Love Your Local: The Crown in Claverley.

Express & Star

Timber frames old school traditional pub with about a warm a welcome as you can get. And i keep getting told 'the food here is really good'. Its the Crown in Claverley where you may even find the Vicar behind the bar.

Transcript

00:00 "Like you're at a funeral, you will."

00:02 Interesting drink here called Hell.

00:04 "Yes, of course."

00:06 Who's drinking it? The vicar?

00:08 [Laughs]

00:10 "Yay!" How you doing sir?

00:12 "Alright." You're the vicar of just over the road?

00:14 All Saints? "Yeah, all Saints here, yeah."

00:16 So you pop in for a pint of Hell and a

00:18 [Laughs]

00:20 What's your name Adam?

00:22 "Lynne." Lynne. Hello Lynne.

00:24 So it's a cracker. If people haven't

00:26 been to this pub before, what's so special

00:28 about this pub? Go on.

00:30 "It's just very friendly, very open.

00:32 Everybody chats to you.

00:34 You can have a

00:36 good time without

00:38 well,

00:40 just relaxing."

00:42 Yeah, and the food's

00:44 pretty good, so are you as well. "Food's pretty good, yeah.

00:46 It's good home cooking.

00:48 Chips are the best. They're fantastic."

00:50 Yeah. "Cos I'm home made."

00:52 They are. "They're home made." Home cooked,

00:54 home made. "Well come on then landlord,

00:56 let's come and say hello to you. How you doing, sir?"

00:58 "Hello there, how are you? Alright?" "I'm good, yeah. What's your name, boss?"

01:00 "It's Ken. Ken Lavender." "Ken.

01:02 And your better half is in the kitchen

01:04 rustling, rustling." "Yeah, that's Mary."

01:06 "Oh, that's where the Wi-Fi code comes in."

01:08 "Yes, that's a Wi-Fi code, yes.

01:10 Because she is frightening you. I mean, no, she's not really.

01:12 [Laughs]

01:14 And the vicar did our menu and all

01:16 his infinite wisdom, he puts Ken the camel

01:18 in there. "Ken the camel."

01:20 "Cos he says I've always got the hump." "Oh,

01:22 I see." [Laughs]

01:24 "So, seven years in July." "Yeah?"

01:26 "Yep." "And where are you from

01:28 originally?" "Neverton, Dudley." "Oh, so you're

01:30 a Black Country man?" "Yeah, I'm a Black Country man."

01:32 "Cool. We're kind of on the border

01:34 here, aren't we? Black Country shop sheets.

01:36 What, do you get a bit of both then, coming in or?"

01:38 "Yeah, we get the brummies in, like, you know, like

01:40 the vicar and that, but we have to accept him like that."

01:42 "Is he a brummie?" "He's a brummie."

01:44 "Right, we'll edit him out then." [Laughs]

01:46 [Laughs]

01:48 "So, what

01:50 would you say is special about your pub?

01:52 We've just had a chat with the vicar there. What would

01:54 you say?" "It's the atmosphere

01:56 in here. It's just down to earth. It's

01:58 a proper pub, as we call it." "Yeah."

02:00 "And everybody talks to each

02:02 other. You can walk in the pub, never been in

02:04 your life. People talk to you."

02:06 "Yeah." "It really is good for that."

02:08 "A lot of these pubs,

02:10 they have these makeovers, don't they, by the

02:12 big breweries, and they look kind of,

02:14 they look very nice, but very boringly

02:16 nice, don't they? You've got lots

02:18 of interesting little knick-knacks on that here."

02:20 "I used to come in here 40 years ago,

02:22 when the steward kept it,

02:24 and this hasn't

02:26 changed since then." "Yeah, yeah."

02:28 "It's exactly the same. Apart from the fireplace,

02:30 that used to be the fireplace, but it's that

02:32 one now. That one fell apart,

02:34 so..." [Laughs]

02:36 "No, it hasn't changed.

02:38 I'm glad it hasn't." "Cool.

02:40 And any particular dish on the

02:42 menu, if someone was to come in? Obviously, we've heard

02:44 the chips are pretty special."

02:46 "Yeah." "What would you recommend?

02:48 It's what anybody

02:50 fancies, because I mean,

02:52 I like steak and

02:54 everything, but I don't have steak

02:56 every day, so you won't let me have that."

02:58 [Laughs] "Oh, thank you."

03:00 "What's the drink of favour, then?"

03:02 "In cask, HPA

03:04 is your big one round here."

03:06 "Yeah." "I do their other

03:08 one, Buttyback, and the Redhill is a

03:10 darker one. Lagers,

03:12 unfortunately, is Carlin,

03:14 but Helly's my biggest.

03:16 It's

03:18 the one that we love." "I've not seen it

03:20 before, but there's not many of them about,

03:22 is there?" "In Upton, it's quite

03:24 heavy, and in

03:26 Bridge North, there used to be one.

03:28 It's not allowed to be called AB

03:30 Cania, because

03:32 the guy that actually owns the company,

03:34 because it's a Bavarian brewery,

03:36 he originates from

03:38 Wolverhampton.

