A Letter from Nantwich update  
  Written in January 2012  (updated June 2012)   

Clothes shop moves in to former pub

 

 

 

 

 

NATIONAL clothing chain, Fat Face, has moved into the former public house, Ye Olde Vaults (see below) on The Square. . . and a perfectly acceptable facade for the location, it is.  A tasteful mid grey coat of paint seems to fit in well with the adjacent magpie building, Nantwich Book Shop. There is another store in Chester.

 

 

 

 

A NANTWICH town centre pub, founded in the early 20th century, has disappeared - at least the business, not the building.

   National clothing chain, Fat Face, acquired the property for another of its outlets. The Havant, Hampshire, business sells "clothes for men, women and kids, footwear, jewellery, beach kit and accessories" according to its website. The nearest of its 171 branches to Nantwich is in Chester.

   Local historian, Andrew Lamberton, says: "The building was started as a wholesale wine and spirits merchants by Thomas Hall in 1787. It continued in the family until 1871.

   "In 1874 it was taken over by Travers Pickmere of Pickmere and Holden until 1914 when it became Ye Olde Vaults. There have been several licensees since then.  

   "It was always known locally as 'The Potting Shed'. There are tales of ghosts and stories of tunnels."

  

   An advertisement in a Nantwich publication of about 1910 for Pickmere and Holden lists them as wholesale and retail wine, spirit, ale and porter merchants, and describes them as "successors to J.Hall, established upwards of a century." A reference to the Halls, of course.

   The pub closed in February 2011 when a For Sale went up on the front of the building.

   Then, towards the end of that year, the building became home to Retro, a "party music venue" open on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturday, run by two local men.

   The closure of Ye Olde Vaults means the loss of the word "vaults" from Nantwich pub names. The Union Vaults, further along High Street, is now called The Union - which is possibly the shorthand form by which the customers have always known it.

   At least it doesn't have one of those strange, modern names.  

 

 

Fat Face website | The pub's nickname, The Potting Shed | Letters index page