Surprising place in literary history of the Hoskins in Darlington

“Literally everything will be coming out,” the contractor told The Northern Echo, perhaps not knowing that, literally, this pub has a place in literature history.

The County Hotel on the corner of Blackwellgate and Grange Road before 1900 when horses were the main form of motive power, as evidenced by the trail left in front of the pub. On the right is GG Hoskin's 1899 "school furney" offices. Picture courtesy of Darlington Centre for Local Studies

There has been a hostelry of some sort – a coaching inn for a while – on this corner of the Great North Road for centuries. Originally, it was called the Black Bull, and it is said that Sir Walter Scott had it in mind when he wrote in his novel Rob Roy, published in 1818: “It was on such a day, and such an occasion, that my timorous acquaintance and I were about to grace the board of the ruddy-faced host of the Black Bear, in the town of Darlington, and bishopric of Durham, when our landlord informed us, with a sort of apologetic tone, that there was a Scotch gentleman to dine with us...”

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A 1950s picture showing the County, a Vaux pub, on the left. A double decker bus in the distance is coming towards the policeman who stands in the middle of the road, his arms covered by white sleeves so that drivers could easily see which way he was pointing

This Scotch gentleman is called “Mr Campbell” but is later revealed to be a larger-than-life outlaw called Rob Roy MacGregor.

The book, set in 1715, was part of Scott’s Waverley series of novels which in the 19th Century were the most popular and widely read in Europe – in today’s terms, this throwaway line in chapter four would be seen as worthy of note as Darlington getting a mention in Harry Potter.

The County is on the left behind the carter and GG Hoskins' school furnishing company offices of 1899 are on the right. Picture courtesy of the Darlington Centre for Local Studies

In 1868, Robert Flint, the landlord of the Bull, extended the pub around the corner into Grange Road and marked its new look by changing its name to the County, probably because the County Court had just been opened nearby.

Wide-eye camera view of Blackwellgate, Darlington, taken on March 11, 1965, with the County on the right - is that a Citroen in front of it?

In 1956, Mr Flint’s pub was rebuilt so that it curved, in brick, around the corner, and it retained the name “County” until 1984 when, after a £150,000 refit, it re-emerged as Humphrys – a baffling name, partly because it lacked an apostrophe and partly because no one knew who Humphry was.

Humphrys remained until a refit in 2009 when it became the Hoskins, in deference to Darlington’s greatest local architect. GG Hoskins was responsible for everything from the library to the sixth form college, from the King’s Head Hotel to Middlesbrough’s massively Gothic town hall. Appropriately, opposite the pub, is the headquarters that Hoskins built in 1899 for the North of England School Furnishing Company, which is now occupied by a bar.

So 15 years on, a new chapter awaits the pub with a place in literature history.

From January 24, 1963: this corner on the Great North Road was said to have had the first traffic lights ever installed in Darlington

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