Local History
innkeeper and her children John aged 11, Elizabeth aged 7 and Thomas aged 4. She was listed as the innkeeper in the 1844 Pigot’s Directory, 1850 White’s Directory and 1856 Kelly’s Directory. The original lease on the property was one based on three lives and came to an end in 1856. In March 1859 Ann Rowe bought the freehold of the inn and three adjoining residential properties for £1300 from the Rev. Henry Walter Beauford. She put £700 down and agreed to pay a further £600 plus interest at a later date. However by the time of her death aged 65 on the 9th February 1861 the outstanding sum was unpaid and had increased with interest to £640.
Ann Rowe’s son, John Rowe, inherited both the public house and this outstanding debt. In the 1861 census the occupants were John Rowe victualler aged 30, his wife Elizabeth aged 31, his sister Elizabeth aged 27, his brother-in- law John Tucker draper’s assistant aged 17, and a servant Grace Soper aged 20.
previously assisted his mother in running the inn but after her death the business struggled. A probable reason for this was the loss of trade due to the opening of the Pannier Market and shops in Duke Street. All the small markets were relocated into the new market building, thus turning the old market area around Bank Square into a commercial backwater, and adversely affecting the trade of a number of the surrounding hostelries including the Crown Inn. Taking that all too familiar financial advice ‘to consolidate ones debts’ John Rowe took out a mortgage on the property for £1050 with William Samuel Pearce, gentleman of Tavistock.
inevitable result was that in July 1867 John Rowe became bankrupt, and in the following month the freehold of the public house and three adjoining properties was put up for sale, but there is no record of a purchaser. The sale particulars of the inn are of interest since they contain a description of the property at that time.
‘All that Inn and Premises, called The John Rowe had
the ‘CROWN INN’ situate in Barley Market Street, Tavistock, and lately occupied by Mr. John Rowe. The house contains – Bar, Tap Room, Dining room, Larder and Kitchen on the entrance floor, and a Drawing Room and 7 good bedrooms on the upper floors. There are 4 large Underground Cellars, a Courtlage, 2 Pigs’ Houses, and Stables for 30 Horses, with lofts over. There is also a good Bowling Alley adjoining the Courtlage, which has recently been fitted-up. The Premises are in good order, and possess every convenience for carrying on an extensive business.
and Outbuildings could at a small expense be converted into workshops, or stores. Possession can be obtained immediately.’
‘terpsichorean display’.
financial problems John Rowe died aged 40 in July 1871; his death was registered at East Stonehouse. His widow, Elizabeth Jane Rowe, remarried becoming Elizabeth Jane Jones. In October 1876 she was still being pursued by her late husband’s creditors and was obliged to make a legal declaration stating that she had not received any settlement from him.
The Crown Inn passed by default into the ownership of William S. Pearce who had provided the mortgage. In the 1873 Kelly’s directory he was described as agent for the L&SW Railway Co. and various local carriers with an office at 16 Duke Street, Tavistock. He lived with his family at Uplands, one of the smart new villas in Watts Road, Tavistock. His first tenant at the Crown, in October 1867, was John Sandercock Chowen, formerly a butler to a wealthy landowner in Somerset.
Chowen’s tenancy started quietly enough but no doubt like the others before him he found it hard to make a living. Realising he needed something different to increase custom, he turned part of the first storey into a dance room where customers paid a penny on the door
John Perhaps broken by all these The Cartilage
and a pianist played popular dance tunes of the time. No doubt there were many evenings when there was a jolly good sing-song and knees-up. However lax adherence to closing times, drunkenness on the premises, rowdiness outside, and the arrival of ladies in groups, was soon to bring the inn to the attention of the local magistrates and police.
Matters came to a head in October 1869 when John Chowen, allowed a ‘riotous party’ to continue into the early morning of the day after the Goose Fair. He was duly summonsed before the magistrates. From the evidence it appears that at about two o’clock in the morning, Superintendent Pickford, accompanied by Sergeant H. Coles, visited the defendant’s public house where he found a great number of people. He reported that he first inspected one or two of the downstairs’ rooms where there were several men and women in a state of intoxication. He then proceeded upstairs and entered a room where there were seven or eight females with several men. Two or three of the females were ‘woman of ill fame whilst the others were strangers’.
majority were the worse for liquor. In another room dancing was going on, upwards of thirty or forty participating in this ‘terpsichorean display’.
drunkenness in his house the magistrates imposed on John Chowen the full penalty of £5 in addition to 12s 6d costs, or in default, two months imprisonment. The fine was paid but it would have been obvious to John Chowen that a staid Victorian Tavistock was not yet ready for his night-club style of entertainment. The Tavistock Gazette of the 24th June 1870 reported the transfer of the licence from John Chowen to Samuel Stanton.
how things go from bad to worse at the Crown Inn.
References
Devon Record Office 1258M/Tav.108/1 – 35 Crown Inn and Three Houses in Barley Market Street, Tavistock.
23 In a future article I hope to tell For permitting The
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