
Cramlington
The Blagdon Arms, Cramlington
Last Updated:
3 Feb 2025
Cramlington
This is a
Pub
55.086589, -1.584225
Founded in
Current status is
Extant
Designer (if known):
Listed Grade II
The Blagdon Arms is set in a beautiful set of buildings well over 200 years old, and as noted yesterday was previously known as the Blue Bell.
I’ve noticed a bit of a trend either Blue Bell’s near quarries & collieries. There were two iterations of this name in Byker where Lawson (ironic given they were the landowners round here too!) operated a few quarries, and there are others in Shiremoor, Jesmond and Usworth where pits all stood nearby. West Cramlington had one too. Perhaps the blue bell was indicative of the end of a shift?
Either way, this inn was operational by the 1820s and owned by… wait for it… Mark Lawson. At this time it appears the Blue Bell was the only operational inn in the village as it had a very small population in the three figures. It was only when the deep pits came to fruition that the village saw its boundaries expand.
This name continue well through the 19th century. It became home to various societies - the Cramlington Amateur Bicycle Club in the 1870s. It also had a running track adjoining in the 1890s with the pub used as the de facto clubhouse.
It was in the 1880s when this place changed its name. I’m also fairly sure it was in this decade it expanded too, as it became known as a hotel with the top floors fitted out. There is a sneaking suspicion the original row was the same as that to the right, but it was vertically redeveloped. The investment clearly worked as even the Cramlington Coal Co used the venue to host dinners and meetings.
It had remained a public house ever since, and as such is the most historic in the village. The adjoining building used to be a bank before it was incorporated in the latter half of the 20th century.
Listing Description (if available)


The 2 maps shown here depict Cramlington in 1840 and 1864. The first, a tithe award, has little detail but is certainly worth discussing. It really gives us an idea just how rural this area was before the deep pits took a hold. There were at most a dozen buildings in the village, with the Blagdon (or as it was then the Blue Bell) being the only inn. It is shown under the number 1, which tells us it was on the land of Sir Matthew White Ridley - hence the later name of Blagdon. He will have leased this building alongside farms, quarries and collieries to fund his estate and fortune.
The 1864 Ordnance Survey provides further clarity. The Blue Bell Inn is illustrated next to one of two ponds in the village - perhaps once the villages water source with the others being disused quarries. The village had grown moderately in the 2 decades following up, certainly in part because of the growing industry around it. Paradise Row was one such street to directly accommodate those who worked at the pit and brickworks south east. We also get further details of the farms, each with their own gin gang attached (shown as the circular buildings). The Plough have converted theirs.

The 1890s view is very similar, bar the addition of the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, the Mechanics Institute and clusters of terraced housing filling in every nook of the village. It is worth noting by this stage St Nicholas' Church as we know it had been realised too. The settlement spread west along station road, again to accommodate pitmen and railwaymen too. This featured a lodge alongside a Primitive chapel to supplement the Wesleyan iteration in the village.
The Blagdon Arms in December 2024
The Blagdon Hotel and Wesleyan Church, undated but likely early 20th century.
The Blaydon on the left of this aerial photograph from 1926.
© Historic England. Aerofilms Collection EPW016423 flown 29 July 1926