Newbottle Village Conservation Area
Newbottle Village is perched on a hill on the A182 between Houghton and Washington. The Conservation Area runs from near the top of the bank at the north of the village, to halfway down the bank at the south. From the east, it takes in St Michaels Church and then to the east, just behind The Sun Inn. A more detailed plan can be found in the CA document. (All external links are given at the bottom of the article). There is only one pub and one club in the village , The Sun Inn and the Newbottle Working Men’s Club. Neither sell real ale, although the pub used to (see reference below). A second pub, marked A on the map, was The Jolly Potter ; now a Chinese restaurant
The Sun Inn
The Sun Inn is a former Vaux Pub, now owned by Stonegate. An old photo ( below) actually shows the word Bass on a window. This may have predated Vaux ownership. The right hand side of the pub is an Italian restaurant called Amalfis, the left of the building is the single bar .
The Newbottle Working Men’s Club ( WMC)
The club is a very imposing structure and is in fact a Historic England Grade II listed building.
The Jolly Potter
This former real ale pub, dating from the 1820’s had several owners including Vaux and Admiral Taverns. It became a Chinese Restaurant in 2013. Strangely, local bus services that stop outside still refer to the pub in their timetables.
There are some past local CAMRA Real Ale Guides available online in this website which provide some more brief information about the two pubs. There are five guides and can be found here :- Documents and Downloads area of this website The Sun Inn features in four of the guides ( not the 1980 guide ) while The Jolly Potter is in the 1980, 1984 and 1988 guides.
More Information :-
Newbottle Village Conservation Area
Houghton & Newbottle Real Ale Guide
Thanks to Terry Ford and the Sunderland Antiquarian Society .
Compiled by Ken Paul, who took the uncredited photos. April 2024