Crooked House pub owners ordered to rebuild after ‘Britain’s wonkiest inn’ was demolished

The owners of the Crooked House pub have been ordered to rebuild it after it was demolished following a suspected arson attack.

South Staffordshire Council said it had served the owners of the property with an enforcement notice that “requires the building to be built back to what it was prior to the fire” within three years.

The blaze at the historic pub in Himley, West Midlands – famed for its wonky walls and floors, a result of mining-related subsidence – broke out on the night of 5 August last year. Its burnt-out shell was then demolished, without permission from the local authority, within 48 hours of the fire.

The blaze came just two weeks after the 18th-century establishment, known as Britain’s wonkiest pub, was sold by brewer Marston’s to private buyers Carly Taylor, 34, and her husband Adam. Marston’s has previously confirmed to The Independent that in July last year it sold the pub to Warwickshire-based Ate Farms Ltd, which records show was owned by Ms Taylor at the time of the incident but is currently owned by Mr Taylor.

The enforcement notice requiring The Crooked House to be rebuilt within three years was served on the Taylors and the company secretary of Ate Farms Ltd.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, South Staffordshire Council said it had “engaged with the owners” since the destruction of the building, but that it had “reached a point where formal action is considered necessary”.

If the building is not rebuilt by February 2027, the local authority said, it can prosecute the owners for failure to comply with the enforcement notice. The owners of the site have 30 days to appeal the notice.

Mayor of the West Midlands Andy Street welcomed the order for the landmark pub to be restored.

He posted on Twitter/X: “Crooked House ordered to be rebuilt. An enforcement notice has been issued against the owners for its unlawful demolition. They have been ordered to rebuild the pub back to what it was before the fire – just as we’ve been lobbying for. Fantastic work from South Staffordshire Council.”

The Crooked House was originally built as a farmhouse in 1765, but one side gradually sank 4ft into the ground as a result of subsidence from mining works carried out in the 1800s. It was converted into a public house named The Siden House in 1830, “siden” being the Black Country dialect for crooked.

It was renamed The Glynne Arms, after the local landowner, before coming to be known as The Crooked House in later years. The pub had first been threatened with closure during the 1940s but was bought by Wolverhampton and Dudley Breweries, who reinforced the walls with girders and buttresses.

It had since become a popular tourist attraction as well as a wedding venue, with thousands of locals mourning its “tragic” loss and signing petitions to have it rebuilt to its former glory.

The Crooked House was not listed at the time it was destroyed, but was a non-designated heritage asset registered in the Historic Environment Records as a building of local importance.

Emergency services were alerted at 10pm on 5 August that a blaze had broken out inside The Crooked House, with 30 firefighters tackling the flames. Efforts were hampered, however, by mounds of mud and dirt on the roads, preventing easy access to the fire.

Staffordshire Police at the time confirmed that they were treating the fire as arson. By October, five men and one woman had been arrested and released on conditional bail in connection with the incident. The force’s investigation into the circumstances around the blaze continues.

The building was levelled shortly after investigating fire crews and police officers left the scene having deemed the property unstable. Footage showed a digger tearing down the remaining walls and reducing the historic landmark to a large pile of rubble.

Roger Lees, the leader of South Staffordshire Council, said that planning officers had visited the burnt-out pub at the time of the blaze but had not agreed to the demolition. He said at the time: “This council finds the manner in which the situation was managed following the fire completely unacceptable and contrary to instructions provided by our officers.”

Mr Street called for the pub to be “rebuilt brick by brick” in a letter to the council at the time of the incident, and stressed that “major questions” needed answering.

In a message posted on the “Save The Crooked House (Let’s Get It Re-Built)” Facebook page on Tuesday, which he called a “monumental” day, Mr Street thanked the group’s 35,000 members for their “tireless” campaign to get the pub rebuilt, as well as the local council for pursuing the enforcement action.

Marco Longhi, the MP for Dudley North, said in a statement on Tuesday: “The demolition of The Crooked House shook our community here in Dudley and across the Black Country, so it’s fantastic news that an enforcement notice has been served on the owners for demolition without consent. The Crooked House owners are now required to rebuild the site back to its former glory and I will not rest until The Crooked House is built back brick by brick.”

He added: “Let this serve as a warning to anyone who wants to launch an attack on our heritage sites – you will not get away with it.”

Ate Farms Ltd had acquired The Crooked House shortly before locals submitted an application to Historic England for the public house to be given protected listed status, which would have ensured that any physical changes to the building would require consent from the local council.

Information available from Companies House shows that Mr Taylor is the current director at Ate Farms, and is registered as a person with significant control of the business, holding at least 75 per cent of the shares. Ms Taylor held both of these roles at the time of the fire, but ceased to do so on 15 December last year.

Issued under the 1990 Town and Country Planning Act by South Staffordshire district council, the enforcement notice served on the Taylors and Ate Farms Ltd said the demolition of the unlisted building had constituted a breach of planning controls.

The notice reads: “The unauthorised demolition of the building resulted in the loss of a community facility of local historic significance and interest. At the time of demolition, Historic England was in receipt of an application to list The Crooked House. However, due to its demolition, Historic England did not have the opportunity to assess it and determine if it was suitable for listing.”

The order also specifies that the pub should be rebuilt “so as to recreate it as similar as possible to the demolished building” before it was razed by a mechanical digger on 5 August last year, including the use of reclaimed bricks on exterior walls, laid in the same bond as previously.

Efforts made by The Independent to reach Ate Farms Ltd for comment were unsuccessful.