Home > Lincolnshire > Horncastle > Cross Keys Cross Keys

Picture source: Dave Hitchborne

The Cross Keys was situated at 2 Queen Street.

I never knew them but my great great grandparents, Henry and Elizabeth Brown, kept the Cross Keys in the late 19th / early 20th century.

Christopher Fox

Following on from the above post Elizabeth Brown took over when her husband Henry died, the tenancy was then taken by my great grandfather John Henry Brown ( no relation) in the early 1900's. My family have the original bill of sale from this transaction with a detailed inventory of furniture, glasses, drink etc. all for the princely sum of £15 6s 10d.! My grandfather William Henry Brown took the tenancy on in the 1930's when his father died and continued until his retirement in the early 1960's. It was only a pub for a further year until it was flooded. I lived with my grandparents in the late 1950's and remember a lot of the regulars but the over riding memory is of living below stairs and looking at the feet of people as they walked up Queen Street and the drayman delivering barrels of beer down the ramp into the cellar. My grandad took great pride in his cellar and showed me how he turned and tapped the corks on the barrels.

Annie Harrison (June 2017)

Do you have any anecdotes, historical information, updates or photos of this pub? Become a contributor by submitting them here. Like this site? Follow us on Make email contact with other ex-customers and landlords of this pub by adding your details to this page.