Description:The Noah's Ark Inn, at 36 Crabbery Street, Stafford, photographed in 1966.
At the time of the picture, the licensee was Charles Wilson who had played first division football, playing for Huddersfield in 1923 – 1926 when they won three successive Championships; finishing his career for Stoke City and finally Stafford Rangers. His medals were displayed in a glass case behind the bar.
The Noah's Ark Inn was originally built as a timber-framed town house in the sixteenth century. Tradition states that In August 1575 Queen Elizabeth I took wine here with the Cradock family during her journey through the town from Chartley to Stafford Castle. It is conjectured that it may have been the home of the family of Stafford's first Mayor in 1614, Mathew Cradock. It was first licensed as an Inn in 1830. During the late 1800s the building was altered when the market was extended and the road widened. The external appearance was drastically changed to what we are familiar with today (2026). In 1964, Stafford Borough Council, as owners, ended Butler's Brewery's tenancy of the building with the intention of demolition to provide an unloading bay for market stall-holders' vehicles. The Minister of Housing and Local Government stated that demolition of the building, which was listed as being of special architectural or historical interest, would be regrettable. In 1966/1967, the building was converted into offices for the Borough Council's Office of Fair Trading and for the Market Superintendent's Office.
Around 1998, the building returned to become a series of drinking / eating establishments, which included the Stafford Pie & Ale House, the Stafford Ale House and another one of these was 'The Surgery', with an allusion to Dr William Palmer, who was hanged at Stafford on 14th June 1856 and christened by the Newspapers as 'The Rugeley Poisoner' and ‘The Prince of Poisoners’. At one time, the Noah's Ark had been the property of Lt-Colonel William Brookes, late of the East India Company, Army officer. He had an illegitimate child, Anne, by his housekeeper, Mary Thornton. Later, Anne was to marry William Palmer. On Brookes death in 1834, his properties, including the Inn, passed to Mary Thornton (and on her death to her daughter Anne), who would legally have been the Licensee, before the Chancery Court decided that the property was to be given to Brookes next heir, a Mr Shallcross. Although is not known if Mary Thornton took a day-to-day interest in the Inn, this somewhat tenuous link is the basis of the William Palmer and the Noah's Ark connection to the premises being named 'The Surgery’, which housed a permanent William Palmer display including a mural.
Since 2017, the premises became known as 'Red Rum', a live music venue. On the extreme left of the Inn an arched entrance to St. John’s Market dating to the late 1860s can be seen.