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

Drinking in an Old English Town

Coventry Cross, 29 Cross Cheaping

Alternative Addresses:	Burges
These premises have been known by different names during their history:	FROM	TO	NAME
	1864	1867	VOLUNTEER
	1867	present	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. He had taken the license of the Volunteer from John Moore, who had put the pub up for auction in June that year, and reopened it with the new name. 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 1879 - 1884 Thomas Gregory (died Aug 1884) 1886 - 1893 George Skidmore 1893 - 1894 Edwin Horsfield 1894 - 1905 Charles Joseph Wareham 1907 - 1909 Samuel Drakeford Hadden 1910 Thomas Pegg Turman (or Furman) 1911 - 1912 William Buckler 1912 William Palmer 1914 John William Biggs 1914 George Alfred Pickard 1918 - 1922 Lizzie Pickard 1922 John Alfred Weller 1929 - 1932 H. Johnson 1933 - 1934 T. Pointer 1935 - 1936 W. Towns 1937 - 1940 E. Deakin 1941 - 1945 Cecil Alfred Fleetwood 1945 - 1960 Lilian Hilda Fleetwood (widow of Cecil)
OWNERS: to 1919 James Warden from 1919 Phillips & Marriott