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

Drinking in an Old English Town

Cranes Inn, 1 Leicester Street

Alternative Addresses:	1 Leicester Road, 1 Leicester Row, Bishop Street,
These premises have been known by different names during their history:	FROM	TO	NAME
	c1661	1960	CRANES INN / THREE CRANES
Postcard from the early 1900s. Here is the top of Bishop Street looking towards Burges, almost exactly where Bishop Gate would have stood. The Cranes Inn is on the corner, to the left. On the opposite side of the road is the Castle Inn on the corner of King Street. This is a pub name first seen in London in the fifteenth century. This may have coincided with the crane's increasing rarity. They were a luxury item of diet and had ceased breeding in Britain in the sixteenth century. The first reference we have is in 1661 when it is mentioned in lands belonging to Holy Trinity Church, so it may be within memory of cranes in Britain. The Cranes Inn stood opposite the Castle Inn and I have read that the Cranes was the older of the two. They were at the place where Bishop Gate stood, which controlled the entrance to the city from the north. This seems to have made the inns popular places to stable horses before doing business in the city; people could then pick up their horse fresh for the return journey. In 1763 the 'Coventry Gang' stabled their horses here before robbing the Castle Inn, Broadgate. See that pub for the full story. Then the Cranes is mentioned during a trial for the murder of Messrs. Manley and Harris. A Mr. John Barton testified that he had been detained late in Coventry on business and picked up his horse from the Cranes around two in the morning from the ostler. An ostler was the person in charge of stabling horses at an inn. The earliest references I have for the Cranes is in 1661 when it is mentioned in lands belonging to Holy Trinity church and in 1702 when ownership passed from Hugh Capell to Jonah Crynes. In 1862 the Cranes was owned by the Free Grammar School. I see that the licensee in 1861 was not only an innkeeper but also a plumber and glazier. On 12.10.1940 the Cranes was damaged by enemy bombing, but having survived this it was demolished along with the Castle for the making of the Inner Ring Road in 1960.
LICENSEES: 1779 John Hunter 1790 William Callow 1809 - 1815 William Squiers 1822 - 1828 Thomas Mills (died 28th Apr 1828, aged only 51) 1828 - 1833 Mrs. Mills (widow of Thomas) 1835 - 1843 John Russell (moved to the Castle Inn opposite) 1845 - 1847 William Conway 1847 - 1853 Robert Golsby 1853 - 1854 Elizabeth Wright (died Jun 1854) 1854 Charles Bullock 1854 - 1855 William Winfield (died 21st Jul 1855) 1855 - 1856 Fanny Winfield (widow of William) 1856 - 1858 James Cumberlidge 1858 John Moreton 1859 James Cumberlidge 1859 - 1860 Charles Conway 1860 - 1863 Charles C. Matthews, plumber & glazier 1863 - 1864 Joseph Mann 1864 - 1865 William West 1865 William Curtis 1865 - 1868 Charles Conway 1868 - 1869 Edward Eales 1869 - 1870 John Short 1870 - 1871 John Manning Waters 1871 - 1874 John Taylor (died 4th Oct 1874, aged only 40) 1874 - 1884 Jane Taylor (widow of John) 1884 - 1890 Frederick Underwood 1890 John Wright 1890 - 1918 Joseph Bedding 1918 Edward Cracknell Goulston 1918 - 1920 Ellen Sadler (died May 1920) 1920 - 1922 Eliza Chapman 1922 - 1929 John Thomas Rippon 1933 Cecil Stanley Best 1933 Sidney Brownson Harvey 1934 Gilbert Harry Barker 1934 - 1935 Harold Ernest Rice 1935 - 1937 Edward Harold Arm 1937 Keith Roy Addison 1939 - 1941 George William Alfred Elton 1941 Cecil Stanley Best 1941 John William Stringer 1941 - 1951 Arthur Henry Bromfield 1951 Harry Wilson
OWNERS: 1661 - 1702 Holy Trinity Church 1862 Free Grammar School
Street plan of 1851