Devonshire Arms, Blawith: a puzzle

[sheffield hatter]

I have been doing a little virtual tour of the Lake District and have come across this puzzler in the postal town of Dalton-in-Furness. The Devonshire Arms is listed in Blawith, a tiny hamlet on the A5084 south of Coniston Water. This is not a part of the Lakes with which I am too familiar, so I had a look on Google maps street view without any success. I was a bit puzzled that Blawith should be part of Dalton-in-Furness, rather than Ulverston, but the first thing that really set me wondering was the address: Albert Street is a town address, not a tiny hamlet address.

On Google maps there is (of course) no such street in Blawith. On Royal Mail's postcode website, there is no such postcode as LA15 8EQ. However, Albert Street, Dalton-in-Furness is listed with a choice of two postcodes: LA15 8EJ and LA15 8RW. A street view crawl down this tiny little back street does not look promising, but there is one building which looks as though it could possibly have been a pub in the past. At least, it looks like a fairly recent conversion to flats (but probably from just a slightly larger end-of-terrace house). However, one of the doors of this building, no.9, has the postcode LA15 8EJ which is only one letter out from the listing: LA15 8EQ.

Googling Devonshire Arms, one of the most frequent pub names in the north of England, is too long a shot for me. (There's a Devonshire Street just around the corner from Albert Street.)

Googling Blawith is almost as bad: this website has the hamlet several hundred yards out in the estuary near Ulverston. I've identified a building in Blawith and looked up its postcode: LA12 8EG, with a postal town of Ulverston. This confirms, to my mind, that the entry we have in Pubs Galore is wrong, but the question remains: does it relate to a (probably closed) pub, (possibly) in Albert Street, Dalton-in-Furness?

Most people who've read this far are probably thinking: just delete the entry, but I wanted to ask if anyone has any memory, information or brilliant idea that will link the entry to reality before we ask admin to take that final step.

Thanks

[Al 10000]

Hi Sheffield Hatter and Admins,

The Devonshire Arms was in Dalton in Furnass it was situated just off the main ulverston road and was on the corner of queen street.

This pub was a single roomed Bass tied house and there were two real ales on the bar we had a drink of Bass xxxxmild and this was a very nice drink,we went in this pub

On 15 April 1989 i do have a photo of this pub and i am able to put it on Pubs galore.

I hope this helps

Cheers Alan

[sheffield hatter]

Alan,

That's great! I should have known if anyone had been in this pub it would've been you.

From what you say, my guess that it was the house at 9 Albert St is probably right. I've moved the map point to there and will ask for the postcode to be changed. Looking forward to seeing your photo.

Cheers

[Al 10000]

I have just added the photo and review,i will try and get round to do all the pubs we visited in Dalton and Ulverston some time in the future and we did do quite a lot of pubs there in one weekend.

[AlanH]

Alan's photo matches up perfectly with the building at 30 Albert Street (on the bend). It is now a stone clad building with a rear extention. The 2nd floor rounded window helps its identity.

[sheffield hatter]

Alan's photo matches up perfectly with the building at 30 Albert Street (on the bend). It is now a stone clad building with a rear extention. The 2nd floor rounded window helps its identity.

Looks like they've hacked off the rendering to leave the original stone exposed. I'm sure you are right about the building, though, it matches Alan's photo exactly. I have changed my (rather speculative) map point accordingly.

Cheers

[Strongers]

I do enjoy watching forensic pub examinations pan out.... Well done lads!!!