The Rose & Crown dates back to 1640. The old coaching inn is located on the A420.
Gloucester Journal, 8th April 1865 – TRIAL OF PRISONERS. CHARGE OF MANSLAUGHTER.
Thomas Bye, on bail, was charged with the manslaughter of Aaron White, at Wick. Mr. Sawyer prosecuted.
Isaac Black said he was at the Crown Inn on the 22nd of August and saw the prisoner and the deceased there. They wished to fight, the one outside and the other inside the house. The prisoner, who had been outside, then came in, and some further remarks passed between him and the deceased, which ended in the latter being knocked down, his head coming against the stone floor of the kitchen. From the injury thus sustained he died.
Joseph White, a boy, said: I went with father to the Crown Inn on the evening of the 22nd of Aug. He was sober when he went. He had three pints of beer there—he and the rest of the persons. I saw the prisoner there. I saw the prisoner hit at him and father pushed him back, when he hit my father down. My father’s hands were down when the prisoner hit him. The prisoner hit him on the right cheek. Thomas Shellard hit the prisoner down. My father was kept in the house and put to bed. I went there on the next morning.
By the Judge: My father did not ask the prisoner to fight him as I heard.
By the prisoner: My father did not hit you on the breast as I see.
Prisoner: I hit only a very weak blow, and he fell down.
Mary Shellard said she lived at the Crown, which her brother kept. She was there on the 22nd of August and saw White and the prisoner. She gave a narrative of the circumstances under which White was struck. Words were exchanged between him and the prisoner, and the latter knocked him down. He was insensible for five minutes. She believed the deceased man was fond of fighting. He had the reputation of being so.
Mr. Sawyer said the next witness was not present, and he would prove the deposition of the deceased.
Mr. Ashley: I am a surgeon practising at Wick. I know Thomas Shellard; he is not in a condition to be here. I was sent for to the Crown on the morning of the 23rd of August and found Aaron White lying there; he was suffering from compression of the brain. I found a wound at the back of his head. I bled him and applied cold lotions to the head. He died that morning about nine o’ clock.
On the 24th I made a postmortem examination and found laceration on the anterior part of the brain: There were also former adhesions and effusion of blood. Death was the result of the fall, though chronic disease rendered him susceptible to injury.
The prisoner said the deceased first asked him to fight, and when he was about to leave White struck him on the breast; this made him angry and he went out and pulled off his smock and remained outside a quarter of an hour. On again going in the deceased “squared up science at him ” and he put out his hand to keep him off, when the deceased, being “a little in beer,” fell.
The prisoner was given a good character, being quiet and peaceable. The jury found the prisoner guilty but recommended him to mercy. The Judge said the prisoner was not very much to blame, but the blow be gave resulted in the death of an unfortunate man. The punishment would be slight as the injury inflicted was unintentional and the deceased predisposed to receive it. The sentence would be imprisonment for one week.
The above information and research courtesy Dr Martyn Beaufort
Licensing Details:
Owner in 1891: Bath United Brewery
Rateable value in 1891: £28.0s.0d.
Type of licence in 1891: Alehouse
Owner in 1903: Bath United Brewery
Rateable value in 1903: £20.0s.0d.
Type of licence in 1903: Alehouse
Closing time in 1903: 10pm
Landlords at the Rose & Crown include:
1856 W. Amos (Crown Inn)
1885 Thomas Jakeways (Crown Inn)
1891,1897 Thomas Honey
1902,1906 Mary Jane Gerrish (Mrs Mary Gerrish in 1902)
1919,1927 Tobias Cryer
1939 Elsie E. Cryer
2000 Stephen and Yvonne Thompson