Pub photo sparks joyful memories

And thanks to Mrs Wendy Downes we may have solved that riddle, because she got in touch to say she thinks it isn't a darts team, but a dominoes team.

But there again, on the other hand, Michael Price of Hanwood contacted us to say it is the pub's darts team.

While that matter remains in the air, both were as one in saying the photo was taken at the Lion and Pheasant pub at the foot of Wyle Cop in Shrewsbury, and both think it dates from the 1950s.

The picture came from David Blain whose grandfather Samuel Blain is the gentleman with glasses and was a Shrewsbury dentist, with a surgery in Wyle Cop.

David, who hails from Shropshire but lives now in Leicestershire, was trying to find out more about the picture, and we carried it hoping readers could help.

Mr Price, 71, said: "My father-in-law is on it, and it was taken at the Lion and Pheasant by the English Bridge in Shrewsbury."

His father-in-law Sid Lewis is the second from the right of those standing. Mr Price said Sid lived in Monkmoor.

"After he retired he worked at the Lion and Pheasant, helping clean up and so on as in his old age he still wanted to work. He died a couple of years ago."

Mr Price actually has his own copy of the same picture, which is framed and is on his wall.

Mrs Wendy Downes, from Harlescott, said: "I don't think they were darts players. I think they were dominoes players because my dad is on the picture and he always played dominoes, and so did my uncle who is on there as well.

"We think it is the Lion and Pheasant at Wyle Cop. The man with the shield, front second from left, is Mr Harry Welsh, from Shrewsbury. In later years he had the Black Horse at Coleham with his wife Margaret and son Terry. He was my godfather and I called him Uncle Harry. He had the Black Horse for 22 years.

"The man with his arms folded at the front, right, owned the Lion and Pheasant. He was Dick Reeves. At the other end of the front row is his son Eddie Reeves.

"On the back row, from right, there is Mr Blain who we always called 'Butcher Blain' when I was a child because he was so rough. I have spoken to people since and they said oh yes, he was christened that.

"Then there's a gentleman with curly hair, and then standing third from right is my dad Cyril Davies who had the Seven Stars at Coleham for 17 years. He moved into the Seven Stars with his wife Norah - my mum - and my brother and myself, Roy and Wendy.

"Uncle Harry and our family lived down St Julian's Friars. We had a house right on the river. I think it was four cottages, and the address was 14 St Julian's Friars."

Mrs Downes, who is 75, added: "Terry and I were trying to work out when it was taken. We can remember going there when we were children and playing down the yard at the Lion and Pheasant and chasing the chickens around. We can't remember how old we were. It's got to be in the 1950s."

She added: "This photograph has sparked a lot of joy. We have done nothing but talk about it. It's brought quite a lot of memories flooding back. It was lovely really.

"My dad Cyril Davies went on from the Seven Stars to have the Dun Cow at Abbey Foregate."

She said that a friend thought that the man standing in front of the dartboard was a Mr Luscott, who had a sweet shop down Wyle Cop.