The site of the Temperance Hotel, Craven Arms

Back in Craven Arms I found that the old Temperance Hotel, which has stood empty for many years, had been demolished to make way for housing.

If you are at Villa Park next week you can bid for the site.

Shropshire Remembers will tell you its history:

Towards the end of the 1870s an ex-railwayman, Thomas Edge, took over. His family remained proprietors until the building was commandeered by the Army in the Second World War. They must have liked it as they could not be dislodged until March 1951. 

In its glory days the hotel boasted “good accommodation for commercial gentlemen, every comfort for tourists, good fishing, horses and traps for hire, terms moderate.” The building was sold to a private owner in 1965. But by 1978 a sign proclaimed its future as a ”Washteria.’ It has been unoccupied for years.

For the time being there are still some fine decorative railings left to enjoy there.