Pub history · No.4 of 18 · Ironbridge
The White Hart
1771 | A survivor of the old Wharfage
The White Hart takes us back to the riverside immediately before the Iron Bridge transformed the settlement.
Our working date is 1771.
Its Grade II listed building belongs to the 18th-century Wharfage that developed around river traffic, industry and eventually the extraordinary influx of visitors attracted by the new bridge.
Even the name carries history.
The white hart, a white stag, was the personal emblem of Richard II and became one of Britain's oldest and most familiar inn signs.
The buildings surrounding the White Hart changed enormously during the following two centuries.
Some neighbouring inns disappeared altogether.
The White Hart didn't.
Today it remains a pub with rooms beside the Severn, still fulfilling essentially the same purpose as generations before.
How we know this date
- Tradition1771 is the pub's long-claimed date, repeated in its own history and in local accounts of the old Wharfage.Source: The pub's own history and local accounts
This is a working date. If you have a document or photograph that changes it, we'd genuinely like to see it.
Then
Now
White Hart Inn · Ironbridge
Can you help with The White Hart?
We're still researching this pub. Old photographs, licences, newspaper cuttings, brewery documents or family memories all help — and if you have evidence that changes our date, we'd genuinely like to see it.
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