Cliff-top pub inspires life support from devoted carers

Apr 4 2008 by Alastair Gilmour, The Journal

IT’S the day after the clocks tick forward; the narrow-angled evening sun sparkles off St Mary’s lighthouse, the sky is incredibly blue, a freighter glides silently past the North Tyneside shore; British Summer Time has arrived.

Further along the A193, a black cloud hovers above a white-painted building perched on a roundabout. It’ll be hanging there today, it’ll be lingering there tomorrow and it’ll cast its shadow for the foreseeable future.

The Grade II-listed Delaval Arms has recently been selected as one of Northumberland’s top three pubs; it is renowned for its hospitality and its ambience – and the local branch of the Campaign For Real Ale (Camra) wouldn’t have bestowed top three-dom on it if its beer wasn’t served in top-class condition – yet its future is uncertain.

The pub is leased by enthusiasts who keep it alive because they love it and hold their customers in high regard, but its owner has already tried to convert it into apartments. And the owner before that submitted a similar redevelopment application, but both were turned down by Blyth Valley Council. In a climate that sees two pubs a day closing in the UK – there are innumerable reasons why – it is particularly upsetting to stand by and watch a valuable community resource under threat of replacement by “des res, bay-frntd, sea views” adverts.

The Delaval Arms could, in all honesty, do with an exterior spruce-up, but in the tidy, comfortable, homely, L-shaped bar where customer talk is of Fat Cat Society, a barman works away quietly, dressed smartly in a black shirt with the pub’s name picked out discreetly in white embroidery. It’s the first sign of professionalism and customer care. The second sign is the Deuchars IPA which arrives in superb condition and is a credit to the person who brewed it, let alone the young man who serves it.

“Admittedly, it’s a bit shabby on the outside,” says tenant, licensee and part-time barman Ian Hall. “But it’s very different inside. It’s a listed building and as such the owner has to do things in a certain way, but the exterior hasn’t been touched. We’re doing up rooms one at a time inside, though, keeping it alive.

“The Camra award is the icing on the cake. I’m chuffed to bits about it, we’ve been third three times and had two seconds and now we’ve got a first for south east Northumberland, so it’s great for everyone here. It gave the place a buzz and the staff a lift. I’ve been working as a barman here for 30 years and my wife has been here since 1980, although she’s able to do more now that she’s retired from her bank job. I’m a local lad who just wants to keep his local pub open.”

Ian proudly unfolds a page from a Caravan Club magazine and points out an article written by caravanner David Stokes who visited all 200 of its sites in a 7,000-mile grand tour, then proclaimed the Old Hartley cliff-top one the best of the lot. “It’s a lovely site anyway,” says Ian, “but he voted it the best in the country because of the pub nearby – us. However, we’re still under threat of development by our owners. One set of plans has already been kicked out by the council, so hopefully that will make things more difficult for others.”

The Delaval Arms was built in 1748 as a coaching house. Behind it, a particularly unusual water storage tower is a feature which heritage experts insist must be able to be viewed from 360 degrees – which is one reason for inhibiting enveloped development. It is named after the legendary Northumberland family who first came to England with William the Conqueror and called their North East settlement Seaton Delaval. The nearby, extravagant, John Vanbrugh-designed Seaton Delaval Hall was completed in 1729 at a cost of £10,000.

“When we got the pub in 2001 it was on its last legs,” says Ian. “I couldn’t even take a wage out of it. We gave it a bit of tender loving care, put the fun back into it, opened up the kitchen and made it into the sort of place that people wanted to come to. The Sustrans cycle path from Edinburgh passes right outside. It’s a prized local amenity, a real focus and it’s been a community pub for centuries – the only such facility in the village – and anyway there’s not a lot of old Old Hartley left.

“We’ve got a fabulous core of regulars and are still known as a meeting place for lots of local clubs and societies. We have a clay-pigeon shooting club and Cramlington and District Auto Cross Club has started to meet here regularly. They even brought their cars along last week to let people have a look at them. We have a golf society which has raised about £30,000 for the Rainbow Trust at Hexham; the next one will be the cancer ward at Newcastle General Hospital. Our annual fun day – June 14 – also raises more than £600 for charity.”

The Delaval Arms’ cellar is hewn from solid sandstone with concrete gantries that pub chef Alan Fenwick refers to as “modern”. He says: “The cellar’s permanently cold as well, that’s why the beer’s so good.”

The motto is Participation And Relaxation, which is highlighted by the observation that the bar counter absolutely invites elbows. The two front rooms – one for dining – are havens with views over the coast, past joggers and across the fields to Whitley Bay. Photographs of Old Hartley as was – charabancs, miners’ cottages, village stores teeming with household wares – liven the walls.

Ian says: “We have a very good turnover of beers and we’re getting more and more breweries asking for theirs to be on tap. At the moment we have Deuchars IPA, Charles Wells Bombardier and two from Jennings in Cockermouth. Black Sheep goes very well too – we rotate them and like to have local ones such as High House Farm Brewery from Matfen and Wylam Brewery.”

Ian’s nine-to-five job is service manager for Serck Inter Truck in Dunston, Gateshead. “I’m here more or less every night,” he says. “I finish work, go home, eat, wash, change and come back here to work in the bar. I’m used to 18-hour days, heading for work at seven in the morning and leaving here after midnight.”

The Delaval Arms is looking up, particularly following its Camra commendation, then Ian Hall looks up and that black cloud just spoils another long day.

alastair.gilmour@ncjmedia.co.uk