The Definitive Guide to the History of
Pubs and Beerhouses in Coventry

Drinking in an Old English Town

Coventry Cross, 29 Burges

Alternative Addresses:	29 Cross Cheaping
These premises have been known by different names during their history:	FROM	TO	NAME
			Old Coventry Cross
	1864	1867	Volunteer
	1867		Coventry Cross
This pub gets its name from the famous market cross which stood in Cross Cheaping until falling into disrepair and being removed in the 1770s. Licensee William Whitehead advertised his newly opened "THE COVENTRY CROSS" WINE AND SPIRIT VAULTS in the Coventry Herald on September 28th 1867. Three months earlier his permission "for alterations to a house, 29, Burges" were published in the Coventry Standard. He had taken the license of the VOLUNTEER from John Moore, who had put the pub up for auction in June that year. William reopened it with the new name. The address was mostly reported in newspapers as located in the Burges, but occasionally the address was given as Cross Cheaping. In 1904 it was leased by Phillips & Marriott for 21 years for £150 per annum, including 2 cottages, from James Warden of Walsgrave. In 1919 Phillips & Marriott obtained the freehold. The building has been variously claimed to date from the 16th or 17th century. In 1984 a campaign by regulars prevented it from being turned into a wine bar and, instead, the owners, Mitchell & Butlers, spent £65,000 on a restoration, including a beer garden offering views of the babbling brook that passes under the pub, the River Sherbourne.
LICENSEES: 1867 - 1875 William Whitehead 1875 - 1877 Thomas Birrell 1877 - 1878 James Cole 1878 - 1884 Thomas Gregory (died Aug 1884, aged 48) 1884 - 1885 Jane Gregory (widow of Thomas) 1885 - 1893 George Skidmore 1893 - 1894 Edwin Horsfield 1894 - 1907 Charles Joseph Wareham 1907 - 1910 Samuel Drakeford Hadden 1910 - 1912 William Buckler 1912 - 1913 William Palmer 1913 - 1914 John William Biggs 1914 - 1918 George Alfred Pickard (died 9th Sep 1918) 1918 - 1922 Lizzie Pickard (widow of George) 1922 - 1927 John Alfred Wellen 1927 - 1932 Herbert Johnson 1932 Thomas Pointer 1932 - 1936 William Towns 1936 - 1940 Edward Deakin 1941 - 1945 Cecil Alfred Fleetwood 1945 - 1960 Lilian Hilda Fleetwood (widow of Cecil) 1971 - 1976 Leslie Preece 1976 - 1977 Gerald Davoren (died 1989, aged 50) 1977 - 1982 John Bradley 1983 Tom Rush 1997 - 1998 Jonathan Le Poidevin
OWNERS: to 1919 James Warden from 1919 Phillips & Marriott