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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Durham => Topic started by: johnny1588 on Monday 27 October 14 13:01 GMT (UK)

Title: Pubs in Dipton, Co Durham
Post by: johnny1588 on Monday 27 October 14 13:01 GMT (UK)
My birth certificate states that I was born at 3 Fox Flatlets, Dipton, Co Durham in 1964. My mum told me that these flatlets were above a pub. My question is, was there a pub in the village called The Fox and Hounds or something similar? I've looked on old maps but have been unable to locate an establishment with Fox in it's name.
Title: Re: Pubs in Dipton, Co Durham
Post by: davidft on Monday 27 October 14 13:33 GMT (UK)
There is not anything on the lost pubs website

There is a mention of Fox flatlets on the worksconsett archive site from January 2014 but I suspect that may be from an earlier enquiry from you.

If no one comes along withy more local knowledge it may be worth doing a look up in the electoral registers for 1964 as someone is almost certainly registered there and it should give a fuller address
Title: Re: Pubs in Dipton, Co Durham
Post by: stanmapstone on Monday 27 October 14 13:55 GMT (UK)
Would Fox Flatlets be the houses on the east side of the main road, on the 1961-63 map, south of Maple Street? On the modern map the area is called Fox Flats. http://www.old-maps.co.uk/maps.html?coords=411527,555270

Stan
Title: Re: Pubs in Dipton, Co Durham
Post by: davidft on Monday 27 October 14 13:58 GMT (UK)
5 Fox Flatlets comes up as an address in a record at Durham Records Office

http://www.rootschat.com/links/01e2q/ 

Ref: D/DLI 13/5/13  (Maybe somnething to do with the Middle East Forces Veterans' Association_
Title: Re: Pubs in Dipton, Co Durham
Post by: stanmapstone on Monday 27 October 14 14:11 GMT (UK)
Fox Flatlets are not mentioned in the 1911 census.

Stan
Title: Re: Pubs in Dipton, Co Durham
Post by: johnny1588 on Monday 27 October 14 16:29 GMT (UK)
Would Fox Flatlets be the houses on the east side of the main road, on the 1961-63 map, south of Maple Street? On the modern map the area is called Fox Flats. http://www.old-maps.co.uk/maps.html?coords=411527,555270

Stan

 There were some Fox Flats that were part of the now demolished Allendale Cottages. These cottages are quite a way from Dipton and are nearer to Medomsley. My mother told me I was born in Dipton as stated on my Birth certificate. Tis a bit of a puzzle.

Thanks for the replys btw.
Title: Re: Pubs in Dipton, Co Durham
Post by: stanmapstone on Monday 27 October 14 16:57 GMT (UK)
You can see  The Fox, Front Street, Dipton, on the 1961 map at http://www.old-maps.co.uk/maps.html?coords=415907,554220 it has been demolished and new houses built on the site. Google aerial view https://goo.gl/maps/DxuCO and street view http://is.gd/uGglHP

Stan
Title: Re: Pubs in Dipton, Co Durham
Post by: barryd on Monday 27 October 14 17:37 GMT (UK)
It may have been a Consett company who owned them as the link below suggests but it may just be the registered office and not the owner's office:

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/44142/page/11187

William Minkem seems to be the owner. They seem to have gone bankrupt (or just wanted to wind the company up) 1966.

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/44142/page/11185
Title: Re: Pubs in Dipton, Co Durham
Post by: stanmapstone on Monday 27 October 14 21:21 GMT (UK)
So "Fox Flatlets" was the name of the property company, and may not have anything to do with the Fox Inn.

Stan
Title: Re: Pubs in Dipton, Co Durham
Post by: Elliven on Thursday 23 February 17 21:21 GMT (UK)
If anyone is still interested in this item:  The Fox public house in Dipton, County Durham was a very old public house dating back to at least 1828 and was formerly known as The Fox and Lamb.  The pub closed down a very long time ago and the whole building was converted into Fox Flats.  It was demolished in the late 1990s/early 2000s.  It stood just off bone Lane and the main road through Dipton, almost adjacent to the old Gas Works.  The site has not been fully redeveloped.
Title: Re: Pubs in Dipton, Co Durham
Post by: johnny1588 on Monday 27 February 17 18:11 GMT (UK)
Thanks for this information Elliven. I'd given up hope that The Fox ever existed! I've now located it on a 19th century ordinance map, so at least I know where it stood in geographical terms. I will now look for an old photo of the building. Many thanks again for your post.
Title: Re: Pubs in Dipton, Co Durham
Post by: Elliven on Monday 27 February 17 19:36 GMT (UK)
I can't persuade it to insert itself here but if you let me have your email address, I'll send it to you direct.
Title: Re: Pubs in Dipton, Co Durham
Post by: Elliven on Monday 27 February 17 20:01 GMT (UK)
The "It" I was referring to is a fairly good photo of the Fox taken around the start of the 20th Century
Title: Re: Pubs in Dipton, Co Durham
Post by: adiptonlad on Monday 01 April 19 17:17 BST (UK)
Hi,

The 'fox' pub in dipton, I know a bit about it.

