Although the earliest history of the pub is sketchy, it is certain that there has been a building on this site since the beginning of the nineteenth century, and probably earlier. Older people in the village remember the pub being owned by Mr & Mrs Bown in the late 1800’s. 
Over the years there have been flourishing darts and cribbage teams, and various societies and clubs have used us as their meeting place.  There was a time when the Hursley Hunt used to begin their Boxing Day meet at the Dog & Crook.  On a more sinister note, it is said that the Dog & Crook was a centre of “black marketeering” towards the end of the war!
Up until the late fifties the pub had a beautiful thatched roof.  Disaster struck, however, on 21st April 1955.  Mrs Wilson, who occupied the cottage next door, was weeding her property with a blow lamp. Things got out of control, and she set light to a newly creosoted fence.
This would have been bad enough but, unfortunately for Mrs Wilson, flames jumped onto the pub’s garage roof and duly set that alight as well.  Reports from the time say that the petrol tank of the car in the garage then exploded,  shooting flames up onto the thatch and causing the vast fire which entirely destroyed the roof of the pub.  The damage was so extensive that the pub had to be rebuilt from scratch.
The law of the land in those days stated that if a pub failed to serve beer for more than one night it could lose its licence. So, after the fire was out, a marquee was set up in the garden.  Beer and glasses were borrowed from the other surrounding pubs, and The Dog and Crook stayed in business!
Some of our oldest regulars have called us their “local” for fifty years or more, and we are proud that The Dog and Crook has been, and continues to be, such a large part of Braishfield village life and history.