Home > Yorkshire > Levisham > Saltersgate Inn Saltersgate Inn
Date of photo: 2017	Picture source: Will Larter
The Saltersgate Inn was situated on the A169.  it is a very sad story, as the fire was never supposed to be allowed to go out, lest the excise man who was supposedly buried underneath it, start haunting the neighbourhood.  The pub is situated on the North York Moors, just past the Hole of Horcum. It used to serve a cracking pint of Theakstons Old Peculier, but I don't know if it was ever a Theakstons pub. It looks very sad now and is all boarded up and abandoned (the fire is most definitely, gone out). This pub closed in 2007.
Source: Colin Marlow
My mother Mary Cooper was the niece of Louise Sanderson (nee’ Cooper), wife of John Hindle Sanderson who was licensee of the Saltersgate Inn from 1919 to a least 1924. I have a hymn book of Louise's in which she has entered her name, the inn’s address and that date inside. They could have been there longer before being succeeded by Esther Crosby, who vacated in 1929. Mum at 14 with her younger sister said they would often stay there during holidays and also during the 1926 general strike and attend school there, (not sure which maybe Lockton ). Mum said she and her sister would sit in the doorway of the inn and sell photo postcards of the inn and surrounding countryside to customers and passers by. After mum died in 1995 I found a few cards and photos of local people among her effects. A few years ago I was reading online an article in a Malton newspaper about a Lockton historian call Ruth Strong who had written a book called “Lockton people and places”. In order to get a copy I made contact with her and she was good enough to actually call and see me with a copy of her excellent book, which gave me the information on past licensees, and much more. In exchange I gave her copies of my photos some she had seen but others were new to her and I said if ever she decided to write a follow up she was welcome to use them. Incidentally at that time you will see from the photos the inn was previously called The Waggon and Horses.
Stuart Simmonds (February 2011)
This pub has now been demolished.
Andrew Cawood (December 2018)
A few miles along that fine moorland road which runs from Pickering to Whitby you come to a point where there is a twist in the highway and a quick descent, the top growing a sheaf of warnings ["danger boards" to warn cyclists of treacherous hills]. At the foot of the slope is a little cluster of houses, which constitutes, for me, a real place. You cannot but be struck by the solitude of this tiny hamlet and of its remoteness from the large world in which most of us live and move and have our being. The Saltergate Inn will provide you with a homely meal in a stone-flagged room, and, as you gaze into the peat fire (which, maybe, has been burning for years), you can give yourself up to pleasant and comfortable thoughts. From this peaceful retreat you may well visualize the busy tide of humanity engaged in its reckless struggle for wealth and position. You feel here that you have passed out of the swift stream into a motionless backwater, which gives opportunity for quiet and coherent contemplation. The place is a sanctuary from the hurrying world. The sweetness of its seclusion combines with the bracing air, the fragrance of the moor, and the general aspect of things to help you to smile into the face of Nature.
Cycling Magazine, April 1st 1920 edition
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Name Dates Comments Jane H   Used this pub all my life, tried to buy it three years ago to turn back into a pub only. James Riley 1996-2000 Did the fire place itself survive? Sat in front of there many time listening to the folk band. Also there should be lots of pictures as the chef told me there was many stored away.
Other Photos
© Copyright Phil Catterall and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
Picture source: Helen Whyte
Picture source: Stuart Simmonds
Picture source: Stuart Simmonds