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The Three Horseshoes was situated on Coulton Terrace. This pub closed in 1998 and is now in residential use.

I used to work and relief manage this pub in the late 80's before I emigrated to Australia. At the time the managers were John and Christine Fenwick who then went on to manage a pub in Barnard Castle. As far as I know the pub was an old coach house and of course it had a ghost, commonly known as Bella as in Bella the Ghostie (Bella Lugosi). Never appeared but on occasions there was a very strong smell of a candle after it's been snuffed out. Very strange but never felt threatened. Another strange occurrence in the place was that Jess the German shepherd at the pub would follow me everywhere except down in to the cellar. She would cower at the top of the stairs and physically shake with fear. It was obvious there was a lot of history involved in the building with the open fire place and the bowed, beamed ceilings. I went back there in the early to mid 90's after John and Chris had moved on and the new owners had ripped the heart and soul out of the place and it was no surprise to me when I heard that it had closed down. What was once a quaint and historic building had been turned in to an abomination. Open plan and painted purple, with black ceiling from memory, it had become anything but welcoming and I couldn't wait to finish my drink and get out of there. The locals must have been gutted when the change took place because the Three Horse Shoes was a wonderfully social establishment which was full every weekend and had various local club functions during the week.

Paul Thompson (June 2012)

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