03:40 He lives in LA now,

03:42 and his wife comes from a little village you've probably

03:44 never heard of, a place called Claverley."

03:46 "Yeah?" "Yes, so he's

03:48 from here, and I've had that for six

03:50 and a half years, and

03:52 even he's not allowed to call it ABK

03:54 when he comes in, because

03:56 a pint of ABK, what the vicar drink,

03:58 doesn't sound the same as a pint of Hell."

04:00 "So it's a pint of Hell.

04:02 Fantastic." "And we also have,

04:04 I have a strict rule on dogs in the

04:06 pub. As long

04:08 as the dogs

04:10 keep their owners under control, I've got

04:12 no qualms whatsoever."

04:14 "But sometimes you've had to chuck the owners out and leave the dogs

04:16 to sit on." "The owners have to go, the dogs can stay, that's

04:18 correct." "Well there are some dogs

04:20 that are much better well-behaved these days, isn't there?"

04:22 "That's true, that's true." "Yeah, yeah."

04:24 "Still long enough?"

04:26 "No, yes darling,

04:28 no."

04:30 "Mary, you have to put up with this. I mean, isn't this

04:32 like, you know, harassment in the

04:34 workplace?" "Mary, we're quite gonna be sick."

04:36 "You want the

04:38 bookies?" "Yeah." "Yeah, I'll click."

04:40 "Yeah, I'll have a go."

04:42 "Don't push your luck."

04:44 "Come on, come on Vick, we're a bit of romance.

04:46 I thought you'd be all for that." "Oh yeah, yeah,

04:48 of course I forgot about that."

04:50 "It's that pint of Hell,

04:52 it's having its effects." "No, he

04:54 don't want us to get married, you see, because we already

04:56 have. You don't get nothing out of it."

04:58 "You don't get nothing out of it."

05:00 "You just don't get any pay for every

05:02 read-on."

05:04 "So Mary,

05:06 what's it like working with Ken?"

05:08 "Pain."

05:10 "So is it, as it were

05:12 then, so Ken, is this your domain

05:14 behind the bar, generally speaking?"

05:16 "Well, we both of us, because we do have our

05:18 between. I don't do the kitchen, she does the kitchen, I don't

05:20 do the kitchen." "Yeah, yeah. Well, I've been

05:22 hearing your chips are much loved.

05:24 Is that right?" "Very true."

05:26 "Yeah, proper home-cooked chips, aren't they?"

05:28 "Yeah." "And, um, what else,

05:30 what we were saying to Ken, like, what else

05:32 would, is kind of, you know, some of your favourite

05:34 dishes, you would say?"

05:36 "Sunday roast, because I quite well."

05:38 "Yeah, yeah." "Braised

05:40 steak." "Yeah, Ken said he likes

05:42 his steaks, yeah, yeah." "Liver and

05:44 onion." "Yeah."

05:46 "And, uh, what's special about this pub, I think

05:48 we're getting a gist of it on the video already,

05:50 it's the people, it's the atmosphere, yeah?"

05:52 "Yeah."

05:54 "Just a nice pub, everybody's friendly

05:56 in here." "Yeah, yeah." "And everybody

05:58 takes a pee out of one another's cup."

06:00 "Yeah, yeah, yeah."

06:02 "Totally, yeah, yeah."

06:04 "It's a nice little place."

06:06 "So what I'm getting from this pub, it's

06:08 warmth, it's friendliness, that's what it's all

06:10 about, and that's how pubs used to be, isn't it?"

06:12 "Yes." "And, um, I find

06:14 these, some of these modern

06:16 pubs, they're lacking a little bit of that."

06:18 "Yeah, Vicky's gone to her door."

06:20 [Laughing]

06:48 "Is that how he earns his keep here?"

06:50 [Laughing]

06:52 "So, Ken, you were saying, Vicky, he does

06:54 a bit for you, sometimes, he helps

06:56 out behind the bar and stuff, we've seen him helping out

06:58 just, and, um,

07:00 you pay him in kindness to the

07:02 church, is that how it works?" "Yes, that's it,

07:04 he doesn't get a wage himself, he

07:06 goes straight directly to the church."

07:08 "Yeah." "As a church donation." "Fantastic

07:10 stuff. So, everyone's

07:12 welcome down here at the Crown?" "Oh, yes,

07:14 definitely, we've had a shout over there."

07:16 "We're all lucky." "Yeah."

07:18 "And we're lucky, really, because, I mean,

07:20 I've been a licensee 44 years,

07:22 and we've had people following us." "So, you get

07:24 the customers even come down and help decorate

07:26 the pub, is that right, when there's special stuff going on?"

07:28 "That's right, Chris, Deb,

07:30 Sean, Wendy,

07:32 Jim and Siri, Ria." "John and

07:34 Lal." "John and Lal, they'll all come in,

07:36 they'll all decorate the pub." "Well done,

07:38 well, all the best to you guys,

07:40 get yourselves down here, people, thank you guys."

07:42 "Thank you, cheers."

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