[Cherie]

Not exactly criminal masterminds

he new owners of the Crooked House pub hired a digger several days before the building burnt down, with the vehicle used to demolish the building.

AT Contracting – owned by Carly Taylor, who bought the historic pub in Himley, near Dudley in the West Midlands, in July – rented the digger from a plant hire firm a week before the fire, which is being treated by police as arson.

It also emerged that the fire brigade’s attempts to put out the blaze were hampered by a large mound of earth that was blocking access to the site when they arrived on Saturday night.

Former regulars and the local MP are demanding that the building, known as the country’s wonkiest pub after it was affected by mining subsidence in the 19th century, is rebuilt brick by brick after the council said it was demolished without permission.

Dogs trained to detect accelerants have been to the site to help the police and fire brigade investigate the cause of the fire, which happened just a week after an application was made to give the Crooked House listed building status.

On Monday, a large digger owned by Lyndon Thomas plant hire, based in Northamptonshire, was filmed flattening the burnt-out building, despite instructions from the local authority to pull down only a small part of the structure, which was thought to be salvageable.

The Telegraph