Armstrong family in Dipton

[Elliven]

This family was quite prominent in Dipton from the late 18th Century right up to the early 20th Century.  They were bottlers of ale, stout and mineral water and  also publicans in houses that appear to cover the whole village and possibly further afield starting at The Swan, The Fox and Lamb, possibly the Red Ox and The Letters.

I am seeking more information on The Swan and The Letters but I would particularly like to know where they actually lived.  Many thanks.

[CaroleW]

Christian names & birthyears please

1911 has 3,000 male Armstrong entries in Durham

[Elliven]

CaroleW 

This is part of the great enigma!  The business was started by Thomas Armstrong but I have no idea when he was born and it is possible that his son was also Thomas.  The next in succession was Robert who also used Bob as a trade name on his bottles.  I have no idea of his age or birthdate either and most of the trackable information on any of them is found on their bottles.  The rest is all taken from licensing records which do not give much other than dates they held licences.  It seems incredible that, for over a hundred years, they played such a major role in the village life and left so  little of themselves.  One possibility is that the main family lived in Swan House which was probably the biggest building in the village.  It housed a pub (The Swan), a bottling plant and domestic housing over its 3 to 4 storeys.  The pub was gone by the 1890s.  That whole section of the village fell into dereliction and was totally demolished in the 1960s

[AlanBoyd]

I’m not seeing any newspaper references when I search for “letters dipton” or “letters inn dipton”. Was it actually in Dipton or was it somewhere in the vicinity — Collierley for example?

The word “letters” is impossible in isolation without knowing some other details.

[Elliven]

Fair comment but The Letters used to be a common name for pubs.  It referred to alpha and omega which were the first and last letters of the Greek Alphabet and was derived from the biblical quote of "I am the alpha and the omega saith the lord, the beginning and the end."  It was a play on words and was taken to mean that the pub was the first and last house in the village - depending on your direction of travel.  In Dipton, it was at the Pontop end of the village, just before High Stables and it was situated in a small stone building on the left hand side of the gate into what had been the common quarry.  It was advertised for sale with several other Dipton pubs (all as separate lots) in about 1860.  After this advert, it just disappeared.  Thomas Armstrong was the landlord there in 1828

[CaroleW]

Associated post here

https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=787109.0

[Elliven]

That is an old post of mine that I had completely forgotten about.  In July or August of last year my computer was totally wiped out by a virus and rendered completely useless.  I bought a new computer and have been reinstating my files as best I can from my old notes.  I have recovered a lot of files in part but I still have a long way to go.

Unfortunately, nothing much came of this original post - other than a few dead ends.  So I am still looking.

I will be visiting the County Records Office tomorrow and I will look for more information there.  If I find anything significant I will post it here.

Neville

[AlanBoyd]

Whellan's Directory 1894 for Dipton Parish has:
Robert Armstrong ale and porter, wine and spirit merchant, and mineral water manufacturer
[sadly no clue as to where he lived]

There are ten named public houses (note that this is the entire parish) none of which is linked to an Armstrong.

[AlanBoyd]

In the previous thread, was the Armstrong in Blackhall Mill one of the dead ends? And by dead end, what do you mean: a different family, or that you couldn’t find more information?