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

by messerschmitt , Wednesday, May 08, 2013, 07:29 (4219 days ago) @ Jefff

Dear Jeff

Thanks for the information.

Here's what I sent to Geoff Sandles a few weeks back - I expect his website will update shortly. He had no other information beyond the Victoria County History reference.

The Indenture for our house is dated 31 November 1861 and is from Lydia Davis and her son John Davis to Mr Thomas Thompson, who is listed as a farmer, but who I also think is the same Thomas Thompson who owned the Malt Shovel at the same time. I'm going to pop up there later for a quick half and check out their Indenture, which is on the wall of the bar, and see if Thomas Thompson's signature is the same as the one on ours. (update: Sadly, their indenture is from the late 1790s and so predates Thompson owning the Malt Shovel)

Lydia and John are the widow and son of Mr John Davis, who died in April 1840 and who was the owner of the property, which is entitled' a house, garden and premises formerly called The Crown situate in the Parish of Ruardean'.

Prior to its sale, the house and outbuildings and barn/stabling were rented to a John Brain, a shoemaker, and previous to this to a Jonathan Hale, and in 1861, they were sold for £100 to Thompson.

Thomas Thompson had a son called Edward Thompson, who is I believe the same Edward Thompson who was the owner of the Malt Shovel in 1903. (Update - yes, he is)

I hope this all helps and as I find more, I shall update you with the history - but it is possible that the building had been purchased by Thompson perhaps to stop it being used as a pub again, as it is less than 250 feet from the Malt Shovel (Update: staggering distance - hic).

I've spoken to Neil already (I've known him for some two decades) and he thinks he may have an image of the Square which shows our house. Because it is set up the Square a bit from the High Street due to the garden, it doesn't feature in the way the Bakery opposite does.

Humphrey Phelps I have spoken to and I work for the publisher which publishes a few of his books. Ditto Geoff Sandles' Pubs books. I've already a shelf of FoD books at home and have lived in the county for the past fourteen years and always loved the Forest.

The Victoria County History has a reference to a deed in the GRO, which I need to visit one afternoon and look at. This obviously predates the indenture I currently have and is when the Crown was operational as a public house.

Interestingly, during renovations to the property in the 1990s, a 1737 penny was found in the house and a Civil War period cannonball was found in the garden. This must be from when the manor or castle was being shelled during the war.

I've spoken to Ian at Forest Prints and sent him some views he didn't have of the Forest - have already sent one of these for upload to this site and will add more as I get time. He doesn't have anything that specifically shows anything more than the wall of the garden but what he did have was interesting.

I hope the further selection of names above may help.

Surprisingly, despite the bus stops direcly outisde and the fact that the village was a terminus and the buses turned here, I have yet to find an image of a bus at the Square, beyond one of Cottrell's buses outside the bakery.

Also, I would be interested in finding a view of one of May Hales' ice cream vans anywhere in the Forest. I'm going to try find some ice cream van enthusiasts (yes, they do exist) and see if there are any views of the ice cream vans extant, whether coachbuilders' photos when they were new or in service in the Forest. I know there were up to seven parked at the Dairy every night.

Thanks all for the help so far.

Campbell