No fairytale ending in story of Hodnet's four bears

Two of them died, and two of them had to be found a new home.

It couldn't happen now, of course. But we're talking about the early 1970s, when The Bear Inn at Hodnet thought it would be a good idea to have real, live bears.

Two baby Malayan sun bears were imported to mingle with customers by manager Gavin Sutherland when the pub and hotel opened after alterations on December 23, 1971. He had hoped to create a "bear garden" and assured customers that bears were "not really any more dangerous than dogs."

On January 11, 1972, it was reported that they had died. The rumour was that they had died from alcohol poisoning, as the regulars would feed them with food and beer.

In any event, that was not the end of the bear story, because two further bears were acquired by The Bear. They arrived from Scarborough Zoo on Sunday, April 21, 1974. The former England goalkeeper Gordon Banks was invited along to teach them footballing skills, but we think he gave it a miss.

It was intended that on arrival they would be paraded outside The Bear, but they were so bad-empered after the long journey that they had to be kept in their cage.

Their home at the pub was a bear pit in the cellar.

Their names were, according to press reports, Nuts and Crackers, and they were Himalayan black bears. By November it had all gone wrong.

The pub proprietor, Ken Darville-Smith, had hoped to feature them in medieval banquets, but found they could not be trained. At the 11th hour the Captive Animals’ Protection Society offered to take them and save them from destruction.

They actually went to Newquay Zoo, as that zoo's records document the arrival of two female Himalayan black bears on December 18, 1974, from "Hodnet, via Mrs Murray." Mrs Ruth Murray was a member of the society who had offered to take the bears and accommodate them in a barn on her farm near Tavistock.

Those Hodnet arrivals were remembered, not as Nuts and Crackers, but as Madge and Bib, but must clearly be the same bears, and at least at Newquay they would have had better conditions, and also bear company.

However, the bearless medieval banquets were a feature which really put The Bear on the map, and later there was a little cinema, and regular discos.

The history of The Bear – it's living history as the former 16th century coaching inn has just been given a refurbishment costing over £2 million – is being researched by John Ruscoe of Shrewsbury, who worked there for a while in the 1980s.

"Back in 1971 the landlord transformed the place and medieval banquets were first held. There were also two real bears. It was officially opened by Miss UK," he said.

According to a contemporary press report the 1971 reopening featured Carolyn Moore, who was the reigning Miss Great Britain, and Yvonne Ormes, the 1970 Miss United Kingdom.

John said: "I was first employed part time, mainly during the evenings at the start of the 1980s in my final year at secondary school as I wanted a career in the hotel and catering trade.

"The Bear was a very busy place and everyone talked of the place, particularly the famous medieval banquets and the cinema which was held on a Wednesday and Thursday evening along with the very busy Friday night disco where all the locals from the surrounding villages and Market Drayton attended."

During December, he says, the medieval banquets were held most evenings and attracted works Christmas parties.

Diners called to the banqueting hall reached it through a specially constructed passage and as they made their way they were played a recording of "the Ghost De Hodnete" who talked of the history of the local area and the secret passage that was found in one of the cellars during alterations which supposedly led to Hodnet church and was used by medieval monks.

"I doubt this was true as my research found that it was a bricked-up cellar window that had an iron bar grid on the outside pavement," says John.

"However it created a lot of interest and excited the mind, giving a good historical feel to the building.

"The banqueting room had been done out to resemble a castle with two minstrels' galleries and one ornamental one. There was a large open fire place which blazed in the winter months, along with battlements, armour, and so on.

"When the guests arrived in the room they were introduced to 'The Baron,' who was a comedian. His name was Stan Young and he resembled Henry VIII. I believe he had been a scriptwriter to Freddie Starr."

Some of the male guests would be taken prisoner and thrown in the dungeons before emerging in prisoners' garb and being made to perform certain tasks.

There was a cabaret act, Hanleo and his assistant Katrina, with fire eating and snake charming, culminating in Karina being accused of being a witch and being in the line of fire for a knife-throwing display.

The highlight was the appearance of horse stuntman Gerard Naprous – giving The Bear a link with Hollywood as these days Naprous and his family are the leading film industry horse suppliers in Europe, with their firm The Devil's Horsemen working with film companies like Disney, Warner Bros, Universal, Netflix, and more.

In his Bear days Gerard rode a horse called Snoopy and played the part of a mounted knight who had a sword fight with another knight.

John says: "There was much cheering and shouting. The horse didn’t always want to go back down the stairs, often kicking the rendering off the walls, and there was often the odd mishap and a member of staff had to clean it up rather quickly.

"During the 1970s Father Christmas lunches were put on for the children to see and receive a present from Santa. Father Christmas would arrive in a stagecoach driven by Gerard and his horses. There used to be a lawned garden near the pub's main entrance close to the roadside where huge illuminated figures bought from Blackpool adorned the front lawn at Christmas."