THE CROWN - Bridge Street

The Crown was the main venue for my friends and I during our late teens & early twenties (all through the seventies).

I have fond memories of the landlord Fred, his wife Jean and Bess (one of the regular bar staff). "Bag of Baccy cocker?" Fred would say when a bag of smokey bacon crisps was ordered and 20 Piccadilly would become "20 piccs cock?"

My grand parents were Jean and Fred Morley! I have fond memories of grandad's sayings to : )

As the youngest apprentice at Bannisters Builders I was sent on many errands around the town. Cake shop, betting shop, paper shop. I didn't mind them. The one I dreaded was going to the Crown for a tin of Smiths crisps (the ones with the little blue salt packets). The joiners used to club together to buy them, I had to go to the back door to get them and pray that the door was closed or his dog would greet me. The trick was to creep down the alley and close the door before the thing got there and then knock the door so he would have it under control. It didn't always work though.

I worked at the Midland Bank in the High Street in the mid-1960s. I saw Fred and Jean Morely most days. The were really lovely people who ran a very good pub. In those days it was a Brickwoods house. My lifetime interest has been Britain's coastal shipping, so working at Newhaven had great advantages. Fred and Jean were always very encouraging of my shipping hobby and the trips I made. There was an old customer of the Crown Inn who framed pictures and I still have several he did for me and my family. Fond and Happy Memories of all concerned.