Iconic Nottinghamshire pub Ye Olde Salutation Inn will celebrate its 777th birthday with a special event next month.
The Inn turns 777 on July 7 and appears on the itinerary of popular tours in Nottingham.
Salutation licensee Jason Weston said: “We want to make the birthday celebrations a night to remember – it’s not often a pub gets to celebrate 777 years of service!
“Everyone who has ever had anything to do with the Inn over the years is invited to come and join the celebration.
“Whether you used to work here, play music here or drank here, we want to see you here, joining in with the festivities and sharing your memories of the place.”
Some renovation is expected to take place on the Inn.
John said: “We’re about to embark on some much needed renovations to the Salutation.
“An old building like this needs a lot of TLC – we’re aiming to do some structural work as well as improving disabled access.
“We’re also hoping to reinstate some of the pub’s historical features such as its drop shutter drinking shelves.”
Taking its name from the original ‘Archangel Gabriel Saluting the Virgin Mary’, the Salutation has been served the city for over seven centuries.
Its back snug, just off St Nicolas Street – formerly known as Jew Lane – is said to have been used by Cromwell’s soldiers as a recruiting room in the 1640′s during the Civil War.
However, after Cromwell won the Civil War, the Sal had to temporarily change its name to the ‘Soldier and Citizen’, as the Salutation was considered too much for the new Puritan commonwealth government.
The Sal’s ancient caves below the pub were once used for brewing but also as a place for local highwaymen and foot-pads to trade their ill-gotten gains in privacy and ghost stories still remain of haunted highwaymen in its dark cellars.
However, tragedy struck the pub in 1820, when a large quantity of arsenic, intended to deal with the pub’s rat problem, got mixed in with the oatmeal.
The entire household in the Salutation were poisoned; all made a full recovery except for the landlord, John Green.
