Once-popular local Guidepost pub the Queen's Head is flattened

Bulldozers have moved in at a once-popular Northumberland drinking hole.

People at Guidepost, near Ashington, have bemoaned the loss of the Queens Head pub, which is being demolished to make way for a proposed convenience store.

The Front Street pub has been closed for over a year, but photographs taken of the demolition in progress show glasses still visible in the bar area.

Michael Hood-Dodd, who worked at the pub and lived there, said: It once was a local as in the word, always full, music, laughter, Ive seen many a child have a christening and then saw them grow up and buy their first pint, sad times, good memories.

It was very sad as they opened up the wall to the bar to see glasses and pumps still in same place as the last customer left it.

We had christenings, funerals, weddings, birthdays, Christmas partys for the local elderly folk, it is just a shame it could not continue.

Other residents questioned the need for the planned store given the shops already at Guidepost.

Emily Rose Watson, 21, of Riverside Avenue, who is self employed, doing products demonstrations for a field marketing agency and working for a beauty company, said: It is being demolished to make way for a Nisa store which people are not really happy about - we have a square full of shops.

Miss Watson said she would prefer the site to be used for something of benefit to the community, such as a community centre, coffee shop or youth club.

Meanwhile, local authority chiefs are investigating after it emerged the demolition has begun without planning permission having been granted for the shop - although those behind the proposals have insisted they have the necessary consent to flatten the pub.

Continued here:
Once-popular local Guidepost pub the Queen's Head is flattened