any time of the year- the drinks are good, the staff are friendly, there's a beer garden with an adorable friendly feline, and inside there is a pool table. It's not far from the middle of Shrewsbury and worth checking out!