Memories of the More Arms

Did the old More Arms at Shelve have petrol pumps outside?

That was the question – posed by reader Alan Bason of Shrewsbury – which has prompted a stream of memories about the pub, and the coming to light of some fascinating pictures of it from around 70 years ago and more.

The More Arms is now closed, typical in many ways of country pubs up and down the country which have shut in recent years, but which in their day were an important part of the local community and have many stories attached to them.

And Mrs Freda Elkes of Ketley has more memories than most.

"I was actually born there in 1939," she said.

"My parents took the More Arms over on June 18, 1934."

Freda's father was Clive Oliver, and her mother was Daisy, and they were tenants for Southam's Brewery.

Freda, who gives the exact location of the pub as "The Gritt", has many pictures from those days, including one showing the petrol pump outside.

"It was an Esso petrol pump when we were there."

Her father did not have a car himself, but a motorcycle and sidecar.

The More Arms was also a hotel, and Freda has the old visitors' book. Among the entries is a mysterious one for September 16, 1938, which was the time of the Munich Crisis. A group signed themselves in as "A Meeting of Great Guns" and gave addresses including "Palestine", "Timbuctoo", and "The Gaol, Devil's Island." Giving their nationality as "all Jews", they commented in the notes: "Damn Hitler & Bless (? – unclear) Chamberlain. Signed, sealed and delivered by the present. Carried unanimously."

Freda's older sister Renee wrote down her memories a few years ago in which she said her parents moved in on their wedding day and stayed until the 15-year lease was up (in fact Freda says they left in March 1948).

"We used to have to fetch our drinking water from a spout in a ditch. A lot of people at The Gritt had thyroid trouble. They said it was from lead in the water. A lead mine runs under the More Arms. You could hear them digging," wrote Renee.

"Beauty, our dog, once saved me from an old ruin where a lead mine is. He held on to my dress until someone came. The dress had started to rip. We also lost a calf down there."

The pub, wrote Renee, was packed day and night.

"The soldiers used to do training before going to war. Sometimes they would do P.T. in our field opposite the pub. I used to play Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush on the piano to the soldiers and when they came back from war marching from Shrewsbury, as they got close to The More Arms they would all start to sing it.

"Mum used to make sandwiches for the troops. They would pinch everything like food, razors, and so on, but mum didn't mind. Most of those that made it back were really exhausted and used to fall asleep anywhere in our house.

"On D-Day mum took Freda and I for a walk because all the soldiers went mad and let off incendiary bombs and burnt all the paper off the walls."

Mrs Sue Adams and husband Chris were the last licensees of the pub and live there today – it's now a house.

They took over the pub in 1999.

"It was closed when we took it over. We did a bit of repair work on it and opened it up. The first year was fine, but the second year was terrible. It was the year of foot-and-mouth as well, and we couldn't go on with it as it was not viable. We opened it in April 1999 after the alterations and we closed in April 2001," said Sue.

The house still bears the More Arms name.

Sue said there were some interesting aspects to its history.

"Ronnie Lane frequented the place, and so did Eric Clapton. Eric Clapton played at the Drum and Monkey (at Bromlow). My husband's father used to drink with Ronnie Lane and Eric Clapton."

Dick Williams, from Churchstoke, said: "When I took over the More Arms in 1965, I vaguely remember seeing a globe from the top of a petrol pump among the rubbish in the shed, but can't remember what was written on it. I probably threw it out with the rest of the rubbish!

"I inherited an old hand pump, but soon had an electric one installed, and got the petrol from a firm in the Midlands. I think it was called VIP, and the price was four and six pence a gallon, which is equivalent to 22.5p in today's money.

"The price of a pint of Southam's bitter was 1s 2d (6p), mild was a shilling (5p), draught Guinness 2s 2d (11p), a bottle of brown ale a shilling (5p), Manns Brown half-pint bottle 1s 2d (6p), half-pint bottles of Guinness, Mackeson, and Worthington Green were 1s 6d (8p), whisky, gin and vodka were 2/6 (12.5p) per nip."

Mr Williams left the More Arms in 1970.

Charles Swannick emailed in to tell us: "My father and mother, Frank and Elsie Swannick, were landlord and landlady in the early 1970s. They used to serve petrol – I have a photo from 1971."

Meanwhile Alan Bason, who started it all, has done some digging and come up with a list of some other pubs which sold petrol, although he says it is not complete. They are: The Corbet Arms, Uffington; The Cleveland Arms, High Ercall; The Hare and Hounds, Withington; The Lion, Waters Upton (he is very unsure about that one); The Tan House Inn, Llangyniew; The Aleppo Merchant Inn, Carno; and The Lion Hotel, Caerhowel.

By Toby Neal