The Lion and Swan is a traditional coaching Inn located on West Street in Congleton.
It is a family owned and operated Tudor tavern that has a 16th Century ambience with 21st Century style, comfort and convenience.
The hotel consists of a number of rooms downstairs which include a public bar area and restaurant and television alcove with a separate pool room adjacent to the public bar.
There are a number of function rooms available to hire.
Food is available throughout the day. There is car parking and accommodation available when required. (
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There has been a Licensed Inn, Alehouse or Travellers Resting Place on this site since 1496 or earlier, and a small part of this remains in the present building. The building was built from reclaimed ships timbers; with wattle and daub infill.
A section of the original infill next to the reception area has been exposed for historical interest.
The Lion and Swan was originally two separate taverns; The Lion and The Swan. During the 18th century and onwards the buildings were extended and merged to provide additional accommodation and stabling as stagecoach, canal and rail travel expanded across the country.
"The original fireplace in the restaurant is something of a mystery, with a complex mixture of carvings including lions and figures. These may be associated with tales of the ghost of a young, brown haired woman who appears at the new moon wearing only clogs and a smile. Some scholars suggest that the carvings may have originally been part of a bridal bed and linked to ancient fertility rites."
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The Grade II listed building is described by Historic England as follows;
"1. 5144 WEST STREET [South Side) SJ 8562 1/36 28.7.5() Lion & Swan Inn II
2. A picturesque "black and white"- fronted C17 inn and former staging post for coaches, Part of core may be earlier. Much restored and with later alterations. Front only timber frame and plaster, the remainder brick of various dates but mainly C19. 2 storeys and gabled dormers. Ground storey front of later date than upper part. lst storey arcaded over C18 central open porch on 2 stone Roman Doric columns, which is set well above street and reached by stone steps; doorway has moulded wood doorcase with C18-C19 glazed door; windows mostly C18 sashes with glazing bars; part old stone slate roof, part slates and, at rear, part tiles. Interior generally much altered but retains some exposed ceiling beams." SOURCE: (
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Information about the Lion Swan Hotel given on the Congleton Heritage Trail is as follows;
"The Lion & Swan Hotel
Once possibly known as the Black Lion and Swan, this, along with the Bull’s Head, was one of the town’s coaching inns. An earlier building existed on the site from at least 1496 and it is said that the building was made from amalgamating two separate taverns, The Lion and The Swan.
Parts of the earlier building remain and can be seen inside the inn, but a much larger establishment was created, including a range of stabling, using timbers and stone to create the present-day inn some time during the 17th Century. The Lion and Swan was a staging post on the route between Manchester and London in the 18th Century, receiving passengers, parcels and post. Since 1552, inns that provided accommodation for travellers were not subjected to the licensing act and this gave them an advantage over the ale taverns that were often rowdy, boisterous, and in plentiful supply in Congleton. You can see the narrow entry into the Inn on Waggs Road where the coaches would have swept into the stable yard for a change of horses that would have enabled them to carry on with their journey. The road to the south was along the King’s Road which went along Waggs Road and Fol Hollow! This prosperous Inn sat cheek-by-jowl with the poor cottages and crowded little houses of Little Street and Duck Street." Source: (
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