The Red Lyon in Church End is not the same as the Red Lion in Witts End!
The 1765 Map and field book shows a Red Lyon in the building now called Church End House, opposite the school. Click for a bigger picture.
The Field Book labels plot G5 “House, sign of the Red Lyon, yard, garden”.
Could this be a confusion with the Red Lion in Witts End? No, the building that used to be the Red Lion in Witts End is labelled “L5” on the 1765 map. Is this just some mistake in the hand-copying of the Field Book?
In the handwritten Fowler transcription of the Field Book, G2 was called “Vicarage House”, actually in the churchyard and now demolished. Its owner was listed as the Rector and the tenant was John Key, and there is an additional annotation against his name but it is unfortunately illegible. G3 and G4 were cottages. G5 was the Red Lyon. G6 is listed as “Garden opposite the Red Lyon” and even today there is a detached bit of garden sitting across the alleyway from Church End House, so this definitely looks like a good description, it’s not a mistranscription. L5 in the Field book is just described as a house, without a name, and doesn’t look like a pub at all. The Red Lyon in 1765 was the building now know as Church End House, not the Red Lion in Witts End at all!
That’s the only mention of the Red Lyon in Church End that I [EJW] have found anywhere. The 1765 map does seem to very well made, so it looks quite likely. The 1806 enclosure map and field book just lists the property as “Cottage and garden at Church End”, owned by either John Smith or Thomas Marshall (it’s not clear which) so it’s possible it had ceased to be a pub by then. There are no mentions in the papers covered by the British Newspaper Archive in 2016. There is no mention of the Red Lion or Led Lyon in the National Archives prior to the mid-1800s, and all those refer to the more recent Red Lion in Witts End.
The Red Lyon seems to have closed about half a century before the Red Lion opened, so there may be no connection between them at all.