The pub, at least until 1958, was a vaux breweries
'house, - I don't remember when it closed, ditto the' just-up-the-road'  (also owned by vaux)!? 'black bull' & 'the red ox'.
The 'fox' was a well-built red-brick building loacated in the dip of the main gateshead road.
After closure it remained unsold for some considerable time until purchased by millhouse builders (long gone) of consett.
W & b millhouse completely altered the building & I think built additions thereto?
Back then, being a joiner by trade, I worked for vaux (long gone) & w & b millhouse.
I worked at 'the fox' several times & well remember how clean & tidy it was, it also had two snooker tables on the 1st floor.
One thing I remember well was the wall-seating in the bar - being holed 'heat-moulded' plywood 'seat & back' this to make for easier cleaning after being sat-on by shift-finished miners.
The 'pub as altered, become kwown as' the fox flatlets' sadly long since demolished with the site being redeveloped.

Edited.
Title: Re: Pubs in Dipton, Co Durham
Post by: sarah on Monday 01 April 19 17:40 BST (UK)
Hello adiptonlad, welcome to RootsChat.

Please will you type any further replies in lowercase, when you type all in capitals it is considered to be that you are "shouting" at folk  ;)

Regards

Sarah
Title: Re: Pubs in Dipton, Co Durham
Post by: Elliven on Tuesday 02 April 19 20:52 BST (UK)
adiptonlad

Thank you for that information.  You surprise me when you say how clean and tidy it was - I always had the impression that it must have been a dirty scruffy place!  But that is a prejudiced view since I only moved into the village in the mid-1980s when the flats didn't seem like the sort of place anyone would like to live and the building was pretty run down.

It is also one of the hardest pubs to get any sort of information on so if you remember anything else, please let me know.
Title: Re: Pubs in Dipton, Co Durham
Post by: adiptonlad on Tuesday 02 April 19 21:34 BST (UK)
Hi,

Thank u for showing an interest.  When I mentioned 'clean & tidy' I meant the old 'The Fox pub, not the follow-on' Fox Flatlets'.  Your comments re. 'shabby & run down' are valid,
W & B Millhouse (the owners & lessors of the Flatlets) were o.k. to work for (they gave me no hassle!) but were known in the trade as 'a hard outfit to work for'.
I lived in the village back then (happy days!) but the Flatlets 'made-the-papers' on more than one occasion - evictions, fires, drugs, police raids etc.  Millhouse Builders would be intolerant indeed regarding such as rent arrears, 'pay-up or out you go'!
Have you any info regarding another 'back then' Vaux pub that was located just up the road from 'The Fox' called either 'The Ox' or perhaps 'The Red Ox' gone decades ago.
I went through Dipton today 2nd April to have a look around but everythings changed beyond recognition.

Regards - ADL
Title: Re: Pubs in Dipton, Co Durham
Post by: Elliven on Wednesday 03 April 19 01:21 BST (UK)
The Red Ox pub is long gone - but the building is still there.  By 1969 or 1970 it had been converted into a pair of houses which are now known as Red Ox House and Black Rigg.  The original stone work of the door has been removed and replaced by two new doorways and you would never tell it had been a pub.  A friend of mine moved into Red Ox house at that time and he told me that he had had to get rid of many old stone bottles from the cellar.  There is/was also an old handball court at the back but I have no doubt that has long gone.
Title: Re: Pubs in Dipton, Co Durham
Post by: adiptonlad on Wednesday 03 April 19 15:07 BST (UK)
Thank u for the 'Red Ox' info. I've been trying to sort-it -out for months - I worked at the pub once or twice but I was beginning to wonder if the pub had ever existed?
But, I was in Dipton Tuesday a.m. 'looking at things' & was parked immediately opposite what had been the 'Red Ox' not releasing what I was looking at.
Thanks once again.
Title: Re: Pubs in Dipton, Co Durham
Post by: barryd on Wednesday 03 April 19 16:04 BST (UK)
The Pubs have gone. The Church is gone. What's next?

Not cheap to convert a church into a private house!
Title: Re: Pubs in Dipton, Co Durham
Post by: Elliven on Wednesday 03 April 19 19:52 BST (UK)
barryd

Not cheap but it will be a fabulous house when it is finished.  Unfortunately, surrounded by all those graves, I would be nervous about living there!

adiptonlad

Apart from the club, there were 17 different pubs in Dipton.  Not all of them in our lifetimes but I have some detail on all of them so if you ever want more information - just ask
Title: Re: Pubs in Dipton, Co Durham
Post by: adiptonlad on Wednesday 03 April 19 21:36 BST (UK)
Hi,

Surely y'all are  not telling me that St. John's Church
has gone the distance - you've got to be wrong?
Title: Re: Pubs in Dipton, Co Durham
Post by: barryd on Wednesday 03 April 19 22:31 BST (UK)
No. Falling attendance and lead thieves caused it demise. I was at the Durham Records Office with my late wife copying baptisms into our notebooks. One of us St. Thomas, Collierley and the other Dipton just as Dipton was built and opened. The baptisms are duplicated for the first few weeks in both parishes. I wonder if anyone has noticed this.
Title: Re: Pubs in Dipton, Co Durham
Post by: Elliven on Wednesday 03 April 19 22:37 BST (UK)
adiptonlad

The church is still there but it is being converted to a house.  It will be a fabulous house but no garden as it is surrounded by graves.