The Old Crown, Birmingham
| The Old Crown | |
|---|---|
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| General information | |
| Architectural style | Black and white timber frame |
| Town or city | Birmingham |
| Country | England |
| Coordinates | 52°28′29″N 1°53′01″W / 52.4747°N 1.8836°WCoordinates: 52°28′29″N 1°53′01″W / 52.4747°N 1.8836°W |
| Completed | 1450-1500 |
The Old Crown a pub in Deritend, is the oldest extant secular building in Birmingham, England. It is Grade II* listed, and claims to date back to c. 1368, retaining its "black and white" timber frame, although almost all of the present building dates from the early 16th century.
It is believed the building was constructed between 1450 and 1500 with some evidence dating to 1492 (the same year the Saracen's Head in nearby Kings Norton was completed). Leland noted the building, upon entering Birmingham, in 1538 as a "mansion house of tymber". It is thought to have been originally built as the and School of St. John, Deritend. This Guild owned a number of other buildings throughout Warwickshire, including the Guildhall in Henley in Arden. The building was purchased in 1589, by "John Dyckson, alias Bayleys", who, in the 1580s, had been buying a number of properties and lands in "the street called Deritend" and in Bordesley. Described as a tenement and garden, running alongside Heath Mill Lane, the building remained in the Dixon alias Baylis (later Dixon) family for the next hundred years.
In the original deed, John Dyckson is described as a "Caryer", which in the West Midlands at this time, when roads were nothing more than hollow-ways and bridle paths, implied that he owned several trains of pack-horses. These would have needed stabling, and Dixon would have needed warehouse space to store goods awaiting dispatch, and arrived goods awaiting collection. Such facilities would be useful to other travellers, and it may well be that the use of the house as an Inn, dates from this time. Indeed, since England was in the grip of a patriotic pother over the failed Armada the previous year, it would have been opportune to adopt the name: 'the Crown'. However, the earliest documentary evidence of the building’s use as an Inn is from 1626; and it being "called by the sign of the Crowne", from 1666.
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