Race to rebuild ‘Britain’s wonkiest pub’ gains traction amid inquiry delay

A popular campaign for “Britain’s wonkiest pub” has been galvanised despite a delay in a legal battle for it to be rebuilt.

The Crooked House pub in Himley, near Dudley in the West Midlands, was reduced to rubble when a fire ripped through the building in August last year.

The well-publicised blaze happened just weeks after the 258-year-old pub was sold by brewery Marston’s to a company called ATE Farms.

The new owner is accused of breaching planning regulations by flattening the remains of the pub two days after the fire, and was ordered to rebuild it within three years by South Staffordshire Council.

But ATE Farms launched an appeal to the enforcement notice, claiming fears over the immediate safety of the site led to a quick decision to knock down the whole building.

The firm said it would rebuild the iconic building in a new nearby location within sight of the busy Himley Road, to make the pub viable.

An appeal hearing was scheduled for this summer but has since been put back to spring 2025.

Campaigners, although disappointed by the hold-up, say their fight to have the watering hole rebuilt at its current site has only grown stronger with more people in the community rallying to support the cause.

Many remember the pub for first dates or family parties, and they say the pub’s wonkiness, caused by mining subsidence, makes it a worldwide tourist attraction the region needs to keep.

“It’s an iconic building that’s a part of the history of the industrial revolution – it’s an absolute tragedy to lose and something people are desperate to see rebuilt,” Paul Turner, from the Save The Crooked House group, told The Independent.

Mr Turner said it was possible to recreate the pub using some of the 25,000 bricks kept from the building, which have been locked up in containers. There are also examples at the nearby Black Country Living Museum of old sites being rebuilt brick by brick, he said.

And he is backed by a Facebook group, with almost 38,000 members joining his call. Local community leaders and the Campaign for Real Ale group have voiced their support.

“We’re disappointed with the delay in the appeal hearing as we know this puts things back six or seven months, but we’re determined as ever to keep this campaign going for the rebuild.

“And it has to be on its current site – that is where it sank to give it its crooked look. You move it elsewhere, it becomes less genuine, less real. There won’t be the appeal to visit it.”

Mr Turner accepted the pub had struggled for custom in the years before it was sold, but he claims management of the site could have been better and that the lane leading up to it could be maintained for vehicles.

Determined to keep the story in the limelight, the campaigners are holding a one-year anniversary event with music and food at the nearby Himley Hall Park.

Co-organiser Michelle Taylor said: “You don’t realise how much something is missed until it’s gone, and that’s the case with The Crooked House.

“So many people have been left distraught by its destruction. It was a place the area held with pride and we’re now all desperate to have it back.”

Staffordshire Police arrested six people in its investigation over the fire, which is being treated as arson. All the suspects remain on police bail.

In its appeal against the planning enforcement notice, ATE Farms said it was not responsible “in any way” for the fire.

The firm says that the council agreed to three sections of the building being removed following a site visit two days after the fire.

Removal of the sections, the company says, made the remaining structure “completely unsafe and at a high and unacceptable risk of collapse”.

“The council officers had left the land and a quick decision had to be made,” the appeal correspondence said on destroying the rest of the structure.

South Staffordshire Council issued the enforcement notice for the unlawful demotion of the pub. A spokesperson said: “The council has engaged with the owners since the demolition but has reached a point where formal action is considered necessary.”