Continuing at Allendale now - a village with the gravitas of any northern town with its lofty stone rows and central square.

We start at the Golden Lion, now named The Lion House. This is a building dating from the 1830s, though the name dates earlier. There was a Golden Lion at this site from at least the 1790s as we can find creditors meetings with attorneys here when a local was going through bankruptcy. The Golden Lion at this stage was likely very similar to the Kings Head next door which we'll discuss soon.

I imagine the Golden Lion was enlarged to serve as a resting stop and hotel for travellers along the Allendale Turnpike, which ran from Allenheads to Langley throgh Catton. It formed a wider route from Weardale to Hexham. In fact, this pub played host to the trustees of the turnpike to set prices, policies and surveys of the route.

That brings us to 1839, when the Golden Lion was put up for let having "been rebuilt upon a splendid scale". It featured a convenient coach house and stabling, a water closet and "other conveniences for the reception of commercial gentlemen". We can imagine it played hosts to visitors of the smelting mill for example. There was also a brewery attached which was capable of brewing 17 barrels in the back. There's no wonder it became the dominant establishment in the village.

It hosted everything through the 19th century - courts, auctions, Odd Fellows meetings until the 1880s when the pub closed for over a decade to operate a seperate business from here. Upon its license renewal in 1897, its scale and grandeur granted its renewal to support a hotel in the future.

Such is the case to this day providing rooms ever since. It was modernised in the 1930s and still operates as a boutique hotel today.