Was Pickwick Papers written at The Lion?

With Gerald Dickens coming to oversee the press launch of The Lion book I wonder how many people realise that his great, great grandfather, Charles Dickens, was a regular guest there.

Probably the most famous comment about hotel was by the novelist who stayed there on August 12, 1858, with his friend and illustrator, Hablot K Browne, otherwise know as Phiz.

They were given two rooms in what was then an annexe and Dickens wrote to one of his daughters: “We have the strangest little rooms, the ceilings of which I can touch with my hand. The windows bulge out over the street as if they were little stern windows of a ship. And a door opens out of the sitting room on to a little open gallery with plants in it where one leans over a queer old rail.”

It wasn’t the only time that Dickens stayed at The Lion. It appears he enjoyed the quirky hotel and when he stayed there he always booked two rooms, a bedroom upstairs and a lounge below complete with desk, and guests can see both rooms today.

Pictured below by Richard Bishop is the Dickens bedroom still with “the little stern windows.”

Dickens had stayed at The Lion 20 years previously when he records in his 1838 Journal that on Wednesday, October 31 he and his wife Catherine had attended the Shrewsbury Theatre to see A Roland for an Oliver before leaving the next day to travel on to Llangollen.

Dickens is known to have visited Shrewsbury on a number of other occasions, including May 10, 1852, when he appeared at the Music Hall in the comedy Not so bad as we seem or Many sides to a character, which was written by Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton. The performance concluded with an original farce in one act by Charles Dickens and Mark Lemon entitled Mr Nightingale’s Diary.

It is probable that Dickens stayed at The Lion many times, with some saying he wrote Pickwick Papers at the hotel.

Does anyone know of any evidence to show that Dickens wrote Pickwick Papers at The Lion? If you do please email John@jbutterworth.plus.com

Book launch hits the press and the websites

When the Mayor of Shrewsbury, Cllr Tony Durnell, suggested I write a blog about my book on The Lion Hotel, I was little sceptical at first.

But I have been amazed by the response worldwide and also by the press coverage leading up to book launch by Gerald Dickens, the great, great grandson of Charles Dickens, this Friday, from 11.45-12.30 in the hotel Ballroom.

There have been stories in the Stone Gazette (see picture below), the Shropshire Star, Shrewsbury Chronicle, Stafford and Stone Post, Shropshire Life magazine and Shrewsbury Living.

The Mayor, whose own blog is http://mayorofshrewsbury.wordpress.com/  says he is now a regular reader of my blog.

Also the story is on the front page of http://www.shropshiretourism.co.uk/ which is the county’s official tourism website, and also www.visitshrewsbury.com which is Shrewsbury’s official tourism website. Finally, the book is featured on www.thelionhotelshrewsbury.com the hotel’s website and on Salop Leisure's website

There are still a few tickets left for the press launch on Friday. Contact me on 01785 817465 or 07955 262633 or John@jbutterworth.plus.com for more details.

Meet Howard Astbury, owner of The Lion Hotel

Over the last four centuries, life has gone full circle at The Lion Hotel. In 1780, the new independent owner Robert Lawrence took over the hotel and restored it to its former glory.

In 2006, independent owner Howard Astbury (pictured below by Richard Bishop) bought the hotel and is now restoring it as a reminder of its glorious past.

Running inns and hotels is in Howard’s blood. Born in 1944 in Bridgnorth, he was brought up in the Clee Hills where his parents ran the Old Miners’ Arms at Hopton Bank in south Shropshire.

He trained as an electrical engineer for the National Coal Board at the nearby Highley Colliery. But 18 months after he qualified, the colliery was closed, so Howard decided to go into the hotel industry.

He joined Grand Metropolitan Hotels as a trainee running the Harte and Garter in Windsor. In 1976, he bought his first hotel, the Old Bell in Warminster, a historic coaching inn, followed by the Ilsington Country House Hotel on the edge of Dartmoor in 1992 and then in 2001, the modern Exeter Court Hotel in Devon.

But his heart lay in Shropshire and in historic hotels, so when The Lion Hotel came on the market in 2006, he decided to buy it from the Regal Hotel Group.

“I want to ensure The Lion is known for fine dining, fine service and a fine stay and is up with other top hotels such as The Chester Grosvenor,” said Howard.

Howard’s dream is that it may again be said of The Lion, as is it was in the Shrewsbury Chronicle when it was put up for sale in 1817, “No house upon any of the great roads between Holyhead, Bath, Cheltenham, Bristol, Liverpool, Manchester, North and South Wales stands in higher estimation (than The Lion) having a constant influx of the first families in the kingdom.”

