The Crown & Thistle

History

Opened Early 19th century

Built

Early 19th century

Acquired

1 October 1916, and closed immediately

Listed

Grade II, 1984

In 1918 Rockcliffe had no pub at all. The Board's report for that year says both of the village's inns, this one and the Ship, had been shut, and the Board leased the village institute instead and ran it as a club selling beer and other refreshments but no wine or spirits: the Mounsey Arms. The Crown & Thistle came back, and it is now a dining pub people drive a long way for.

Not to be confused with the Crown & Thistle at Stanwix. Same name, same Border symbolism of the English crown and the Scottish thistle, but two different villages and two entirely different histories. This one is four miles from Scotland, which makes the name even more apt.

One record has the scheme acquiring it on 1 October 1916 and closing it the same day: not restricted, not improved, shut on the day it was taken. If so, it is the sharpest illustration on this site of what the state mostly did, closing nearly half the pubs in Carlisle; set it beside the St Nicholas Arms, a pub the scheme deliberately created, and you have both sides of the coin. Historic England's gazetteer tells it differently, with the house acquired and converted in October 1916, not shut, and held at first by the Board's Scottish Control Office. The 1918 report's two shut inns fit the first account.

When it reopened is hazy, and so is the building's age. Mike Tuer's records have the scheme putting up the present building in 1936 to replace the older Crown & Thistle it had closed; the gazetteer dates the building to the early nineteenth century. The scheme was proud enough of it to send its inn sign to the Building Centre's inn signs exhibition in 1936, which fits a pub newly reopened that year. The 1972 tender document described the property as recently modernised and extended, the 1973 Ordnance Survey map shows it as a public house, and it was listed Grade II on 16 January 1984, list entry 1335571.

Rockcliffe had had more pubs. The Blooming Heather stood near the church and closed around 1907, as did the Three Crowns, a beerhouse across the road from it.

The Crown & Thistle closed in January 2018 and reopened in May 2019, and is now a well-liked village dining pub: log fires, local ales, home-made food, dog and family friendly. It takes annual-leave closures, so check before travelling.