The Crown was located in Oxford Street between Princess Street and College Street and was originally a Beer House, which meant that it was not licenced to sell wines or spirits. It was clearly an old building, it appears on the 1843 Tithe Map and originally sported a thatched roof (W & R Thomas).
The notice below from the press in February 1877 indicates that it was previously known as the ‘Market House Inn’, no doubt due to its proximity to the market in Princess St.
The Crown was demolished in 2007 and the site used for the building of Crown Gardens Flats.
We lived in Kingsway Road for a while, one block away from the Crown, and my father used to pop in for the odd pint. When my sister and I were young before we lived in Kingway he occasionally took us there (they had a children’s room). One day in about 1954 I asked him why they had a sign saying “NO GYPSIES SERVED HERE” and he explained that it was because gypsies didn’t always eat regularly, and drinking on empty stomach could lead to unruly behaviour. The landlord had two sons, one of whom became a farmer. The other got his car stuck on Burnham beach once and had to call his farmer brother to come with his tractor and pull him out. The farmer gave his brother quite a lot of free advice on this occasion, much of it in very colourful language, interspersed with questions like “How long have you lived in Burnham, anyway?”
My parents owned a caravan on Lakeside Caravan Park in Westfield Rd. Our neighbours in Birmingham owned the caravan next door to us, and we had many fantastic holidays in Burnham. Our parents loved to go for a drink in The Crown, and I Am sure that there was a family room on the right hand side as you faced the pub. My father always drank in the bar on the other side. I hope my memory is not deceiving me. Such happy days.
Thank you Ray for sharing your memories of this building. I hope one of our readers will add to your comment.
John