No. 4 in an Occasional Series on Early Railways

It's almost 2 years since I last added to my (very) occasional series on early railways - "must do better" the teacher would say!

Anyway I've walked past this local pub sign lots of times, and photographed it a few times but the light has never seemed quite right; today I thought it was as good as I'll ever get. And as I pointed the camera, a little bullfinch decided to photobomb the shot, which I thought was rather cute: I'm unlikely ever to get the chance for that again, so here it is!

The pub is in West Moor, less than half a mile from Dial Cottage in Killingworth, where George Stephenson lived from 1805 to 1823. Dial Cottage is adjacent to the site of a workshop where his first locomotive (Blucher) was built and to where in 1814 Blucher was first set on a wagonway (I blipped the doorway of the cottage just over 4 years ago, here - before I thought of starting my occasional series).

Sadly I couldn't stop for a pint at the pub, owing to lockdown...  ;-)