Home > Berkshire > Thatcham > Crown Inn Crown Inn

Picture source: Darkstar

The Crown was situated at 36 High Street and is now in residential use.

This pub was in operation until somewhere between 1869 and 1895. It is today known as "Crown House" and is split into flats

Dr Nick Young (March 2012)

I think that it may be much older.  Oswald (or Oswell) Northway was an innkeeper in Thatcham who died in 1637.  He left the inn (not named) to his oldest son John Northway who died in 1642.  John’s Will leaves the land where he lives “called and known by the name of the sign of the crown in Thatcham” to his son, also John Northway.  I am afraid that the trail then goes cold.  John Northway junior died intestate in 1672 and administration was granted to his father-in-law Giles Emans during the minority of his daughter, Alice Northway (born 1668).  If the inn was still in the family, Alice may have inherited it.  She married Edward Herriott in 1689 but I have not yet found any further record of them.  I would be interested to know whether the building pictured on your site is as old as these records suggest.

Oliver Fowler (June 2021)

To push the date back further, I have an Elizabeth DeLuke of the Crown baptized in 1615, I presume this was the Crown. It doesn't specifically not it was an Inn at that time. In 1694 it is noted as le Crowne and in 1710 (Richard Clarke - landlord) as The Crowne. By 1762 it was being referred to as The Crown with Mary Dore / Richard Clarke. It changed hands again in c.1771 and by 1781 was owned by George Jones (owner but wasn't running it by the looks). In 1829 there are records of cricket matches being played in the fields adjacent and an animal fair also being held at the Inn. In 1874 a Frederick West was landlord but the 1881 census records it as uninhabited so it now looks like it closed between 1874 and 1881. And to answer the other question on the site, internally the house is timber framed and appears to have been built in phases. No official dating has been done but some of it certainly appears to be 17th century style and possibly earlier.

Nick Young (May 2022)

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