The Old Crown Changes
The third member of the town centre trio is the comfortable Old Crown. There is a quiet atmosphere in the daytime with the gentle buzz of conversation. The background music does not intrude too much but the place can be quite lively on disco nights. This is an old pub and the ghost of former landlady 'Mrs. Mac' sometimes makes an appearance or can be heard walking about when the pub is otherwise empty.
The main room is 'U'-shaped with the door at the middle, looking straight on to the bar. The back room is popular for discos or karaoke nights and a large upstairs function room can be hired for birthday or wedding parties, etc. They have the usual beers, Guinness, lager, cider etc. but also the excellent 'Black Sheep' real ale from Masham, North Yorkshire.
When the Old Crown has some stability in its management, it normally has a pub-grub style of food and hot drinks at dinnertimes.
There has been a lot of upheaval in recent times but it still has a good repertoire of activities. Live bands appear from time to time. One of these was the popular band Storm Bringer which has now disbanded but it played its final performance here. The Wednesday Quiz Night has been running here for perhaps two decades and it carries on regardless of any other changes.
Kelly and Chris took over in October 2007 after Steve and Helen Nursey moved out for the British legion bar. It was not plain sailing with all the usual broken pubco promises. Unfortunately, Chris and Kelly had to give up the struggle and they finished on Easter Sunday, 12th April 2009. By chance, I was a customer on the same day. There was no shame upon them after they had worked hard to make it a success. Running a pub is not easy. Now it is under temporary management and a 'For Sale' sign is up (mid-2010).
The small picture shows Shaun Palfreyman, from around 2000 when was quizmaster. The other picture shows former landlord Chris having a quick smoke in the doorway.
