The Crown Inn was once tied to Arnold Perrett & Co. Ltd. Wickwar Brewery. The South Gloucestershire brewery had a number of pubs in the Forest of Dean. Wickwar ‘Celebrated Gold Medal Ales and Stouts’ were probably introduced into the Forest of Dean upon the opening of the Severn Railway Bridge from Berkeley to Lydney in 1879. The annual rateable value of the Crown Inn in 1891 and 1903 was £16.0s.0d. and it was classified as a beer house. Ownership of most of Arnold Perrett’s tied houses passed to the Cheltenham Original Brewery in 1924.
Cheltenham Original Brewery eventually passed into Whitbread ownership and in the 1980 of ‘Real Ale in Gloucestershire’ (CAMRA) the Crown was selling Whitbread PA on handpump and was described simply as a ‘small friendly pub’. In 1993 RAIG described the Crown as ‘recently refurbished with a wide range of food. Karaoke every Tuesday and live music every Sunday evening.’ Marston’s Pedigree and Wadworth 6X were available.
Punch Taverns owned the Crown Inn in 2005.
When new landlord Ian Davidson took over the running of the pub in January 2012 he told the ‘Forester’ newspaper, ‘The Crown Inn has got to be the prettiest pub in the Forest’. He had given the pub a full makeover and had expressed his wish that it could become the hub of the village. He said, ‘First and foremost it’s a village pub for locals and tourists. People think of how nice country pubs are in places like Devon and I say why can’t we have one like that here.’
Landlords at the Crown Inn include:
1891 Henry John Williams
1903 Thomas S. Williams
1939 George Williams
1963,1981 Stan Harris
2000 Alan Jones
2004,2005 Derek and Jenny Bound
2006,2008 Roger and Angela Powell
2012 Ian Davidson
