Pubs in Dipton, Co Durham

[Elliven]

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.

[johnny1588]

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.

[Elliven]

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.

[Elliven]

The "It" I was referring to is a fairly good photo of the Fox taken around the start of the 20th Century

[adiptonlad]

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.

[sarah]

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

[Elliven]

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.

[adiptonlad]

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

[Elliven]

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.