| Summary : A public house, tearoom and shop, probably mid-late 18th century origins with a 1860s extension; the extension, which forms the right-hand half of the pub premises, was built by the pub landlords at the time as a shop with tenements above, to cater for the influx of industrial workers to Black Hole. The original pub, essentially the 'Big Bar' of today, was contained in one of the pair of eighteenth-century cottages to the left and it was not until after the World War II that a second pub room, the 'Little Bar', was formed from part of the shop in the Victorian building. The original building is of whitewashed sandstone whilst the extension is of hammered sandstone and the roofs are pantiled.The Birch Hall Inn retains an interior which harks back to the days of the locally filmed television programme 'Heartbeat'. As such, it is listed on the CAMRA National Inventory of Pub Interiors of Outstanding Heritage Interest. When the present owners took over the pub in 1981 they accepted a condition of sale to retain the interior in its 'time-warped' state - imposed by their predecessor and former landlady, Mrs Schofield whose home it had been for 53 years |