The Cheshire Cheese

(Disclaimer: Joking aside, I fully understand the risks/dangers involved in these adventures and do so in the full knowledge of what could happen. I don't encourage or condone and I accept no responsibility for anyone else following in my footsteps. Under UK law, trespass without force is a civil offence. I never break into a place, I never photograph a place that is currently occupied, as this would be morally wrong and intrusive, I never take any items and I never cause any damage, as such no criminal offences have been committed in the making of this blog. I will not disclose location or means of entry.  I leave the building as I find it and only enter to take photographs for my own pleasure and to document the building.

After almost a year of inactivity, this quaint Shropshire pub was considered financially unviable, and those dastardly property developer vultures decided that this place would look nicer if the pub was gone altogether and replaced with a bunch of characterless dwellings.

Their plans were denied, and then in January of 2020 the pub went up in flames.

Gosh! What a coincidence!

Now, I should point out that entering a derelict building that's suffered fire damage is a bad idea, but I'm kinda like a chapel in Vegas. Bad ideas are my bread and butter.

The Cheshire Cheese stood out to me because of its unusual name. It's not the only pub to have that name, but it's certainly rarer than the Red Lions and Kings Heads dotted around the UK.

Quite why someone decided to identify a pub with a type of cheese remains a mystery, but Cheshire Cheese has been the UKs most popular cheese in the 18th Century, so that might have been something to do with it.

There's still a sign outside welcoming us in, reassuring us that the pub is dog friendly, which means Lassie will have no problem getting us out if it collapses around our heads.

However upon slipping inside, we found the pub to be surprisingly intact, albeit blackened. It's  not the hollow shell that I was expecting from the victim of an arson, so either the fire fighters got here pretty quick or it was the arsonists first time arsoning. The bar is mostly still here, and so are many of the seats and tables. I dare say it could be brought back to life, but it'll take a lot of work, and I doubt anyone would invest the money into this place seeing as it's already been declared financially unviable.
But it is a shame, because this place looks like it would have been quite nice back in the day.

Looking into its origins, I was a little surprised to find it was referred to as a "beer retailer" rather than a public house in a 1910 historic directory, although maps from 1892 do show it as a public house, albeit without mentioning its name.

However, the name "Cheshire Cheese" does come up in an 1881 census, whereas an earlier census from 1851 doesn't give the name of the pub, but mentions that it has the same landlord. Presumably the name originates with him. He was actually from Cheshire too, so maybe he wanted to christen his pub with the name of the best thing to come out his home county, at least in his own subjective opinion.

Let's look at the other things Cheshire has given the world.

The neighbourhood watch! We can't name a pub that! It sounds like it's where the Illuminati drinks.

The barless zoo! It's probably not good for business to name a pub anything that suggests a lack of a bar.

Harry Styles! Nah, fuck that. We drink to forget he exists!

Cheese it is!

In 1943 a portion of the pub opened up as a small shop, from which the landlady "Jojo" sold groceries, sweets and just about anything else. I'm not sure how the interior was laid out, because this has long been removed. Jojo allegedly left the Cheshire Cheese in 1955 after her young son tragically died while playing in a nearby quarry. Jojo herself lived past a hundred, but following her departure from the Cheshire Cheese, the shop was removed and the entire building was used for pubbageness.

If that's not already a word, it is now.

But in recent years, the Cheshire Cheese did serve food, and was the meeting place of numerous local clubs. It also had a dart board, the location of which can still be seen in the pictures.

Luckily, I've also managed to hunt down a shot of this room from around 2010.

(Photo credit- Sophie Bignall)

In the review that contained the above image, dated 2010, the writer described the pub as "frayed around the edges" and not terribly quiet, but describes happy, friendly service and paints an overall pleasant picture providing pretty much everything you'd expect from a pub restaurant.

The sign advertises Jenga, which is a fitting metaphor for the structural stability of the building.

Some of the rooms had these rather artsy looking patterns scrawled down the blackened walls, which my accomplice suggested might be caused naturally by moisture, but we're not sure exactly how. It does look pretty cool though!

Making our way into the kitchen, things looked grim. Abandoned kitchens are never pleasant. Fire damaged kitchens even less so.

We almost missed the toilets completely. The doors were completely blackened and charred, but here the Gents sign has just about endured.

The toilets themselves are relatively unaffected by the fire. I guess the fire was in the hallway, and the heavy toilet doors shielded them from it.

Take a good long look, folks. It's very rare that the toilets are the cleanest part of an abandoned building.

Behind the bar was this trap door which led down into the cellar.

Here's the safe, sealed tight but no doubt empty.

Moving on upstairs...

The electric meter has been completely melted and is a thing of beauty.

The upstairs bathroom is considerably more messed up than the customer toilets.

Still in better condition than the toilets in some open pubs and clubs.

The upstairs kitchen is quite nice. There's still dishes and cutlery, and various kitchen stuff. The upstairs would have been the home of the former owners, so it's kinda sad to see if like this.

The bedrooms are stripped of all personal belongings.

There's still stickers on the bedroom door, indicative that a child lived here.

It is kinda sad. I think if someone invested in this place, they could bring it back and save it. But I highly doubt that this will happen. Property developers have taken an interest and the totally not at all predictable fires have started.

The future is bleak.

I still like this pub though. I wish I'd gone back when it was still open.

My next blogs will be a vehicle graveyard and a ROC bunker, because it's been too long since I slithered my way into one of those! In the meantime, follow my Instagram, like my Facebook and follow my Twitter!

Thanks for reading!