Ghostly goings-on

It’s not only the VIPs who have stayed at The Lion who have made it famous, but also the ghosts.

Like many historic buildings the hotel has its own ghosts and here are just five of the stories.

The lady in blue: Leading from the rear of the hotel up to the Adams style ballroom is a curved staircase and several guests have seen a Victorian lady dressed in a powder blue dress standing at the bottom of the stairs waiting for someone.

Mystery pianist: In the 1990s, the hotel played host to a world famous pianist, who had sent his personal tuner the day before to ensure everything was ready for the concert. In the early hours staff were woken up by the sound of music played by a first-class pianist. But the piano lid was closed and the music continued.

Sealed up room: Above the curved staircase is a small room. This was blocked off many years ago, but since then moans have been heard coming from there and a lit candle has been spotted in the window.

The basement ghosts: In the extensive basement where there used to be a chapel the ghosts of two ladies in prayer have been seen.

Shock for chef: In the 1780s Mr Taur, a cook at The Lion, died and was buried in a grave at nearby St Julian’s (pictured below).

That night nearby residents heard screams, groans and struggles coming from the grave.

When Mr Taur was dug up the next day it was found the underneath of his coffin lid had been scratched and his fingers had been worn away. It turned out that the chef had only fallen into a coma and that he had woken up in his grave.

Ghost tours around Shrewsbury, usually in October and November, can be booked through the Tourist Information Centre on 01743 281200 or visitorinfo@shropshire.gov.uk or privately with Town Crier Martin Wood on 07718951902.

Have you seen a ghost at The Lion? I would be delighted to hear your story, email me on John@jbutterworth.plus.com

Famous guests at The Lion

If hotels are judged on their guest list then The Lion in Shrewsbury has to be up with the best in Britain.

Charles Dickens, Charles Darwin, Benjamin Disraeli, Nicolo Paganini, author Thomas de Quincey, ‘Swedish Nightingale’ singer Jenny Lind, ‘Mad Jack’ Mytton, Shrewsbury’s eccentric MP; and King William IV are a few of the many names in the past who have stayed here.

And, in more recent times the list of VIPs is enormous.

From the world of pop The Beatles, Cliff Richard and the Shadows, Lulu, Adam Faith, Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen, Frankie Vaughan, Helen Shapiro, Jools Holland and American jazz vocalist Curtis Stigers are some of the celebrities who have visited the hotel.

TV stars at The Lion include: from Coronation Street Pat Phoenix, alias Elsie Tanner, and  Peter Adamson, who was Len Fairclough;  Morecambe and Wise; comedian Tony Hancock, Hughie Green and Monica Rose, stars of the ITV show Double Your Money; and TV personality and Jim’ll fix it presenter Jimmy Savile.

Actors and actresses who have stayed there while playing in Shrewsbury are Hattie Jacques; Martin Shaw, who was Ray Doyle in The Professionals; Gemma Craven;  Emmerdale star Matt Healy and John Inman, best known for his role as Mr Humphries in the TV comedy Are you Being Served?

From the sporting world have come golfer Ian Woosnam; the “Crafty Cockney” and world darts champion Eric Bristow, world snooker champion Ray Reardon; and racing driver Stirling Moss plus flamboyant football manager, Malcolm Allison, and his Manchester City team who were beaten 2-0 by Shrewsbury Town in the 1979 FA Cup.

Other personalities were radio DJ Diddy Dave Hamilton who “loved staying in the Dickens suite” (pictured below by Richard Bishop), author, broadcaster and former MP Gyles Brandreth, and controversial politician Enoch Powell, who spoke in the Ballroom.

Throughout its 400-year history The Lion has attracted the big names of each generation.

As the Shrewsbury Chronicle said in its May 14 edition of 1817 when The Lion was put up for sale: “No house upon any of the great  roads between Holyhead, Bath, Cheltenham, Bristol, Liverpool, Manchester, North and South Wales stands in higher estimation (than The Lion) having a constant influx of the first families in the kingdom.”

That is still true nearly 200 years later.

Have you met anyone famous at The Lion? If you have I would love to hear from you. Please email me on John@jbutterworth.plus.com 

Darwin's epic journey started at The Lion

Everyone knows about Charles Darwin’s epic round the world trip that led to his controversial book On the Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection. But how many know his journey began from the front door of The Lion Hotel where the young scientist caught the stagecoach to London.

The reason 22-year-old Charles Darwin had to leave the hotel in haste on Monday, September 5, 1831, was that a second person had been offered the job as naturalist on HMS Beagle and Darwin feared he might miss his opportunity.

