“DID you know that there was a pub called the Three Tuns opposite the old Woolworths shop on Northgate in Darlington?” asks John Simpson, picking up the gauntlet of lost pubs.
The Three Tuns was a good looking building which is now beneath the entrance to the Queen Street shopping centre, and it was one of the town’s oldest pubs.
In the 18th Century, it had Darlington’s premier cock-fighting pit, and on May 12, 1773, a cockfight was held there “for the benefit of Oswald Robinson”. Cockfighting was banned in 1840, and in 1845, the Tuns was rebuilt so that it had a fancy iron balustrade on its first floor.
Three Tuns landlady Helena Monaghan at the bar, with her dogs, in 1952
Its nickname was “the Mallet” because in the early years of the 20th Century, landlord Charlie Turner kept a large wooden hammer behind the bar with which he restored good order when necessary.
A magnificent charabanc outing, courtesy of Dave Atkinson of Haughton, leaving from outside the Three Tuns in Northgate, perhaps just before the First World War. What a truly splendid vehicle, registration 2396. The pipes at the rear are its folding hood that could be pulled up to keep the rain off
The Tuns closed in the early 1960s and was demolished soon after for the shopping centre.
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