Blyth History.

[TriciaK]

I think there's a list of old Blyth pubs on this thread, or elsewhere on here . I remember finding the Pineapple, which my friend's Dad ran.
Otherwise no idea, sorry. My Dad absolutely banned us girls from pubs. Maybe they were very rough in those days.
I do remember the word "gord" - a kind of hoop which you booled along with a small stick. But never had one myself.

[pityackafromblyth]

TriciaK, I do not think that the Half Moon Inn will be in the list of Blyth pubs here in Roots.  I have never heard the name before, and I suspect it may not have lasted into the 20th Century.
Thanks for confirming the word 'gord'.  As I mentioned it came back to me as I was reading Sid Chaplin.  I did have one made at the pit where Dad worked, as was a wooden sledge with metal runners.  We used the sledge on the pit heaps at New Delaval, when there was snow, of course.

[Phodgetts]

I had a look at the old maps too, and came to the conclusion that the Half Moon Inn would have been a dwelling within the complex of buildings that was Link House Farm. Back in the day people did retail beer from small premises. My own family in Birmingham made their own beer and sold it from home, and in time they called the room in their house Park Cottage Tavern. It was their house, not a purpose built pub or inn. It seems that the Half Moon Inn didn't last much beyond 1865, therefore well out of the bounds of living memory. Doesn't sound as if anything memorable happened there such a murder or some such to give the place notoriety and hence local legends starting about the place, so it is one of those things  that has melted into history and been forgotten except for the mark of it on an old map. Perhaps it was one of the buildings in this old painting dating to 1896.

[pityackafromblyth]

A fascinating painting of Links House.  I have been looking at "Blyth versus Cowpen" in Roots, where the list of pubs is. Link [sic] House is in the list followed by "Half Moon ?" so it looks as though there is a connection between the two names.
Elsewhere I have read that where a private house was adapted/acquired a liquor licence, that is where the term 'public house' sprang from.  Similar to what you mention re your relatives.

[pityackafromblyth]

Having just Googled Half Moon Inn, Blyth, I was forwarded to 'Keys to the Past' and there is reference to the Half Moon Inn.  It was shown on the 1st edition of the Ordnance survey map, 1865, but Keys to the Past stated that it had been demolished by the time of the 2nd edition of the map in the 1890s.

[Phodgetts]

Great research and info pyfb

P

[TriciaK]

Yes, good detective work, pyfb.
And we sledged down the pitheaps at New Delaval - I think it was the very severe winter of 1947. Otherwise we hardly ever had snow at Blyth.
So where would Link House Farm have been in modern-day Blyth? Along the river towards Cowpen?  I  don't recognise the buildings in that painting at all.

[pityackafromblyth]

The winter of 1947 - remember going to New Delaval infants through the snow.  A path had been dug through the deep snow and along to the school.  What height I was then I do not know, but the snow was certainly higher than me.
Link House.  I have always referred to it as 'Links' House, and I have been in the wrong. Link is the correct name.  TriciaK, Link House still stands where it has been all these years. !!!   Also found this morning that a planning application had been made for the site in 2009, I think, for a pub and other buildings.  Nothing came of it.  I believe the land and house have something to do with the Blagdon estate, and also the Ridley family.  (Lord Ridley, etc.)

[Phodgetts]

This picture (from a different project) shows the modern day extent of the buildings at Link House in comparison to what was there in 1920, the lower map section dating to 1920.

Hopefully the coloured boxes are understandable without explanation. The Link House was just to the right of the red boxes on both images.

The Link House itself was on the same as site as the Coastline Fish & Chip restaurant.

P