The Chequers Inn

Annette and I (Annette Schofield and George Allen) became landlords of the Chequers (no longer a pub) on 23 January 1967. It was a BYB pub and James Hubert Dibb was the landlord before us. We ran the pub for about 18 months and then moved to Thornton-le-Dale in 1968. We rented the pub from the brewery and I recall the rent was 10 shillings per week, the valuation of all the stock when we moved in on the 23rd, including a upmarket till was 281 pounds 10 shillings and 11 pence. We were able to get to know some very interesting characters who lived in the village at that time. Some of the regulars in the pub were Cyril and Charles Stoker, both farmers, and the chap who ran a bakery who we knew as 'Doughy', I cannot recall his name, also Richard Robuck, Jack Gundill, Les Drury, Mr Riley the farmer, Mr Lomas and 'Lofty' who was the landlord of the Cross Keys in Hillam. One night my younger brother Steven was asked to run the pub while we had a night off. He mixed up the bitter barrel with the mild barrel (it could have been my quick explanation of the pumps) and consequently pulled mild pints for all the bitter drinkers and bitter pints for all the mild drinkers all night long. When we returned home and I discovered this bitter mild mix-up, I thought I would be in trouble from all the locals for leaving my very young brother Steven in charge, but I was surprised when the next evening, they all (the bitter drinkers and mild drinkers) said "A-up, thy youngster pulls a better pint than thee". It just shows a change is often as good as a rest.