Frederick H. Hathaway owned the Cross Keys Inn in 1891 and 1903 and the premises was a free house with no brewery tie. Classified as a beer house the Cross Keys had an annual rateable value of £16.5s.0d. and closed each night at 11 pm.
The Cross Keys is brick built on the ground floor and has a timber framed upper floor with a twin gabled roof. It has two bay windows, which are joined by a wooden framed porch. It is probably of Victorian design and obviously has not been altered in any way. Records of the Cross Keys go back as far as 1821 suggesting that it might have been rebuilt. The Alton Court Brewery of Ross on Wye purchased the Cross Keys in 1906.
Gloucester Journal, Saturday 17th November 1855 – A disgraceful affair at Lydney: A disgraceful affair, arising from the effects of excessive drinking, happened at Lydney, on the 9th inst. by which two young men, named Charles Walker, a stonemason, aged 19, and Samuel Hawkins, a labourer, aged 29, were killed, The evidence adduced at the inquest proved that the two men literally drank themselves to death with raw ram for a wager of half a sovereign, in the presence of several persons, who, shocking to say, actually encouraged its fulfilment, instead of preventing the disgusting act.
About mid-day the two deceased men, both of whom were under the influence of liquor, went into the Cross Keys beerhouse, which was filled with persons who had come to Lydney fair. There Hawkins challenged Walker to drink three half pints of raw rum in five minutes for half a sovereign, whoever put the other out of the house to be declared the winner. Walker accepted the challenge, and his uncle, William Munday, put down a coin on the table to bind the bet, while William Edwards fetched three pints of rum from the Feathers’ Inn. The men drank the rum in a few minutes, and then Hawkins fell senseless on the floor, while Walker actually dragged him out of the house, that he might claim the money, his brutal companions encouraging him in the act. He was afterwards taken inside the house, and conveyed home, but in spite of medical aid died the next morning. Walker also shortly afterwards became insensible, and lingered until the next morning, when he also died.
THE INQUEST. On Saturday evening, Mr. J. Lovegrove held an inquest on the bodies, at the Feathers’ Inn, before a jury.
The Coroner addressed some observations to the jury. He felt sure the jury must regret that so lamentable and disgraceful an affair as the subject of enquiry presented could have taken place in an English town. There was no doubt that the cause of death was the drinking of an excessive quantity of rum; and it was quite shocking that 20 or 30 persons assembled in a room made no objection to the carrying out of a bet which must have brought about the deaths of the parties betting.
The jury found the following verdict: “That the deaths of Charles Walker and Samuel Hawkins were caused by drinking a large quantity of rum, for a wager, and the jurors find that such drinking was their voluntary act, but they were both partly intoxicated at the time, and the jurors desire to express their strongest possible indignation at the conduct of the persons who were present on the occasion (particularly William Munday and William Edwards), and who, instead of preventing the horrible deed, did encourage the deceased to commit the act by which their lives were sacrificed. The jurors can in no other way account for the disgraceful manner in which the witnesses who were there gave their evidence.”
The Cross Keys passed to the ownership of the Stroud Brewery Company in the late 1950’s, subsequently being tied to West Country Breweries and Whitbread. A reminder of its past brewery heritage is a ‘West Country Ales – 1760 – Best in the West’ ceramic plaque still in situ.
An advertisement feature in the ‘Severn & Wye Review’ in June 1999 described how ‘times have certainly changed since a hooter sounded all over Lydney to signal the end of another shift at the Tinplate works. It was a tough place to earn a crust. The men were hard and the work was hot and the first place to which many of them headed was the Cross keys. Push bikes were piled by the dozen outside the pub as thirsts were quenched. The Tinworks has long gone but, fortunately, the Cross Keys remains. Now it is a go-ahead, modern pub though still retaining links with the past.’ In its heyday in 1881 the tinplate works and associated forges employed over 200 people.
Landlords at the Cross Keys include:
1891 James James.
1903 George James
1939 James Nelmes
1985 Roser & Valerie Edwards
1989 Maurice Oliver
1999 Richard and Stephanie Parsons
2007 Gordon Blower (Ian Noble – bar manager)