Former Crooked House landlords appalled at fire and demolition

By Andy Giddings & Caroline Gall & Tracey Higgins

BBC News, West Midlands

The last landlord at “Britain’s wonkiest pub” said the recent fire and demolition of the building would tarnish memories.

Lee Goodchild, 46, ran the Crooked House near Dudley from September 2022 until it recently shut.

His views were echoed by Tom and Laura Catton who left the pub in 2008 but visited the remains on Tuesday for one last drink in the rubble.

It had been a community focal point the community, they said.

The Crooked House was gutted by fire on Saturday night. The shell of the building was left standing but it was bulldozed on Monday afternoon. Officials have said the demolition was unacceptable and possibly unlawful.

South Staffordshire Council said it was looking at possible enforcement action against those responsible.

Mr Goodchild, who lives in Worcestershire, said he was “pretty low” when he had to leave the pub, after brewer Marston’s put it up for sale, but the fire and the surprising demolition had left him “appalled”.

The landlord has been in the pub trade for more than 25 years, but said he was now thinking of leaving the business and added: “This has just really taken its toll.”

He said he had been received many messages since the fire, but had found it hard to look at the pictures of the pub he once ran.

He described the Crooked House as an “iconic building” and had thought the previous owners, Marston’s, would have wanted it to remain a pub.

The former farmhouse was a popular attraction in the West Midlands for decades after Wolverhampton and Dudley Breweries bought it and converted it into a pub in the 1940s.

It became famous for its uneven floors, due to subsidence caused by mining, and people often went to to witness the illusion of coins and marbles appearing to roll uphill along the bar.

Tom and Laura Catton ran and lived in the pub for more than two years. They said the quirks of the building had a lasting appeal.

“It was the focal point of the community and it brought so many people to the community because people had come from all over the world just to have a look at this marble run up the hill,” Mrs Catton said.

“And, it would bring people into other local businesses as well.”

Mr Catton said the pub meant a lot to him. It was not only where he had his first job, but met his wife there, his boss at the time.

“We lived there for two years. I proposed to her there. We had our first child there,” he said.

“So even after 15 years away, it’s hit hard.”

Mrs Catton said the pub trade had changed a lot over the years, particularly through the Covid pandemic, although she believed it should have remained open.

“They struggled with the outside service, the table service,” she said.

“The pub trade has changed an awful lot, but I can’t see how a pub that was pulling people in from all over the world couldn’t sustain itself.”

Talk of the pub being rebuilt brick by brick was a comfort, but the couple said they doubted it would become reality, mainly due to rising costs.

Mr Goodchild said people of all ages had stories to tell about it and agreed answers were needed.

“People need to know the truth of what’s gone on,” he said.

Other people reminiscing about the pub include Dawn Yates from Halesowen, who went on a blind date at the Crooked House 21 years ago and is still with the man she met there.

She said she was “absolutely gutted” she would not get the chance to take her children there now.

Another woman, who went there when she was younger, said: “You just go for the entertainment value really, it was just an old fashioned world pub with all the quirky pieces.”

She said she was “devastated because it was just part of the Black Country”.

A man who played for the pub’s football team in the 1980s said: “Americans used to come there and they just couldn’t believe it.”

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