Parwich still possess one open pub, the Sycamore Inn, but it previously had another couple. Both were situated on Smithy Lane, both were operating at the end of the 18th century and both are Grade II listed buildings.
As I pedal - or in reality freewheel - down into the village, the first that I come to is the former Crown Inn. Having ceased to be an inn it was called initially Crown House but is now known as Crown Cottage. Perhaps this says something about our 21st century expectations regarding accommodation. What once was large enough to be an inn is now no longer considered to be of sufficient size to be a house and only warrants cottage status.
The original home of the Parwich Oddfellows, the Crown Inn had one William Allsop, a shoemaker, at the helm according to the 1901 census but a decade later he'd moved, with Crown House being occupied by John Prince, a roadman. There's no listing in the 1912 Kelly's Directory either, so it appears that in all likelihood the inn closed in the first few years of the 20th century and became a private dwelling.
A hundred yards or so further down into the village was the Wheatsheaf Inn. Its lifespan seems to mirror that of the Crown. In existence at the end of the 1700s its final listing in the census was in 1901 with George Twigg in residence. There's no mention of it ten years later and George is in Darely Abbey having been deaf and dumb for six years, if the census is to believed. There is some evidence that he was still a publican, somewhere, in 1904 so maybe a stroke or similar forced him to give it up. There's no mention of the inn in Kelly's of 1912 and the building is now a pair of cottages.
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