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DURHAM - Barningham, Millbank Arms

National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors Part Two

Barningham, Barningham, DL11 7DW

(At east end of village)

Tel: 01833 621213

Opening Hours: Open evenings and Sun. lunchtimes.

Listed Status: Not listed

View this pub on a local map

Rebuilt in 1857 and opened as the Millbank Hotel in 1860, it is named after the local landowning family who own Barningham Park as well as the pub and a majority of the houses in the village and local farms. Since 1860 there has only been three names over the door with Sam Turner taking over in 1939 and since 1987 it has been Neil Turner. Entering the pub you could be forgiven to thinking you are in someone's house as there is no bar counter, you stand at the top of the cellar steps to get served. This area has some dispensers attached to the wall and around the staircase to the cellar is a collection of 2021 miniatures which started in 1963. This is one of only 11 pubs left in the whole of the UK without a bar counter including the other Britain's Real Heritage Pubs the Cock, Broom, Bedfordshire; Kings Head, Bootle, Cumbria; Red Lion, Ampney St Peter, Gloucestershire; North Star, Steventon, Oxfordshire; Tuckers Grace, Faulkland, Somerset; Rose & Crown, Huish Episcope, Somerset; Coopers Tavern, Burton Upon Trent, Staffordshire; Kings Head, Laxfield, Suffolk; Manor Arms, Rushall, West Midlands; and Red Lion, Llandovery, West Wales.

Only one of the original three rooms is in regular use which is the Tap Room on the left. This small room has partly old half-height panelling, fixed seating all around the walls, baffle by the door and its old fireplace has new tiles. Note the cocktail menu listing 85 with the most popular being Sex on the Beach and Snowball. Parties of people come from nearby towns to sample them and as the pub does not serve food, some folks bring their own!

A carpet now covers the flagstone floor in the passage and main room. The Dominoe Room to the left is now only used occasionally for meetings and in fact is in use as a private room during the daytime. The room with a '1' on the door to the right of the passage was only brought into use at very busy times such as Christmas closed in 1969. It was called the Dining Room as it was where villagers came on the 2nd Tuesday in January and July to pay their rents and the licensee cooked a meal for the tenants. In summer there is a local outdoor quoits league and the pub plays on the green outside the pub on Monday evenings. Outside gents'. Closed Mon. to Sat. lunchtimes.