Charles Robert Darwin, who was born at The Mount, Shrewsbury and was educated at Shrewsbury Grammar School (now the town library), did get the job and set off on a journey that was to last for four years, nine months and five days.

When he returned to Britain he got off the ship at the first opportunity in Cornwall and took the stagecoach to Shrewsbury. As he arrived so late in the evening, it is believed he spent the night at The Lion before arriving at his home for breakfast to a surprised but delighted family.

His controversial views on evolution caused an outcry in Shrewsbury.

When a gale blew down the top 50ft of St Mary’s Church spire on Sunday, February 11, 1894, the day before the anniversary of Darwin’s birth, and while the council were debating putting up a controversial statue of Darwin in the town, the vicar, the Rev Newdegate Poyntz, said it was divine retribution.

Incidentally, that statue can still be seen today in front of the town library.

The debate on evolution has continued ever since and Darwin’s connection with The Lion is not forgotten either.

Every year since 2003, the hotel has hosted the Shrewsbury International Cartoon Festival, which has attracted around 40 full-time, professional cartoonists and caricaturists from the UK and abroad. One of them, Bill Stott, drew this Darwin cartoon (pictured below by Richard Bishop) which hangs up in the hotel reception today.

Shrewsbury's hidden history

It is amazing how much hidden history there is in Shrewsbury. Thousands of people will have walked through the second archway into The Lion not realising they can see part of the town’s stagecoach history from 200 years ago.

The infamous stagecoach rider Sam Hayward’s greatest claim to fame was the speed at which he would bring the Shrewsbury Wonder up Wyle Cop, turn full circle at the top to enter The Lion’s yard without stopping and having only inches to spare on either side, a feat only one other coach driver ever attempted.

A writer at the time said of the spectacle:  “It never failed to draw an appreciative knot of spectators or to transfix with horror any strangers who might choose to be among the outside passengers on the Wonder.”

Often the stagecoach wheel hubs would over the years in the early 19^th century grate against the stone archway causing indents in the columns which can still be seen today (see pictures below by Richard Bishop).

Many people miss this concentrating on the first archway which has been considerably widened to allow cars to turn off Wyle Cop in The Lion car park.

Sam Hayward was a Shrewsbury legend and his reputation for timekeeping was so great that if the Shrewsbury market clock didn’t coincide with the arrival time of the Wonder at The Lion, the clock was declared to be wrong.

The Lion Hotel is full of fascinating history and I give many talks about this. If you would like me to come to your group email me on John@jbutterworth.plus.com or phone 01785 817465 or 07955 262633.

Internet fulfilled my great expectations

Hasn’t the internet made research so much easier? When I was writing this book I knew Charles Dickens had been a regular guest at the Lion Hotel as he gave readings of A Christmas Carol in Shrewsbury. But I didn’t realise that his great, great grandson Gerald Dickens was continuing this tradition.

Thanks to local journalist Chris Eldon Lee’s knowledge and the internet I was able to track down Gerald who goes around the world giving readings of Dickens works and performing one-man shows.

He was very helpful with my research and also agreed to write the foreword to my book and to host the press launch in the hotel Ballroom on Friday, July 1 from 11.45-12.30.

Gerald writes in the foreword: “There is something very exciting about visiting a building where my great, great grandfather, Charles Dickens, stayed.  That experience is made even more special when there are well documented accounts of his visits. John Butterworth’s wonderful history of The Lion Hotel takes that pleasure to new level!

“John’s extensive local knowledge and passion for his subject is evident in every sentence, and as I read and re-read this amazing book I couldn’t help smiling. 

“Many of the stories have positively Dickensian overtones:  John Ashby, the man who built the current hotel, could be straight from a Dickens novel - a kind-hearted, generous and entrepreneurial host, secretly mired in crippling debt. 

“ The hilarious spat between The Eddowes Journal and the Shrewsbury Chronicle over Jenny Lind’s concert is straight from The Pickwick Papers, while the room at The Lion Hotel in which Dickens himself stayed could be taken from David Copperfield, with its ‘....windows bulging into the street as if they were the stern windows of a ship’.”  These windows (pictured below by Richard Bishop) can still be seen today.

For those who can’t make the press launch, and there are still places available if you contact me, there will be another chance to meet Gerald because he has agreed to host a Dickens weekend at The Lion from February 3-5, 2012, the nearest weekend to the 200^th anniversary of Dickens’ birth.  I will give more details about that in a future blog.

For more details about Gerald’s programme around the world click here.

