The earliest reference we have found to the Red Lion at 26 Bailiffgate is from 1760 when it was advertised by James Hindmarsh. According to John Atkinson Wilson the landlord in 1790 was Matthew Mills, a mason who worked on the restoration of Alnwick Castle (1760s), built St. Michael’s Pant (1759) and Brizlee Tower (1781).
It later appears in Pigot’s directory (1828), on Wood’s map of Alnwick (1827), Slater’s Directory (1855), and the Post Office Directory (1858). The last reference we have found to it being used as a public house was when employees of the Gas Company held their new year party there in 1867. A list of Alnwick pubs published by the Morpeth Herald in 1891 states that it had closed within the previous 20 years, and by 1886 it was recorded as the home of St Michael’s Curate, the Reverend E. Hicks.
The Cow Causey and Buckton Burn Turnpike Act was passed in 1746/7.