Buffalo's Head Inn

Gloucester Journal 05 August 1760

Landlords at the Buffalo Inn were Thomas Lelloe (1753-), Robert Norton (1822-), Ann Norton (-1841), Jeremiah Bright (1851-80), Susan Bright (previously Lane)(1880-84), Miss Susan Lane (1884-95), Alfred Stringer (1901-), Ethel Emily Bowen (1921), Frank & Ines Hopwood (1934-), Lorne Keen & Brenda Sherwood (2001) and Jane & Steve Briscoe (2001-2004).

1883 Map

Legend has it that Sir Walter Scott lived here when he wrote The Betrothed, the first of his crusader tales. 

Gloucester Journal 21 March 1768

Hereford Journal 13 July 1825

Pigot's 1828 Directory - Robt. Norton (Boar's Head)

1841 Ann Norton

1842 Pigot's Directory Ann Norton

The Buffalo's next landlord, Jeremiah Bright was a Shropshire lad and married his wife Susannah Lane nee Beddoes in 1841. The marriage record below confirms that she was a widow and her occupation was shown as an Innkeeper, as was her father, William Beddoes. At that time, William and Susannah had been running the Three Tuns Inn, Bishops Castle and William's younger brother, Richard (b.1773 d.1828) was running the White Horse Inn, Clun. Running alehouses was very much in the blood for the Beddoes family, as Susannah's brother Richard (b.1804 d.1855) ran the Black Lion on Welsh Street, Bishops Castle in the late 1840s-1850s.

1841 Marriage Jeremiah Bright and Susan Lane nee Beddoes

1851 Jeremiah Bright

1851 History, Gazetteer & Directory of Shropshire Jeremiah Bright

Slater's Directory of 1859 Jeremiah Bright

1861 Jeremiah Bright

Slater's Directory of 1868 Jeremiah Bright

1870 Kelly's Directory Jeremiah Bright

1871 Jeremiah Bright

Slater's Directory of N & S Wales etc., 1880 Jeremiah Bright

1881 Susan Bright

1891 Kelly's Directory Susan Lane

At the time of the 1891 census the landlady was recorded as 'Miss Susan Lane'. BMD records confirm that Susan Bright's surname was Lane when she married Jeremiah Bright in Clun in 1841: so it was that her daughter Susan took over behind the bar after her death in 1884 at the grand old age of 89 years.

1891 Susan Lane

1895 Kelly's Directory Susan Lane

1901 Census Alfred Stringer

1911 Alfred Stringer

1913 Kelly's Directory Alfred Stringer

1921 Census - Ethel Emily Bowen

1934 Kelly's Directory Frank Hopwood

1939 Register Frank Hopwood

Information from the great nephew of Ines Hopwood (nee Morris), who was the landlady, is that Frank was shot dead by accident when the home guard were there during WW2 in 1942. The following newspaper clipping covers the tragedy.

Shrewsbury Chronicle 29 May 1942

In 2000, an application was put in to change the use of the premises to a dwelling, which was granted on Wed 28th February 2001 subject to conditions. The Buffalo's Head finally closed on the 20th January 2004 and lies dormant to this day, reportedly owned by a wealthy landowner with no intention to reopen it as a licensed premises in the near future.