Owners of Britain’s wonkiest pub have links to previous fire incident

The pub burnt down less than fortnight after being sold to a private buyer

Last month, it was announced that The Crooked House near Dudley had been sold to private buyers, husband and wife Adam and Carly Taylor.

The previous owners, Marston's, said the pub had been sold for "alternative use" and was unlikely to "open its doors again."

On Saturday, August 5, the much-loved building was gutted by fire, less than two weeks after being sold by Marston's.

Just two days later, the building was bulldozed, with the local council saying it had not authorised the demolition.

Staffordshire Police later confirmed the blaze was being treated as arson.

It has now emerged that the pub's new owners have links to a previous incident of a fire on land they owned.

According to the BBC, a blaze broke out in August 2018 at the Finmere landfill site in Buckinghamshire, which was owned by the Taylors.

Four hundred tonnes of waste caught fire that day, with firefighters from Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire working through the night to extinguish the flames.

The Finmere site is owned by AT Contracting and Plant Hire Ltd, which Adam Taylor is director of.

The cause of the blaze in 2018 was never established.

Carly Taylor controls ATE Farms Limited, which bought The Crooked House in July.

When fire services tried to respond to the fire at the Black Country landmark, they were hampered by mounds of soil in the road leading to the pub.

The BBC also understands that AT Contracting and Plant Hire Ltd rented a digger just a week before the fire at the pub.

The Crooked House was built in 1765 and got its famous lean after a mining in the area caused the building to sink on one side.

A petition to rebuild it has amassed more than 18,500 signatures, and a number of MPs have called for a full inquiry into the fire.

Meanwhile, Andy Street, the mayor of the West Midlands, has called for it to be rebuilt "brick by brick".

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