THE Black Bull in Yarm High Street is at least 300 years old, but perhaps its most famous moment in that long history came on Tuesday, August 9, 2007, when Prince Harry and 12 Army friends, accompanied by three security guards, walked in. He sat in the pub for 45 minutes and drank a pint of Carling before going to the Keys nightclub.
He seems to have been a guest of Lord Mexborough who lives at Harmby on the North York Moors, and on August 11, he played for his lordship’s cricket team against Spout House on the sloping ground between Stokesley and Helmsley.
Harry, who appeared in the scorebook as Spike W due to his hairstyle, scored 16 runs before being bowled. He later bowled bowled two overs, for seven runs, and did a stint as an umpire – the six pebbles he used to count off the over were mounted and framed of the souvenir of the occasion (below).
His visit to the area ended that evening about 24 hours later when a private helicopter was seen to pick him up from a field on the outskirts of the town.
Prince Harry on his 18th birthday
Given that it has been hard to escape Prince Harry in recent days as he has become the most famous, or infamous, man in the world, it seems appropriate to mention that on January 13, 2012, he and three friends lunched at the Bay Horse in Hurworth. Harry had a fillet steak followed by sticky toffee pudding.
And in late March 2003, he was on an Eton College geography field trip with 39 other students and four teachers studying the effect that industry has had on the North East environment when he took part in a karaoke evening in the Crossways Hotel in Thornley.
The 18-year-old prince and his posh pals sang Come On Eileen, by Dexys Midnight Runners, before he took the John Travolta lines in Summer Nights, from Grease, while three local teenagers played the Olivia Newton John role.
Well-a, well-a, well-a, huh!
John Lloyd’s fabulous picture of Yarm Town Council outside the Black Bull in about 1920. From left to right: Mr Eliff (Mr Lloyd’s relative), Mr Lodge ( Clerk to the Council), John Hedley, Robert Hedley (auctioneer), William Fawcett (solicitor), John Holt (chemist), John Adamson (chairman of the council), John Clapham, Mr Hudson (Friarage), John Lamb (jeweller), Harry Ramsay, Bill Ayre (saddler and horn blower).
All of which was triggered by this wonderful picture of the Black Bull in Yarm sent in by John Lloyd. It was taken shortly after the end of the First World War.
“My mother’s stepfather, John Lamb, is the third from the right,” he says. “I think it dates from the time they were discussing celebrations for the centenary of the Stockton & Darlington Railway.”
Yarm’s big moment in railway history was on February 12, 1820, when the promoters held a committee meeting in the Commercial Room upstairs in the George & Dragon. This was such an important meeting that it was re-created 100 years later when the original tables and chairs were still in the room (we held a little recreation exactly 200 years later, by which time the furniture around which Edward Pease and Thomas Meynell had gathered had disappeared).
Perhaps the men in John’s picture were involved in those centenary celebrations.
READ MORE: YARM’S BIG MOMENT IN RAILWAY HISTORY
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community – a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
This website and associated newspapers adhere to the Independent Press Standards Organisation’s Editors’ Code of Practice. If you have a complaint about the editorial content which relates to inaccuracy or intrusion, then please contact the editor here. If you are dissatisfied with the response provided you can contact IPSO here
© 2001-2023. This site is part of Newsquest’s audited local newspaper network. A Gannett Company. Newsquest Media Group Ltd, Loudwater Mill, Station Road, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. HP10 9TY. Registered in England & Wales | 01676637 |
Data returned from the Piano ‘meterActive/meterExpired’ callback event.
As a subscriber, you are shown 80% less display advertising when reading our articles.
Those ads you do see are predominantly from local businesses promoting local services.
These adverts enable local businesses to get in front of their target audience – the local community.
It is important that we continue to promote these adverts as our local businesses need as much support as possible during these challenging times.