Shrewsbury literary lunch on the menu

I am now a convert to blogs. Just 24 hours since setting up this site I was amazed to have more than 220 hits from all over the world, including Albania, Hong Kong, America, Canada, Isle of Man, Guernsey, France and Germany.

However, I was particularly delighted to receive a message from Caroline Thewles inviting me to have my book as one of three for sale at the Shrewsbury Summer Season’s Literary Lunch in the Lion Room, pictured below, at The Lion Hotel on Thursday, July 7.

Caroline was a good supporter of the Shrewsbury Chronicle when I was editor and it was great talking to her again.

I was also pleased to be supporting this annual arts extravaganza as it brought back memories of when the then Chief Executive of Shrewsbury and Atcham District Borough Council, Robin Hooper, and I starred in a play I had written for the 2007 Shrewsbury Summer Season.

Called A Bridge Too Far it was the true story in 1795 of the demolition of the first Welsh Bridge, the re-building of the new one and the ensuing problems as told by Thomas Wood, the first Editor of the Chronicle, and the Town Clerk at the time, Thomas Loxdale. I played the part of Thomas Wood while Robin Hooper was Thomas Loxdale.

Amazingly, we had a full house in the Lion Hotel Ballroom four years ago to watch my amateurish attempts to be an actor and an old editor.

More than 80 guests have already bought tickets to hear the philosophical gardener and celebrated author Mirabel Osler and the historian and designer Sir Roy Strong discussing Mirabel’s recently published memoir, The Rain Tree, as part of this year’s festival.

I am honoured that my book will be alongside Mirabel’s and Sir Roy’s latest books.

For more details of the lunch go to http://www.shrewsburysummer.co.uk or phone 01743 353424.

Thanks for all your emails. I look forward to reading your comments.

Press launch on July 1

Plans are going well for the press launch of my new book next Friday (July 1).

We are already expecting 50-60 people and we are waiting to hear from many more invited guests.

The great, great grandson of Charles Dickens, Gerald, will be launching the book at 11.45 until 12.30 in the hotel’s historic Ballroom (see the photo by Richard Bishop below).

Little has changed over the centuries to the 18^th century Ballroom or Assembly Room, since Prince William of Gloucester, later King William IV, attended a ball there in 1803, or where the famous Italian musician Nicolo Paganini gave a concert there in 1833.

The architectural scholar and writers, Sir Nikolaus Pevsner and John Newman, have described it as “an amazing room, of priceless value to the student and lover of art, and to see it alone is well worth a pilgrimage to The Lion”.

At the launch in the Ballroom Gerald will also be talking about his one-man Dickens shows and revealing his plans for a Dickens weekend at the hotel on February 3-5, 2012, to celebrate the 200^th anniversary of the author’s birth plus talking about the book to which he has written the foreword.

The Mayor of Shrewsbury, Councillor Tony Durnell, will also say a few words about the book.

If you are interested in attending the press launch please let me know. I still have a few spare tickets.

Introducing my new blog

Welcome to my new blog about my latest book on the historic Lion Hotel in Shrewsbury, which is being launched on July 1.

Over the next few months I will keep you up to date with all the fun of launching a new book, the reaction from readers and also new stories unearthed about the hotel which I have asked people to email me.

I was Editor of the Shrewsbury Chronicle, one of the oldest weekly paid-for papers in the country, for 12 years from 1997 to 2008 and I fell in love with the place, the people and the history.

The historic Lion Hotel played an important part in my time at the Chronicle as I attended many events there. So I was delighted when the owner, Howard Astbury, asked me to write a book about its history, and six months later here it is.

I was even more delighted when the great, great grandson of Charles Dickens, Gerald Dickens, agreed to launch Four Centuries at The Lion Hotel, Shrewsbury, in the Ballroom next Friday (July 1) at 11.45 until 12.30.

Gerald, whose great, great grandfather, Charles, was a regular guest at the hotel, has written the foreword to the book which tells the history of the Wyle Cop building through its VIP visitors, including King William IV, Charles Darwin, Benjamin Disraeli, Niccolo Paganini, ‘Mad Jack’ Mytton the Tory MP, Jenny Lind, Thomas De Quincey and in more modern times the Beatles, Morecambe and Wise and Cliff Richard.

Priced £6.99 the book will be available at local bookshops, tourist information centres, through The Lion Hotel and its website and through John Butterworth, of 33 Kingston Drive, Stone, Staffs, ST15 0JH, john@jbutterworth.plus.com, phone 01785 817465 (there is an answer phone) or mobile 07955 262633.

I will be writing regular posts over the next few days about the book and its launch.