Video: Jake Dartington heads down to the pub to find out what the public can do to help?
The Ye Olde Salutation Inn on Hound’s gate is a pub that can be tracked back almost 800 years but now it’s fed up of living in the past and asking the public to help them bring it into the new age.
“It needs a little bit of capital invested in it to re-paint it, to make tables and seating a bit more comfortable for customers, so that people can continue to enjoy the building,” the words of Ye Olde Salutation Inn’s manager Jason Weston.
Jason believes that his pub is more than just a place to have a quiet drink.
He said: “It’s got a history for people in Nottingham. People have met husbands and wives, they’ve been married and had receptions here.”
The room above the bar has used by many rock bands over the years as a place to start careers, but that may not be as interesting as what can be found below the pub, which is located near the bottom of Maid Marian Way.
Beneath the 700-plus year old pub are caves that were used to hold prisoners from Nottingham Castle.
A potted history of the pub
1240 AD The date displayed on the wall, but supposedly the first building on the pub’s site belonged to a tanner (someone who turns animal skins into leather).
1440 AD Borough records recorded this date as having a private dwelling on the site, belonging to a man named John Alastre.
1649-1659 AD Puritans came to power and formed the Commonwealth Government and were not very happy with the religious implications suggested by the then pub sign; The Archangel Gabriel saluting the Virgin Mary.
The landlord was ordered to take it down or re-paint it! Not wishing to totally change the sign, nor wanting to lose his license, the then landlord renamed the pub: Soldier and Citizen.
1660 AD The Salutation was re-introduced as the name, but let the pub-sign of the Soldier and Citizen remain until it fell apart then the greeting graphic was replaced by picture of a handshake.
1937 AD Following an investigation by the Thoroton Excavation Society, it was thought that the 9th century caves beneath the pub were lived in by the local Saxon folk – the ghost of a young four year old girl is rumoured to haunt the caves.
1966 AD Extensions to the pub led to a wrought iron hand being put up outside, but this was unfortunately stolen on the same night it was put up
