The Black Lion

History

Building

18th century

Taken by the state

April 1917

Back in private hands

About 1973

Refurbished

June 2024

A remote village local out in the north-eastern farming country towards the Scottish border, in an eighteenth-century building, and further than most people imagine the State Management Scheme went. The government took it in April 1917, nine months into the scheme rather than in the first wave, and handed it back to private ownership around 1973 when the whole thing was wound up. It appears on the scheme's roll of 1920 as the Black Lion at Hethersgill, number 72.

There were two Black Lions on the scheme list. The other, on Durdar Road south of the city, was a Redfern building and is no longer a pub; its story is in the lost pubs. Beyond the acquisition date the written record of this one is thin: no listing, no licensee history, and nothing about the building before 1917.

Its recent life is better recorded. A gaming machine notification has run here since February 2010. It was refurbished in June 2024 and won a Countryside Alliance Rural Oscar in 2026: open-plan but reading as three rooms, with a log burner, pool, darts, Sky Sports, real ale and toasties, and live music, bingo, quiz nights and a lot of pub games.