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The County Arms was situated at 54 Sunderland Street. This pub was demolished c1970.

Source: M&M Pearson

My grandparents Thomas Edward Forster and Annie Forster, lived in Hopper Square, then Mautland Street, both of which were near the County Arms on Sunderland Street. The "County" as it was always referred to, was about half way up Sunderland Street, on the junction with George Street. As a child in the 1950's, I would occasionally go in to "the County" during the afternoon and sit with a glass of lemonade whilst my dad, Bobby Forster, was having a pint with friends and family. Living so close, my family were very good friends with the Landlord and Landlady Jack and Annie Spence, who were lovely people, perhaps in their late fifties or sixties then. I can't remember if they had family of their own, other than a small white dog called "Snowy". On the occasions when I had my fill of lemonade, possibly bored, or both, I was allowed to explore the old outbuildings (and their contents) across the yard at the back of the pub. For me, it a child's paradise!. Of the contents that grabbed my attention the most was an old pre-war gramophone, which I suppose was the forerunner of the radiogram (without the radio), since it was a proper piece of furniture, complete with legs. The horn type speaker was below the clockwork turntable fixed inside the the cabinet, curving snail shell like into the interior. My abiding memory was when Jack the landlord gave me a challenge at the dartboard, bearing in mind I was about nine or ten years old at the time and had never thrown a dart before. Slightly embarrassed at being put on the spot so to speak, I couldn't do anything else but take up his challenge, with my dad and his friends looking on. My challenge was to hit the bull or the twenty five ring around it and a half a crown being my reward if I did either. With a large slice of beginners luck, I hit the bull with my first dart! The place was in uproar and I was half a crown richer. To put it into perspective thre'pence was enough to get you packet of two ounces of sweets. on odd occasions if you had sixpence, you had enough for a quarter (four ounces) or a packet of chips. On rarer occasions if you had a shilling, that got you into the pictures(cinema). To have half a crown in those days, the world was my oyster! The demise of Sunderland Street, it's pubs, characters, shops and the close nit community in the surrounding area came when of the three possible routes for the proposed A690 dual carriageway, (one to the east, one to the west and one straight through the middle of the town. Putting public opinion aside, the local and county councils et al. chose the worst i.e. to drive it straight down Sunderland Street, demolishing much of the character of Houghton, with the roundabouts and Berlin wall-like elevated section severing the town in two. The place has never been the same since.

Stuart Forster (September 2025)

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