The Crown public house stands at the junction of Ollands Road, New Road and Cawston Road, Reepham.
This junction was once known as Six Crossways since there were six ways one could go from that point: to Salle and Cawston via Cawston Road, to Townsend Corner down Station Road, to Kerdiston along Stony Lane, to Reepham Market Place via Ollands Road, to Reepham Moor down New Road and to Reepham station yard.
In the 19th century The Crown was a beer house and Edward Page was the landlord there from about 1867.
Edward was also a carpenter and ran a coal merchant’s business. His wife Pamela was the daughter of Richard Amiss, a master tailor who also ran a grocery and drapery shop in Reepham.
In 1882 the Great Eastern Railway station at Reepham had recently been erected and The Crown was in a prime position.
It was already a popular hostelry for farmers returning home from a busy day at Reepham’s cattle market to Kerdiston, Wood Dalling, Heydon, Salle and Cawston.
In his application for a spirit licence that year, Edward said: “A great many people travel by this line having driven to the station but finding there is no stable accommodation they have left and gone elsewhere in the town.”
Edward’s landlord Steward & Patteson offered to build stabling for 10 horses and traps, and plans had been prepared.
Opposition to Edward’s application came from the landlord of the King’s Arms, who said there were already 10 licensed houses in Reepham and that this application would injure their trade.
The Bench granted the application but it was later refused by the County Licensing Committee.
The licence was eventually granted in 1884, in spite of continued opposition from the King’s Arms landlord.
The newly built stabling and cart sheds provided stabling for 14 horses and traps.
Above: Ground plan of The Crown inn and outbuildings, 1889. Below: The Crown, pictured in 1966. Photo: Reepham Archive. Images: Reepham Archive
Edward died in 1911 and Pamela continued running The Crown until 1913. She eventually went to live with her eldest daughter Bessie at Gate House Farm in Salle where Bessie’s husband James Parker was the farmer.
Pamela died in 1923 and is buried in Salle churchyard with Edward.
Information from: Norfolk Public Houses website; ancestry.co.uk; undated Ordnance Survey maps; findmypast.co.uk
Janet Archer
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