Owners of Britain's wonkiest pub have been linked to previous fire incident
Owners of Britain's wonkiest pub have been linked to previous fire incident
It has emerged that the people who bought the infamous wonky Black Country pub, which was sadly gutted by fire and demolished earlier this month, experienced a different massive fire on land they owned.
The Crooked House pub, located close to Dudley, was recently sold to new owners, husband and wife Adam and Carly Taylor.
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Mr Taylor is director of AT Contracting and Plant Hire Ltd, and Mrs Taylor controls the company ATE Farms Limited, which purchased The Crooked House pub back in July.
She is also currently in control of AT Contracting and Plant Hire Ltd, which the BBC reported rented a digger only a week before a fire destroyed the pub on 5 August.
The gutted 18th century building was then flattened two days after the devastating blaze, leading to an outcry from locals and a petition being launched to rebuild the pub, which has since reached over 13,000 signatures.
And it has since emerged that this isn't the first fire the pub's new owners have been involved with.
A blaze broke out on land that they owned at the Finmere landfill site in Buckinghamshire on 4 August 2018, the BBC reports, with the cause never being established.
Four hundred tonnes of waste caught fire that day and firefighters from Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire worked through the night to extinguish the flames.
In a recent update issued on Wednesday (9 August), Staffordshire police revealed they are suspecting arson.
"This fire has shocked and upset so many given the, albeit not listed, cultural importance and heritage of the building," they said in a statement.
"This is not lost on us and a robust investigation using all available information and forensic opportunities is being carried out."
Since then, the former manager of The Crooked House, Lee Goodchild, has opened up about the situation and has set the record 'absolutely clear'.
In a post issued on The Crooked House's Facebook page on Wednesday (9 August), Lee wrote: "So there seems to be a few people with different thoughts of what's happened.
"But let me make this absolutely clear myself and the team at the Crooked House knew nothing about it being actually sold until the day I was told I could not reopen after the break in."
He also added it was 'not a decision' he made as 'the business owner' but instead 'an order' he had to follow from Marston's.
Lee went on: "All we did since September was try and get The Crooked House back to being open and back on the map.
"We spent tireless hours day after day someday seeing no more than a handful of people in the dark cold wet days through the autumn and winter but continued to do so.
"Always seeing the friendly regulars and visitors from all parts of the world."
He added that he and the staff 'wanted nothing more' than to make the 'iconic place' a success, before adding: "Unfortunately other people ie the landlords (Marston's) had other views.
"It is upsetting not only to see an amazing building like The Crooked House be closed burn down and be demolished in a very short time, but to see 10 months of hard work laughter tears and the inevitable financial loss as well as our residential dog walkers and Quack and Quackers the 2 ducks I used to see chasing each other every morning is just not right."
Gregory Robinson