How an Earl sparked a riot at the thumbing of his nose

Today's building - "a palatial hotel", "a temple of luxury" - opened on June 1, 1893, having taken three years and at least £2.5m in today's money to build.

It is, however, the crowning glory of both the town centre and the career of the architect who designed it.

The King's Head Hotel was built on the site of its own history in Prebend Row.

The property in this row was once owned by St Cuthbert's Church, and the income from its rents paid the clergymen's wages.

The first time the King's Head is mentioned in the annals of history is in a sale notice dated 1661, the year after Charles II was restored to the throne following his father's beheading in 1649.

This suggests the hotel, which came with a long field leading down to the River Skerne, had been in business for several years at least before that.

The middle of the 17th Century was the start of the coaching era, and the King's Head grew into Darlington's premier coaching inn, with the Great North Road running outside its front door.

In 1762, the landlady, Isabella Stephenson, advertised that she had "good post chaises, able horses and careful drivers".

She also assured "noblemen, gentlemen and others of meeting with the civilest entertainments".

In Isabella's day, it took three days to travel from London to Newcastle via Darlington - "provided no material accident happens".

The Royal Mail coaches ran between the George and Blue Boar Inn in Holborn and the Bull and Post Boy in Newcastle. The southbound coach arrived at the King's Head at 10am every Monday, Wednesday and Friday; those heading north called at 1pm on the same days. The fare for the six passengers inside was three pennies per mile.

By 1825, the hotel had coaches called Highflyer, Wellington, Express, Telegraph, Red Rover and Hero all calling daily, as well as the Royal Mail, and local coaches running out to Stockton and Barnard Castle.

The coaching trade enabled a large number of ostlers, stablemen, drivers and blacksmiths to work in the yard behind the hotel, where 80 valuable horses were stabled.

But another mode of transport was stirring in 1825 - the railway train.

In fact, the King's Head had played an important role in the infancy of the railway, because within its walls on May 12, 1821, was held the first shareholders' meeting of a new concern called the Stockton and Darlington Railway Company.

The landlord of this period was Richard Scott - "a far-famed and proud host of the old style" - who also had an eye for the new style.

He was one of the first private individuals to run a coach, called the Reliance, on the new railway between Stockton and Darlington.

The railway made a huge dent in the King's Head market, and the last Newcastle to London horse-drawn coach left Darlington in October 1852.

The hotel had to make do with the trade brought in by local coaches, private travellers and carriers.

The Darlington Riot of 1831 also made a large dent in the hotel's fortunes.

It occurred on a Sunday afternoon in October, just after the House of Lords had refused to pass the Reform Bill, which would have given more ordinary people the vote.

The young Earl of Tankerville drew up at the King's Head for a change of horses and Sunday lunch en route, with Lord and Lady Malesbury, to Chillingham Castle.

An excitable mob gathered and examined the heraldry on his coach.

After dining, their lordships returned to the carriage accompanied by derisory hoots and hisses from the crowd. Unwisely, Tankerville replied with offensive gestures.

The crowd stoned the coach and chased after it as it went full pelt up Northgate.

It managed to outrun the mob, but every pane of glass was smashed and every panel beaten.

Malesbury referred to the riot in his 1884 autobiography, and said that he had had to stuff his poor wife under the coach seat to keep her safe.

He claimed the outrage had been planned in advance because piles of stones had been collected on the roadside in readiness.

However, his claims were rebuffed by Jonathan Dresser, one of the town's first hairdressers, whose clipping salon was beside the King's Head, in the Packhorse Inn's upper room.

Jonathan recalled that he had seen the young aristocrats making unpleasant gestures at the crowd, such as putting their thumbs to their noses, twiddling their fingers and slapping their thighs.

They even made these gestures, said Mr Dresser, while they dashed from hotel to carriage - such unwarranted putting of thumbs, twiddling of fingers and slapping of thighs was enough to inflame even the most mild-mannered of men to riot.

That the two lords had chosen to stop at the King's Head is indicative of the kind of clients the hotel was attracting: it was Darlington's upmarket hostelry. But to be "a palatial hotel" and "a temple of luxury" required money.

In 1875, GA Alderson paid £14,000 (£560,000 by today's prices) for the hotel, but when his successor, Joseph Robinson, died in 1889, the hotel received a bid of only £6,200 (£310,000) at auction. Mr Robinson's estate withdrew the hotel and sought a private bidder.

R Fenwick and Company, brewers of Sunderland, came forward in 1890 with an offer of £7,000 (about £350,000), which was accepted.

Fenwick's immediately tore down the centuries-old King's Head and replaced it with "a palatial hotel" which was "a temple of luxury".

That hotel opened on June 1, 1893 - exactly 110 years ago on Sunday, but you will have to wait until next Wednesday for the full story of the new building

Thoughts on heads of state and inn signs

Old photographs of the King's Head Hotel, in Darlington, show it without a traditional pictorial inn sign.

It seems only to have acquired a picture sign in the mid-1960s when the King's Bar was opened in Priestgate.

A picture of King Charles II, who reigned from 1660 to 1685, was chosen to grace this sign, either because the first mention of the hotel was in 1661 during Charles' reign, or because it was his father, Charles I, who was the king who lost his head.

However, there may be other reasons. Britain's very earliest pubs, some of which can date from before the 10th Century, tend to have religious names, such as the Cross Keys (which were the emblem of St Peter), the Star (referring to the star of Bethlehem) or The Bull (which was a Papal dictat).

The Turk's Head dates back to the 12th Century crusades, and another popular early religious sign was the Pope's Head.

But during the Reformation, when Henry VIII (1509-1547) broke away from the Roman Catholic church and created the Protestant one, publicans thought it unwise to proclaim so publicly their loyalty to the Pope's head. Especially as other people were losing their own heads for lesser crimes.

So many of them decided to honour Henry and become the King's Head. Others became the Crown, the Rising Sun or the Rose, which were all symbols of Henry's dominance.

Perhaps Henry's head made the best pub sign. He always looked round and red-faced and comfortable, as if he was happily replete, having had a large meal and plenty to drink - a fine advertisement for the pub beneath the sign.

Alternatively, the King's Head may refer to no king in particular. Pictorial inn signs evolved in an age when the majority of people were illiterate.

But if, while out shopping, they saw a picture of a bloke with a crown on his head they might well have said: "Let's pop into the King's Head for a drink."

Equally, a red lion, a golden cock, a glittering star, a queen's head or three crowns made instantly recognisable signs.

l Nearly all of this column begins at the Centre for Local Studies in Darlington Library. The centre has just been re-opened after very necessary repairs and a very smart redecoration.

With the beams bared in the new computer suite (old art gallery) next door, the 1884 Edward Pease Free Library has regained its Victorian dignity.

Published: ??/??/2003

Echo Memories, The Northern Echo, Priestgate, Darlington DL1 1NF, e-mail chris.lloyd@nne.co.uk or telephone (01325) 505062.