Built in 1664, this inn was also used as a magistrates’ court where Judge Jeffreys presided. On one occasion, he lived up to his nickname of the Hanging Judge and had 14 men hanged in the courtyard. One of those executed was an innocent man and the people of Faringdon went in pursuit of the hangman who took refuge at this inn. The angry mob threatened to burn him out after the soldiers guarding him had left and he leapt to his death. The hangman haunts the pub still and manifests wearing a leather jerkin while holding part of a rope in his left hand. Another ghost in residence is Nancy, who had given birth to a child fathered by an innocent man who was hanged. She threw herself and the baby from the roof in her extreme grief. The Old Crown is also home to the ghosts of two women who, reporters have heard, cry out and try to comfort each other.