The Old Salutation Inn The Old Salutation Inn Building: 1598-1600

The Salutation Inn, at the corner of Hounds Gate and Jews Lane, is known to many a local as a comfortable quite old style public house; and so it should. The rear of the building, that before the construction of Maid Marion Way was the side, faces on to Jews lane and the entrance their is the oldest still surviving after the row of buildings were cut in half by Maid Marion Way. Although this part of the building has seen some changes it still retains some of the character of bygone days, especially when theirs a log fire in the grate. The smaller of the two downstairs rooms, that flank the entrance passageway, is said to have been used by Cromwell's solders as a recruiting room in the 1640's during the Civil War.

The best part of the "Sall", as it's known locally, is hidden; not deliberately but due to circumstances. I would be not surprised to learn that most of the people that class it as their local have never seen, or if they have not understood the significance, or marvelled at it's cave complex. Marvelled is no understatement, before this area had any buildings on it, it had buildings under it. These rock hewn chambers were a Saxon farm stead.
Below is an extract from "Realm of Darkness", a book I am writing about Nottingham's caves, that touches on part of the Sall's hidden past..