Crown Inn - Pubs & Old Photo websites & Books (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Wednesday, May 08, 2013, 00:43 (4212 days ago) @ messerschmitt

Hi Campbell
welcome to the Forum and of course the Forest, hope you enjoy your time in the woods :-)

An earlier post mentioned the excellent Easywell Glos Pubs website.
http://www.gloucestershirepubs.co.uk/AllGlosPubsDatabase/AllGlosPubs_view.php

Well I must say I've used this site many times and I think it's entry for your pub is, sadly, easily the briefest I've ever seen, so bad luck there !

In case you've not used it I can't give a direct link, but search "Ruardean" and goto the 7th "hit". It states
"Crown, Caudle Lane Ruardean GL17 9TL.
Mentioned in 1756.
No other details yet, last updated April 2010."

And that's yer lot ! The site usually contains some mentions from Census records etc, but not here !

So by the time you've finished your research the website owner and book author Geoff (not me) Sandles will probably be delighted to speak to you....then again I recommend you contact him first as he may perhaps have more info yet to reach the website.

You may know the main local public Library for FoD Local History is the Cinderford one which I recommend you visit sometime. A book they stock (as does Coleford branch) is Heather Hurley's excellent "Pubs of the Royal FoD" which is worth trying.
Glos Library Catalogue site is
https://prism.talis.com/gloucestershire/items/765212?query=pubs+dean&resultsUri=ite...

Cinderford Library also contains the microfilmed archives of the local newspaper the Mercury (now Forester) which may be worth your browsing thro, please see
http://www.forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?id=34751

It may perhaps also be worth your carefull searching of the online Old Newspaper Archive sites, this thread refers.
http://www.forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?id=36879

Coleford is also home to the must-visit Forest Bookshop who carry a great many local history publications including the above Pub book.
http://www.forestbookshop.com/pages/Categories/1904396224.html

Apart from this website another one where you can view, and perhaps purchase, old photos of the Forest including Ruardean is the excellent Forest Prints one.
http://www.forestprints.co.uk/ruardean.htm
http://www.forest-of-dean.net/gallery/ruardean/

Another relatively new site with an ever-icnreasing list of images available to buy are from Neil Parkhouse of our own Lightmoor Press
http://www.archive-images.co.uk/index.gallery.php?gid=143

From the above libraries/shop you may find the series of books containing many more old photos produced by local authors Humphrey Phelps and Joyce Latham, such as
https://prism.talis.com/gloucestershire/items?query=old+photographs+forest

Unfortunately they don't have indexes so can be laborious to search, but still make great browsing at the very least.
Similarly the "Glance Back At ..." series by Lightmoor Press, see
https://prism.talis.com/gloucestershire/items?query=glance+back+at

I do hope this is of some help to you, and that you enjoy your time in the Forest, but please don't mention those pesky Bears ;-)

UPDATE:
I presume this is the source of the above Easywell site's "1756 mention" of the Crown Inn.
From the always excellent Victoria History site, among great detail of Ruardean's history;

"The sites of two Ruardean inns named in the early 18th century are unknown but in the village Caudle Lane had the Crown in 1756 and the south side of the main street had the Angel, the Malt Shovel, and the Bell, recorded from 1760, 1774, and 1780 respectively. The Bell, opposite the church, was for a time the principal meeting place in the parish; it was closed after 1939. The Crooked Inn, recorded in 1775, may have given its name to Crooked End. Inns and alehouses were opened elsewhere in Ruardean in the 19th century. Waterscross had the New Inn in Vention Lane by 1829. Known later as the King's (or Queen's) Head it was closed c. 1890. A beerhouse on the parish boundary at Ruardean Woodside in 1841 was known later as the Jovial Colliers; it closed after 1959. At the Morse the Nelson (later the Nelson Arms) had opened in Morse Road by 1868 and the Rose in Hand in Morse Lane by 1876. They, together with the Angel and the Malt Shovel in the village, survived in 1990.

From: 'Ruardean', A History of the County of Gloucester: Volume 5: Bledisloe Hundred, St. Briavels Hundred, The Forest of Dean (1996), pp. 231-247.
URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=23261&strquery=crown
Date accessed: 08 May 2013.