Greengate Street, Stafford

Description:Greengate Street looking towards the Market Square. The building with bow windows is the Swan Hotel, originally built as two private town houses in the seventeenth century. The buildings were converted into a coaching inn in 1752 and a Georgian front was later added.

The timber framed building on the right is the Ancient High House, built by Richard Dorrington in 1595. In 1826 the building was bought by John Marson, who converted the lower floor into shops. The building is now owned by the Borough Council and opened to the public as a heritage and exhibition centre in 1987.

In-between the High House and the Swan is Shaw's House, named after a shoemaker who lived there in the nineteenth century and thought to have been erected earlier than the Ancient High House. In 1947 its facade was restored; the new plaster was painted to represent the timber framing underneath.

On the right can be seen the sign for the seventeenth century Bear Inn, built on the site of the Old Black Bear Inn; it is possible some of the old building was used in the structure of the present one.

Postcard published by W.H. Smith & Son, Stafford.