ANOTHER one bites the dust ... A historic south Essex pub is the latest watering hole to face last orders.

Earlier this week bulldozers moved into High Street, Hadleigh to begin demolishing the 251-year year- old Crown Inn.

The pub, which has been closed since 2009, is finally being flattened to make way for the £60 million revamp of Hadleigh town centre.

>> IN PICTURES: Demolition under way at 250-year-old pub ahead of £60m town revamp

There has been a tavern at the Crown site in some form since 1769, when the first known licensees, John and Elizabeth Penny took over. Back then it only sold beer. It didn’t get a spirit licence until 1780.

Now the land is destined to become home to blocks of flats.

Echo:

Coming down - The Crown

But although the pub is being physically eradicated, its history will live on, especially though members of the Hadleigh and Thundersley Community Archive.

Some years ago the archive was entrusted with a collection of memorabilia relating to the Crown, when Joyce Bardell, the former landlady of the pub died.

Joyce ran the pub with her husband Jack for 40 years until she retired in 1985. She was the latest generation of her family to run the tavern.

Her grandfather James Francis was the first- he took over the pub in 1872 .

Back then it was a coaching inn and the Francis family had to rise at 5am each day to change the horses and prepare breakfast for the cart drivers who stopped off on their journey from Southend to London.

If you wanted a room at the inn during this era you’d have been welcomed with a thin mattress filled with clean straw to rest your head upon.

Records show that James Francis ran a very popular pub and hotel where not only did people go to drink, but where community events, auctions, and even inquests were held.

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Francis bought the land behind the pub and staged open air boxing matches and football games. It was also a place for circuses and fairs to pitch up.

As you’d expect from the Victorian era, things could get rowdy amongst drinkers. In April 1880 three men punters were fined 10 shilling each for damaging a window in the pub, presumably through brawling.

One of the men paid the fine but the other two preferred to do 21 days hard labour in prison rather to to cough up the cash.

Back in the nineteenth century rules surrounding hostelries were strict. In February 1885 James Francis was summoned to court for allowing booze to be sold just 20 minutes after closing time- at 10.20pm.

He was ordered to pay five shillings for breaking the rules, as well as court costs.

James Francis went onto become one of the oldest publican in Essex. He was still serving pints shortly before his death in 1935 at the age of 93.

Just like other pubs across the land, inquests into local deaths were once held at the Crown.

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Often these were tragic cases which affected the entire community and were normally presided over by the coroner for Essex, Charles Edgar Lewis.

In September of 1888 an inquest was held at the Crown into the mysterious death of Marina Cook, a local widow, aged 52 who was found dead in her bedroom with a hand-print on he face as well as several broken bones.

The same year saw the sad inquest of a little girl named Emily Snow, from Hadleigh, taking place at the pub. She had accidentally been shot dead by her brother while he was preparing to shoot at some birds.

The Crown is just the latest in a line of old pubs closing their doors. The 180-year-old Barge Inn in Vange was auctioned off last year, while Southend’s Esplanade pub is to be demolished.

Visit www.hadleighhistory.org.uk.