BACK in Memories 274 in March, we were inspired by the story of the Flying Dutchman and Voltigeur to go in search of pubs named after racehorses.

You will remember that Flying Dutchman, from Middleham in North Yorkshire, won the 1849 Derby and St Leger. The following year, Voltigeur, bred in Hartlepool and owned by Lord Zetland of Aske Hall near Richmond, won both races and then pipped the Dutchman in a race-off.

However, some observers thought this might have been because the Dutchman’s jockey appeared to have sought too much alcoholic Dutch courage before the race-off, and so a more sober contest was arranged for York’s Knavesmire on May 31, 1851, for a 2,000 guineas prize.

Up to 150,000 watched – some had walked from Richmond for the occasion – as the soberly-steered Dutchman flew to victory.

However, Voltigeur had the last laugh: the pub named after it in Spennymoor remains open while the Flying Dutchman pub in Thornaby closed a couple of decades ago.

And so on to other old racehorse-inspired pubs…

Brian Elstob from Corbridge, an Echo reader for more than 50 years, God bless him, wrote to point out that in his nick of the woods that are two pubs – one at New Ridley near Stocksfield and the other at Prudhoe – named after Doctor Syntax. Darlington readers added that there had been a pub named after the good doctor on Cockerton Green.

The original Dr Syntax was an early 19th Century satirical character, a bit like Andy Capp, after whom Ralph Riddell of Felton Park, Northumberland. The Dr Syntax horse only raced in the north where it won countless trophies, including the first Northallerton Gold Cup, run over two miles, in 1822.

One of its regular opponents was Reveller, which had won the St Leger at Doncaster in 1818, and had the pub in Yafforth, near Northallerton, named after it. The Revellers’ Inn closed in 1992 and now Revellers Mews stands on its site.

Dr Syntax, though, continued on the racecourse until September 30, 1823, when it won the Richmond Gold Cup for a fifth time. But after crossing the finishing line, it fell, and so had to be put out to stud.

One of its offspring was Beeswing, the greatest mare in Britain between 1833 and 1854. Beeswing won 51 of its 63 races, including five Newcastle Gold Cups and, most famously, the Ascot Gold Cup in 1842.

So renowned was Beeswing that a Tyneside musician composed a hornpipe dedicated to it, a village in Scotland that had formerly been Lochend called itself Beeswing in honour of it, and the pub in North Cowton is still named after it.

Such horsing about can also explain one of the most mystifyingly named pubs in our area: the Tickle Toby in Northallerton High Street. It was a horse owned by John Hutchison, who grew up at Hutton Rudby, fell in love with the turf at Northallerton racecourse, and then became a trainer at Malton. Tickle Toby, despite its fantastic name, wasn’t his greatest success and it was exported to Virginia, US, for stud.

Finally, Dave Atkinson in Haughton-le-Skerne did some research on the village of Morton-on-Swale, where he had grown up and where there had been a pub with the non-plussing name of Non Plus.

Of course, Non Plus was a horse, which was bought for 3,000 guineas by the Duke of Cleveland of Raby Castle. Non Plus won races at Catterick, Richmond and Northallerton as well as the 1827 St Leger at York, before being shipped for stud in Charleston, Virginia.

Dave even found a record that in 1841 Non Plus covered 105 mares at $12.50 a time.

The Non Plus in Morton-on-Swale was renamed the Swaledale Arms in the late 1970s and was demolished a couple of years ago.

Any other horsey pubs we should know about?

RC VASEY writes from Hartlepool to draw our attention to another Voltigeur pub, built in Middleton in 1851 and cleared with the rest of the area in the 1950s. Ferry Road is now roughly on its site.

OF the racecourses named above, the horses still run at Catterick and you can still have a run around Richmond racecourse, which is to the north-west of the town and where the remains of the 1775 grandstand and the starter’s box can still be seen – it is certainly a grand place for a walk.

Northallerton’s racecourse is not so well known. Its first race was held in 1774, and its big meet lasted three days each October, when the Town Plate, Gold Cup and Silver Cup were run for.

