The history of The Clickham Inn/Station Hotel, Blencowe, Nr Penrith

[AlanBoyd]

death of John Robinson

registration: John Robinson, died Q1 1876 Penrith, birth year 1803 age 73

Cumberland & Westmorland Herald - Saturday 26 February 1876

ROBINSON—At the Station Hotel, Newbiggin, Dacre, on the 21st inst., Mr. John Robinson, aged 73 years.

[hanes teulu]

Magic - the "Guide Post" spot!

1851 Census
John Robinson, Head, Marr, 46, Ag lab and Beerhouse Keeper, born Warcop

Address "Guide Post House" 

[Keith Sherwood]

Thanks so much Alan and Hanes Teulu for continuing your dialogue and unearthing further fascinating details about the Clickham Inn.  I shall be passing on all this to the present landlord, who as I've mentioned previously on this thread wanted to know more about his pub in its quite isolated spot, with its signpost outside pointing in various directions...
Keith

[AlanBoyd]

Hi Keith – I'm not finished yet: here is another theory on the origin of the name Clickem inn from the Penrith Observer - Tuesday 17 August 1954

CLICK EM
COMMENTING on Frank Haley's recent articles on Blencowe, Mr John S. Wilkin sends me some interesting notes on Clickem. a name which has puzzled many inquirers.

He writes: "The name is derived from The Clickem Brow approach to the inn, and to the fact that horses, when heavily laden, click their shoes when pulling uphill or pushed downhill, and the local vocabulary would say they 'click 'em.' and call the horses 'clickers.' "There used to be a signboard over the old inn picturing a couple of horses drinking from a trough, and beneath the picture the caption read:–

'If after climbing Clickem Hill,
You feel inclined to take a gill
And slake your horses, take the tin
And oatmeal from the stable bin.'

The new name of the inn— Station Inn—came on completion of the old C.K. and P. Railway, but the old familiar name of 't'Clickem' persisted, and the new name scarcely ever used."

[AlanBoyd]

And here is my last sighting of Hannah Lancaster. This confirms what I had suspected from looking at her in census returns – Doris was her illegitimate daughter (her birth registration has mmn Lancaster). Hannah would have been ~ 78 at this time.

Penrith Observer - Tuesday 12 October 1954

On your doorstep – Frank Haley
Even from the train you do not see much of the Cumbrian village of Newbiggin: Blencowe Lime Works, Tymparon Hall, and glimpses of a few houses—and that is all.

From the Penrith-Keswick highway there is even less to hint at the people and homes that have been next to Flusco Pike for "long enough since."

Anyone using the main road frequently will not have failed to notice one section of traffic constantly coming or going along the branch road to Newbiggin— the limeworks lorries.

They turn just opposite a well-known landmark, The Station Hotel, or Clickem as it is usually called.

Clickem
I left the bus at Clickem. mindful of Mr Wilkin's recent explanation of the name, and went inside for a while. The hotel belongs to Newbiggin though well divorced from the village proper.

Some new houses stand on the other side of the cross roads and one or two more down towards the railway station. Bunkers Hill is about half a mile in the Greystoke direction, Pallet Hill on the rise towards Penrith, a similar distance away.

Mrs Hannah Lancaster is licensee of the Station Hotel, a quick-moving little woman who attended to my requirements. I believe Mrs Lancaster has been hostess there for a long time, her daughter, Doris, assisting her now.

[Keith Sherwood]

That's simply splendid, Alan!  Family history/genealogy is never ever truly finished, is it?
All those extra detailed brushstrokes of the past, adding to our canvas.  The isolated site of the pub is really quite evocative to this day...I wonder whether there was ever a gibbet standing there.  Now, I am getting rather carried away in my imagination....
Keith

[HuxterNZ]

I can confirm some facts in this thread ..

Doris Lancaster (1898-1970) was Hannah Lancaster's (1876-1975) only child & together they ran The Station Hotel/Clickem/Clickham Inn for many, many years and did so well into their old age. It was their names above the door

Hannah was the only child of John Lancaster (1852-1924) & Bridget Ellison (1843-1923) of the Fish Hotel in Penrith, and when John died Hannah used her inheritance to purchase the Station Hotel/Clickem/Clickham Inn.

Doris is my Grandmother & Hannah is my Great Grandmother.
Doris had 2 daughters who are both living at 95 & 90 years old .. my Mum (90yo) has many many tales (& photos) of her early life at Clickem, before emigrating Down Under in 1966

[Keith Sherwood]

Hi HuxterNZ, and welcome to Rootschat!
How very exciting! I didn't manage to pop into the Clickham Inn last year when staying once more in nearby Sowerby Row.  But I certainly shall when we return there in early May for a week.  And to tell the present landlord that the younger woman in that b/w photo they have displayed in the pub has living descendants still.
A wonderful story, this...
Keith

[Keith Sherwood]

I see that The Fish Hotel in Penrith that the father - and grandfather - John Lancaster ran was demolished in 1972 and made way for the present day Poet's Walk.
And also that it appears now that Hannah Lancaster lived to the ripe old age of 98 or 99.  I wonder what she made of the place where she and/or her daughter presumably grew up, disappearing like that.  Though Doris had predeceased her in 1970 and wouldn't have experienced this.
Just spent a very enjoyable time at the May Day Parade in Penrith, with also a drive past of vintage tractors and cars.  A lovely old market town looking at its best last Monday...