62-63 MARDOL SHREWSBURY
Owdo me owd butties have you ever sin a dragon in Shropshire? I know that dragons are frum days long gone but today i wanna chunner on about one that is even younger than me.
I’m sure that many of you will have noticed this’un sat above a shop in Mardol, Shrewsbury but do you know owt about him?
A lot of locals call him ‘Puff’ after the Peter, Paul and Mary song Puff the Magic Dragon which was based on a Leonard Lipton poem which was in turn inspired by Ogden Nash’s ‘The Tale of Custard the Dragon’. I dunna know if you know the song but the owder I get the more I choke up when that nasty Jackie Paper comes no more.
So why is Puff there? well the horizontal diagonal beam in the corner of the timber-framed building is known as a dragon beam (possibly derived frum a dragging beam) and when the building, now a wine bar, was undergoing extensive renovations, in the mid 1980s, the architects, Arrol and Snell, thought that a good way to disguise an ugly exposed steel dragon beam would be to add a carved dragon. They asked a Pontesbury mon, Bill Haigh, to carve one. After many weeks of carving Puff was given a splendid green coat of paint, a fiery red tongue and put in place.
As popular as Puff was he soon attracted the attention of local naughty boys, one managed to snap off poor owd Puff’s tongue (mebbe he was a fire prevention officer) and others frequently placed dummy spliffs in his mouth. The then owner of the premises was concerned about his wine bar getting a bad name due to this, so in 1997 he took Puff down and gave him to one of his contractors to take Puff to the tip but fortunately for Puff (and the gud folk of Shrewsbury) the contractor decided Puff was too nice to throw away and kept him in his garden.
When the owner decided to sell the wine bar in 1998, the potential buyers, Robert & Mary Worsdell , Shrewsbury & Atcham Borough Council and Alan Howard the chairmon of the civic society all campaigned for Puff to be returned afore the sale could be completed.
After first saying that Puff had bin ‘lost’ the owner contacted his contractor and after paying £50 in lieu of an unpaid bonus Puff was returned to his rightful place watching over the premises, as well as his missing tongue poor owd Puff had now lost his paint, part of his lower jaw and gotten a broken wing, he looked like he’d gone a few rounds with owd Saint George. The owner was quoted in the Shroppie Star (2/9/1998) as saying :
“This is ridiculous, it’s childish as far as I am concerned. I am covered legally. the dragon has been put back and that is an end to it.”
As nice as Puff’s painted coat was I with think that he looks far better these days with an air of antiquity about him.
I have heard folk say Puff is upside down to show that the English defeated the Welsh but i think that was originally said about a sign that hung outside the owd Crown Hotel in St Mary’s St of a crown above a red dragon. They also said you could touch it frum the top of the Midland Red buzes.
A BIT ABOUT THE PREMISES
A 15th or early 16th century timber-framed buiding. In the 1890s it was two properties 62 a picture framers and 63 a hairdressers, by the 1900s number 63 had bin taken over by the fruiterer James Hince and by 1922 the draper and milliner William Michenall had taken over, he later expanded into number 62 converting the two premises into one. Timothy Whites were there briefly and then Boots the chemists but in 1980 former newsagent Peter Williams converted it into Shrewsbury’s furst ever wine bar. At various times Peter was also publican at the Pengwerne Hotel, The White Horse at Pulverbatch and the Halfway House Inn in Bridgnorth.
The wine bar was named Just Williams and then had many other names including The Raven, The Wine Bar, Yates, Churchills, Porters, Squires and briefly Bistro-Bistro when it was often referred to as The Upside Down Flying Crocodile (poor owd Puff he’s had some stick). The side door was often used by shy lovers popping up to the conveniences in order to buy contraceptives frum the vending machine (worst gum I ever tasted was the usual graffiti). Boots the Chemists would have bin proud.
Not only was it Shrewsbury’s furst wine bar, other fursts were Castlemaine on draught, doormen, doorwomen, paying to get in to a bar, Beaujolais Nouveau and some of the furst video games in a bar, Space Invaders and who remembers Missile Command? It possibly had the smallest ever dancefloor in the cellar too.
Nowadays it is whum to an opticians, so after years of owners trying to stop you taking glasses whum it is now positively encouraged.
Well that’s more than enough of me owd chunnerins, thank’ee most kindly to anyone who has persevered this far, now run along and play nicely.