When the East Coast Main Line was driven through the town in the late 1830s, the racecourse lost several furlongs, and much of its popularity. Its last race was run in 1880 and County Hall, on Racecourse Lane, was built on its site in 1903-06.

The nearest pub to the racecourse had a suitably equine name – the Horse and Jockey. However, it was rebuilt rather splendidly in 1901 and renamed the Station Hotel.

EARLIER this year, Memories was musing over the Black Boy line – the Stockton and Darlington branchline that ran from what is today the Locomotion museum in Shildon (Memories 266 and 272). The branchline ran up and over the magnesian limestone ridge on which Shildon sits before dropping down into the Dene Valley, which was then filled with collieries.

The line opened in 1827 and should have been consigned to the dustbin of history in 1842 when the Shildon Tunnel was blasted underneath the ridge, but it survived into the 20th Century.

One of the reasons for its survival was as a relief route should the tunnel become blocked.

For instance, Colin Turner of Eldon draws our attention to an exciting derailment that happened on August 27, 1880, when the 7.30pm train from Bishop Auckland to Darlington, carrying 50 passengers, came off the rails inside the tunnel.

It didn’t stop for 200 yards, during which time “the passengers experienced violent oscillation”, said The Northern Echo the following day.

Fortunately, the derailed carriages didn’t strike the tunnel walls, but it was nevertheless a terrifying experience for those on board.

“Women were to be heard shrieking and crying, and two or three even created a condition of affairs almost bordering on panic by sillily shouting there was another train coming into the tunnel,” said the Echo. “The steam from the locomotive clearing away, it was soon perceived that the situation contained no element of danger.”

The 7.25pm from Darlington to Bishop was, though, due to pass through the tunnel, so the silly women’s concerns were understandable.

It, after a long delay, was routed over the Black Boy line – “a colliery line on a heavy gradient, which travels at a considerable elevation to Shildon by way of Chapel Row”, the Echo explained to its readers who had forgotten all about its existence.

“A pilot engine was used for the purpose, and the train reached Auckland nearly an hour and a half late.

“Great excitement prevailed in Shildon and Auckland, and the stations were thronged till a late hour, the up train not reaching Stanhope till 10.30pm.”

A part from Mrs Longstaff of Albert Hill, Darlington, who was severely shaken, the passengers were unharmed and walked out of the tunnel.

LAST week, we told the story of the Richmond 16 – the first conscientious objectors to the concept of killing a fellow human who were locked up in the dungeons of Richmond castle exactly 100 years ago before being sent to France and sentenced to death.

The objectors obviously presented a profound danger to the military authorities who trying to conscript anyone able into the forces – if the objectors could get away with it, everyone who didn’t fancy the fight would be objecting on grounds of conscience.

Even in this light, this outburst reported in the Darlington & Stockton Times of May 13, 1916, is pretty stunning. Before Helmsely magistrates was Francis William Thompson, grocer and baker of Ampleforth, who had refused to follow orders and present himself to the army.

“In announcing that the defendant would be fined £10 and handed over to a military escort, the chairman (Dr Porter) said he could not understand any able-bodied young man such as Thompson trying to make people believe such nauseating nonsense as a ground for his escape from what should be a sacred duty to the nation which had fostered and sheltered him,” reported the D&S.

“Such men were content to enjoy and take advantage of the privileges provided by a free country like England, and then when called upon to render service they sought to sulk out of it on grounds of conscience. Conscience, to his mind, was a negligible quantity with them.

“If the manhood of Britain were made up mainly of men like defendant then the sooner the Germans came and polished the lot off, the better for the future of the race and mankind. It was an unspeakable shame and a standing disgrace to British manhood to have such individuals casting the slur of degeneracy upon the grand old traditions of the race. If he had his way he would see to it that all such men should have their conscience touched by a closer contract with the brutal Huns. If the safety and peace of this country depended upon men like defendant, then it would be a sorry day for Britain and her people.

“Thompson was subsequently conveyed by motor car to Richmond.”

Thompson would have been incarcerated in the castle with the men now known as the Richmond 16, but he wasn’t among them when they were secretly transported to the war zone.

BLOB See the DLI Diary over the page