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

Drinking in an Old English Town

Hare and Squirrel, Cow Lane

Alternative Addresses:	Greyfriars Lane, Union Street
These premises have been known by different names during their history:	FROM	TO	NAME
	1765	1994	HARE AND SQUIRREL
	1994	c2007	FLANKER AND FIRKIN
	c2007	present	SQUIRREL
Here we are looking roughly eastwards, with Greyfriars Lane crossing Cow Lane just ahead of the photographer. In early 1765 Thomas Edward and John Green, both of Stoneleigh, were in the pub after attending market day in Coventry. They entered at 10 o'clock and they spent about two hours in the company of two dragoons, John Floor of Stoneleigh and the innkeeper's servants, Richard and John Spencer. When they left they walked back towards Stoneleigh, but having reached Canley were set upon and robbed. Edwards was killed. The two dragoons, along with a weaver, Thomas Moses, were found guilty of the murder and later hanged on Gibbet Hill. The original Hare and Squirrel stood in the midst of what was mediaeval Coventry, an ancient timbered building surrounded by orchards and with plenty of stabling to the rear. In 1853 it was for sale, with the brewing plant and utensils. In the late 1920s the original pub was demolished and on doing so sandstone walls were found. These were interpreted as a part of a chapel belonging to Greyfriars Monastery. The new pub opened in 1931. From 1955 to 1957 the Hare and Squirrel was advertised as a public house, restaurant and hotel. The most notable feature of the new pub was when, after 1979, the ceiling had a huge classical scene place on it. The bar was compared to the Sistine Chapel. Note how the earlier licensees were all maltsters as well and how many women kept the pub. There were four of them; Anna Maria Campion, Caroline Claridge, Lucy E. Stafford and Mrs M. Llewellyn, between 1850 and 1905. In 1994 it became the FLANKER AND FIRKIN and by 2007 the SQUIRREL.
LICENSEES: 1809 Ann Wilson 1822 - 1829 J. Graham 1835 Thomas Gilbert 1841 - 1853 Robert Campion & maltster 1850 - 1851 Anna Maria Campion & maltster 1861 Caroline Claridge & maltster 1868 - 1886 Edwin Broom & maltster 1890 - 1891 William Arnett 1893 - 1894 A. W. Hitchin(s) 1896 Lucy E. Stafford 1903 - 1905 Mrs M. Llewellyn 1909 W. H. Timms 1911 - 1924 Alfred Elton 1926 - 1929 A. Petty New Building 1931 - 1938 C. S. Melbourne 1939 - 1940 Ind, Coope and Allsopp Ltd, Proprietors 1960 Wallace Bennett 1960 - 1966 D. Maughan 1970 - 1971 Peter Gilbert
OWNERS: 1939/40 Ind, Coope and Allsopp 1962 Ansells