Hiding in Plain Sight

As they say, truth is always stranger than fiction. Early last year I wrote about my Great Great Aunt's involvement in the running of the White Horse Inn at Clun, Shropshire. Today I asked the current landlord whether he knew much of the history of the pub and his antecedents. I told him that one of my relatives had run the place some hundred or so years ago, to which he asked "What name?". "Graves" answered I. He then filled in a few gaps to the story: apparently, [Job] Graves had disappeared quite early on in their tenancy, but my Great Great Aunt Elizabeth Graves[neé Southall] was owner of the place until its sale in 1921, along with the adjoining buildings on the corner of Market Square and a parcel of agricultural land to boot. The picture above is of a framed facsimile of an auction poster of that sale, which has been staring me in the face for nearly thirty years, every time we visit the place. I've been blithely unaware that my relative's name is featured as the vendor in the sale of a fair chunk of Market Square back in the day. Not a bad outcome for a poor farm girl from Fromes Hill, Herefordshire who was originally in service at the place at the age of fourteen. What became of her husband is not known - by God, there's a story there if his ghost truly does haunt the pub...