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Summary

Unlisted late 19th century public house on the site of a historic coaching inn of the same name

Associated Legal Designations or Protected Status

• Conservation Area: Newbury Town Centre

Monument Type(s):

• COACHING INN (Mid to Late 19th century to Late 19th century - 1851 AD? to 1900 AD?)

Full Description

A public house The Cross Keys stands on the site of the older coaching inn of that name, which was pulled down and re-built at the end of the 19th century <1><2>. Money noted that the original Cross Keys was well known and "a very ancient hostelry", with the suggestion that its sign of two keys crossed over each other figured in the arms of several English Bishops, and possibly therefore the property had been "originally held under some religious house" <2>.

A late 18th century travelogue contains a humorous description of the Cross Keys at Newbury, "the usual place appointed for accommodating the coach passengers on the Bath and Bristol road with supper", with a line drawing of worried diners captioned, "The Guard telling his Passengers that all is in Readiness for their Departure".

The replacement Cross Keys is a three storey building with a tiled roof, and a façade with five sash windows with five small square ones above. The ground floor however does not match this symmetry and has a door at one side between heavy pilasters, and a complete run of windows of a more Edwardian style with stained glass detail along their tops.

West Berkshire Museum has photographs showing the front and east side of the building in the 1970s <7>; and the inn in the late 19th or early 20th century <8>. In the earlier photograph the ground floor of this building has a different plainer configuration with a central door and two sash windows on either side. To the east is an attached bay of similar appearance with a passageway for coaches through it. It is unclear therefore if this building represents the original Cross Keys before it was pulled down, or whether it was an initial modelling of the rebuilt inn before later changes to the ground floor.

Information about the pub's publicans or residents has been collated from directories since 1830 <10>.

All the buildings to the east along London Road, namely Nos 10, 12, 14 and 16, appear to have been demolished in the mid 20th century.

Sources and further reading

Related Monuments

Associated Excavations and Fieldwork

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