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The Crooked House in Himley, West Midlands, recently made the news when it mysteriously burned down. ANDREW HOMER says the historic pub was as famous for its ghosts and ghosts as it was for its wonky architecture.
The fire and subsequent destruction of the Crooked House pub in Himley in the Black Country has recently attracted national and international media attention. The Black Country is a former mining and heavily industrialized area west of Birmingham.
The Crooked House was much more than just a café; it had become an instantly recognizable symbol of the Black Country over the years. Blackpool has its Tower, and Black Country has its Crooked House.
The Crooked House was a strangely crooked building, and the Evening Despatch of May 1932 went so far as to describe the strange phenomena inside as ‘creepy’. To explain how this came about, it is necessary to delve into a little bit of history.
History of the crooked house
The building was originally a farmhouse on the Oak Farm Estate, dating from 1765. The estate became the property of the Glynne family through the marriage of the Reverend Sir Stephen Glynne to Mary Bennett of Farmcott Salop in 1779.
It later became the property of his grandson, Sir Stephen Richard Glynne, whose sister was married to Liberal Prime Minister William Gladstone. The farm was right on the edge of the Glynne Estate, where it bordered land owned by Lord Dudley. Coal mining on the Glynne side of the property resulted in subsidence from 1835, causing the south side of the building to sink several meters into the ground.
The former farm became a pub in the 1830s and was officially called the Glynne Arms, after Sir Stephen Glynne. It was also known locally as the ‘Siden House’. In Black Country dialect, siden means ‘side-in’ or ‘crooked’. In the early 1990s the pub was officially renamed Crooked House.
As if the looks weren’t enough, the inside was even more bizarre. Marbles seemed to roll uphill. A grandfather clock appeared to be at an acute angle, but was actually quite vertical. The whole interior was a confusion to the senses, and it was impossible to determine what was upright and what was not. A table in the taproom was lower on one side than the other. A bottle placed at the bottom will roll up and fall off the top if not held. John Timpson, in his 1995 book English country inns, noted that ‘it is not often you can drink in an inn that is itself tipsy’.
Of course, this pub phenomenon, while strange, was simply a mix of optical illusion and physics. But like many other pubs it has its own legends and ghost stories associated with the building itself and the surrounding area.
Beggars seem to feature frequently in Victorian ghost stories. A classic example is the Starving Rascal in nearby Amblecote, where a beggar, denied food and warmth one winter’s night, froze to death on the doorstep and reportedly haunted the pub leaving wet footprints and moving beer glasses around. The Cat Inn in Envillea few miles away, has a similar story about a beggar who was left out in the cold on a freezing night and froze to death along with his dog, who is still heard howling in the dead of night.
The legend of the beggar from the Crooked House is that he laboriously made his way across the alley, using two crutches to support himself. When the pub came into view, he yelped at its extreme curvature. He threw away his crutches and ran through the Black Land as fast as his legs could carry him, miraculously healed by the mere sight of the Crooked House!
In the 19th century, the Black Country, along with other areas in the country, was plagued by stories of a figure with glowing red eyes, cloven hooves and horns that leaped over buildings, often leaving hoof prints on the roofs. This was the legendary Spring Heeled Jack. There were reports from all over the Black Country, including Himley, in 1877, near the Crooked House.
A group of willing and not so willing volunteers were gathered to arrest the enemy. They proved completely inadequate for this task when Spring Heeled Jack suddenly materialized at them from the darkness and could be heard laughing maniacally as the men ran away. A local farmer turned out to be a little more stern in nature, and he at least managed to fire a shot at Spring Heeled Jack, but it exploded harmlessly into a fireball. All that was left was a circle of scorched grass as evidence of the farmer’s self-proclaimed bravado. No doubt related to anyone who would listen in the bar at the Crooked House.
Children have also been seen playing in fields along Himley Road near the pub. There is nothing unusual about that, except that these particular children usually dance in a circle and wear clothing that dates from a much earlier time. A few miles away in Trysull, a remarkably similar group of children were seen dancing in a circle in the village green.
Ghosts in the crooked house
The Crooked House itself was home to at least two reported ghosts. A young girl dressed as a housekeeper, complete with cap, had been seen near the old fireplace. A visiting psychic who saw her was able to name the young lady, and locally she was known as Polly. She was thought to be responsible for all the mischievous activity in the pub, such as things getting lost or moved. It appears that Polly was previously associated with the earlier Georgian farm.
Both staff and customers occasionally reported seeing an old man, described as quite short and in his sixties or seventies, quietly entering the old bar. At first nothing seemed untoward until it was realized that he had suddenly disappeared and no one had seen him leave. Staff believed he may have been a former landlord returning to check on his old pub.
In a rather strange omen of events to come, a rumor spread in 1952 that the Crooked House had been demolished and people were actually showing up to see the ruins. It was even reported in the Birmingham Gazette that a group from Rochdale who stopped on their way to the Crooked House in Wolverhampton were told it was a waste of time as the pub no longer existed.
There is a strong local feeling to have the Leaning House rebuilt with the remaining stones, which are now in storage. If so, it will be interesting to see if Polly and the old landlord return to their former home.
Have you ever seen anything spooky in The Crooked House? Tell us about it in the comments below!
