THE HISTORY

The Fox & Crown has a fascinating history! Research has shown that in the early 18th century there was an Inn, a Gaol and a Bowling Green at this location in Old Basford. The Fox & Crown is seemingly synonymous with The Bowling Green, as both names occur at different times on old documents referring to the same site. Without doubt this is the oldest pub still in existence in the area for miles around.

Recorded history in the area goes back as far as Roman times and Old Basford is the place suggested by some historians as the precise location of Barsndale, Robin Hood’s home and his favourite hangout as evoked in the oldest ballads dedicated to this legendary character. It is known that Sherwood Forest once extended as far south as the Basford area of Nottingham.

A revealing document discovered at the Nottinghamshire Records Office is the Will/ Inventory, dated 1707, of Innkeeper James Pearson, also butcher and gaoler. The gaoler is said to have kept a “bowling green” and it is known that close by the gaol was a bowling green at which the company were waited upon by the prisoners, so that their confinement was not very rigorous. The inventory gives enough factual evidence to support the theory that the Fox & Crown public house must have served as Peverel Gaol.

Peverel Gaol was instituted by William Peverel, descendent of William the Conqueror. It was a Court of Pleas for the recovery of small debts and for damages in case of trespass. And its jurisdiction at one time extended over the whole of the honour of Peverel which included 170 towns and villages in Nottinghamshire. In 1791, the Basford gaoler was John Sands, who in that year opened the doors and allowed the prisoners to escape because there was no food allowed for their support and because if any of them died of want he would be liable to take trial as a murderer. The Court of Peverel was subsequently removed to Lenton and, in 1849, was abolished by Act of Parliament.

“… those fond of bowls found at Holme Pierrepoint (a favourite walk) as large and fine a bowling green as any in England, and each Thursday in the season a plentiful ordinary and good company were there to be met with similar company, though not so select, joined in the bowling and a ordinary, each Tuesday on a green at the then retired village of Basford.”…… from an entry dated 1750 in the Nottingham Datebook.

“ In 1806, in the reign of George III, there was a duel with fatal result, between Lieutenant Browne of the 83rd Regiment, a youth of seventeen, and Ensign Butler of the 36th, following a quarrel at The Fox & Crown public house at Basford. Browne fell mortally wounded and his body was removed to Basford Church, and later interred at St. Mary’s Church yard. A coroner’s jury returned a verdict of wilful murder against Butler and his seconds, all of whom absconded. The leader in this disgraceful affair was Lieutenant Hall, a reckless, profligate fellow who returned to the town for a short while some nine or ten years afterwards, but was never apprehended.”
…………….. extract from the Annals of Nottinghamshire.

An old record at the nearby St.Leodegarius Church states that The Fox & Crown is reputedly haunted. This surely explains nocturnal sightings of a quiet, ghostly gentleman wearing a tricorn hat; we have yet to ascertain whether he dwells in the pub full time or is just an occasional visitor to his favourite haunt.