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Andrew Swift on A classic coaching inn and its postcards Nowhere is the spirit of the isolated coaching inn more potent than at “The Crown” at Everleigh, on the northern flank of Salisbury Plain. It was built in the early eighteenth century as a dower house for the Astley family, and was connected to the manor house by a tunnel which is now blocked part way along. In 1780, a new road from Bath to London via Everleigh and Andover – “with fewer hills and quicker than any other road” – was advertised as being “complete”. A 1920s postcard view of the Crown when it was owned by Wadworth’s of Devizes. Three years later, on 18 December 1783, the Bath Chronicle carried an advertisement for a post-coach from Bath to London, via Devizes, Everleigh, Andover, Basingstoke, Staines and Hounslow. The journey took two days and cost one pound six shillings for an inside seat, and fifteen shillings for a place on top. Initially, coaches called at the New Inn (long since closed), but before long the need for a more commodious establishment saw the old dower house opened as the Crown. The first reference to it as an inn comes in the form of a news item in the Salisbury & Winchester Journal for 9 January 1792: ‘Last Tuesday night three men met at the Crown Inn, Everley (sic), and for a tri- barn behind the inn. fling wager, ate 60 red herrings, with three half-gallon loaves, and drank six gallons of beer.’ There were 300 acres of land attached to the A postcard view of the garden at the side of the inn praised by Cobbett, and where Van Morrison failed to perform. 44 Picture Postcard Monthly July 2010 An early postcard view of a coach and four drawn up outside the entrance to the Crown at Everleigh. A car drawn up outside the Crown at around the time the comic postcard characters were painted on the wall of a Crown and early tenants were farmers as well as innkeepers. That inveterate traveller William Cobbett stayed there in August 1826 and left this description of it: “This inn is one of the nicest, and, in summer, one of the pleasantest, in England; for I think that my experience in this way will justify me in speaking thus positively. The house is large, the yard and the stables good, the landlord a farmer also, and, therefore, no cribbing your horses in hay or straw and yourself in eggs and cream. The garden, which adjoins the south side of the house, is large, of good shape, has a terrace on one side, lies on the slope, consists of welldisposed clumps of shrubs and flowers, and of short grass very neatly kept. In the lower part of the garden there are high trees, and, amongst these, the tuliptree and the live-oak. Beyond the garden is a large clump of lofty sycamores, and in these a most populous rookery, in which, of all things in the world, I delight. The village, which contains 301 souls, lies to the north of the inn, but adjoining its premises. All the rest, in every direction, is bare down or open arable. I am now sitting at one of the southern windows of this inn, looking across the garden towards the rookery. It is nearly sunsetting; the rooks are skimming and curving over the tops of the trees; while under the branches I see a flock of several hundred sheep coming nibbling their way in from the down and going to their fold”. It was not only the social but also the administrative centre for the area. Kelly’s Wiltshire Directory for 1895 noted that “the bench sits at the Crown Hotel, Everleigh, on the last Friday... in each month”. Towards the end of the nineteenth century the stables attached to the inn achieved fame by training a Grand National winner. Nothing in the early history of the Crown, however – not even the ingestion of 60 red herrings – is as extraordinary as its recent history. In 2002, the landlord, Gary Marlow, booked Van Morrison to play in front of 1,500 people in the garden of the inn. When the singer cancelled the gig a few weeks before it was to take place, Mr Marlow took him to court. Although he won £40,000 in damages, he subsequently announced that the inn was closing, and in 2004 was granted permission to convert it to housing. It seemed like the final chapter in the history of the Crown. But that was before Zimbabwean-born entrepreneur Cyril Weinman bought the building in 2005 to re-open it as an inn, with a commitment to making it a focus for the local community. As the Crown’s website says, it has now been “restyled into a new Rhodesian-based hotel and village pub, yet still keeping the traditional English heritage and history”. A new chapter in the history of this venerable old inn is being written – and the inn has been saved! Cobbett would no doubt have been highly delighted.
... and wall paintings by Donald McGill? There’s yet another side to the “The Crown”, though. I’ll be the first to admit that, when it comes to comic postcards, I’m no expert. But when I found myself one Saturday afternoon at the Everleigh inn, and the landlady mentioned that there were some paintings in an old barn at the back that just might be by Donald McGill, my interest was, as you can imagine, aroused. Having run the gauntlet of assorted large (and friendly) dogs, unlocked the barn and cleared various items out of the way, I was confronted with six life-style figures painted on a brick wall along one side of the barn. It was obvious why someone had said they might be by McGill. They almost certainly d a t e d from the 1920s and, although time had not been kind to them, the colours were still vibrant. parasol, a fat lady in a swimsuit and another fat lady in a swimsuit holding hands with a skinny man. Although they all looked vaguely familiar, as to whether or not I had stumbled upon a lost cache of original McGills I felt unqualified to say – although I knew how I could find out. So it’s over to you, the readers of PPM – among whom are doubtless scores of comic postcard experts – to enlighten me, and the owners of the inn, as to the provenance of this splendidly unexpected art collection – and also, perhaps, to suggest how they can be preserved for the future. Contacting us? LOOKING FOR POSTCARD ALBUMS & ACCESSORIES? Look NO further than VERA TRINDER Ltd 38 Bedford Street, Strand, London WC2E 9EU OPEN: Monday to Friday 8.30 am to 5 pm Send for our free catalogue Tel: 020 7257 9940 Fax: 020 7836 0873 E-mail: vtrinder@aol.com Ansaphone: 020 7836 2366 Web site: www.vtrinder.co.uk You have a better chance of getting a quick response from PPM if you ring direct on 0115 937 4079. Please use fax 0115 937 6197 or email (reflections@postcardcollecting.co.uk) if you’re sending information. There is a 24- hour ansaphone on the 4079 number. But we also like to see our postman with a sackful of mail! Moreover, they were executed in such a confident way, it was hard to believe they were the work of a mere copyist. Six seaside characters were featured – a dandy, a fat man in a swimsuit, a fat lady with a BULK POSTCARDS FOR SALE CLOSING DOWN SALE After advertising in this magazine for 8 years I have now decided to liquidate my stock on a firstcome, first-served basis. I have well over half a million cards in stock which I am bulking up in 1000-card lots.These cards are ideal for putting on eBay with a starting price of 99p. The cards will be split into 3 groups with many cards in plastic sleeves. Many of these cards have retail prices up to £10. The group of cards are 1000 GB Topo £175 * 1000 Themes £165 * 1000 Foreign £95 * 1000 Special Clearance £95 (all lots pre-1950) Why not try a sample lot as there is a 100% money back guarantee if you are not completely satisfied? POSTAGE STAMPS I have also accumulated over the years vast quantities of full gum postage, mostly in complete sets. These are fully valid for postage and are sold in £100 face lots. The prices for these are Great Britain £75 Alderney £70 Guernsey £70 Jersey £65 Isle of Man £65 Strictly postal only, but I'm only too happy to talk on the telephone Postage and packing:- Postcards £5 - irrespective of how many cards bought. Postage stamps - no charge ROBERT NOBLE 42 REINS ROAD, RASTRICK, BRIGHOUSE, WEST YORKSHIRE HD6 3JQ TELEPHONE - (01484) 387534 (after 6pm) or 07939 522919 (24 hours) Picture Postcard Monthly July 2010 45
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