Organiser of Crooked House gathering explains aim for new meeting at demolished pub

Keeping the name of the Crooked House alive is at the heart of a second gathering to be held at the remains of the famous pub.

The remains of the Crooked House pub, Himley, after is was completely demolished

Jake Slater from Wolverhampton said the plan for the event on Friday evening, starting at 5.45pm, was to keep people talking about the pub and make sure that it isn't forgotten about.

Mr Slater said he had been down to the pub every day since it had been demolished and was aiming to produce banners. He has also invited members of classic car groups down to the site of the former pub, which was gutted by fire on Saturday and demolished on Monday, prompting an arson investigation.

He said: "I was down at the pub for around seven hours on Wednesday and been at some point every day this week and, for tomorrow night, I want to get banners made up to put on the public access footpaths as I don't think we'd be allowed to do so on the land itself.

"I'm hoping we'll get as many people as we did on Tuesday and I've been contacting a few local classic car clubs.

"All we want to do is continue to draw more attention to it and it has a lot of resonance for me, being a pub my family has drunk in since the 1880s and it was the first pub I had a beer in."

Jake Slater said he wanted the pub to stay in the public eye through events such as the gathering

Mr Slater said the international reaction had been very moving and said it had also been useful for getting the fire and demolition investigated properly.

He said: "It's not just a pub and it stood for a lot more than that, as it's not just a crooked building and symbolised mining and Dudley.

"It was also the only building from that time which stayed standing, after many others like it had been demolished, and survived World War 2, so it isn't surprising that it's had such a public outcry.

"I also think that, these days, people don't seem to care as much about history as they ought to and there's plenty of other buildings that have been destroyed, but this one has been felt by a lot of people because of its history.

"To be honest, I think the media attention has been getting the police pressured to do more about it as, normally, it might be brushed aside or be a minor investigation, but the public reaction has meant the police have had no choice but to do something."

The event starts at 5.45pm on the site of the Crooked House.

To find out more, go to facebook.com/events/145051838636095