About Us
Welcome to our Website for the Shepherd and Shepherdess Pub in Beamish, County Durham. The Shepherd is a traditional country pub proudly serving quality home-cooked locally sourced food, cask ales and fine wines by our highly skilled, friendly team.
We welcome families and have an outdoor play area for the children. You can find the Shepherd just adjacent to Beamish Museum between Chester le Street and Stanley just off the A693 only 5 minutes from the A1 motorway. To find us, just follow the signs for Beamish Museum and we are located just to the right of the main entrance to the Museum.Our level access, disabled toilet and baby change facilities ensures a wide range of customers can enjoy our hospitaility The C2C sustrans cycleway and walkways run adjacent to the Shepherd. Walkers and Cyclists are welcome and we have a large outside seating area with space to park your bike and enjoy well deserved drink or a bite to eat. Many caravanners have discovered the Shepherd and return year after year whilst staying at the numerous caravan parks located close to the Shepherd.We pride ourselves on traditional values with a friendly welcome and attentive service as well as the high quality and value of our home cooked food and our real ales, fine wines and warm, cosy atmosphere. We look forward to welcoming you to the Shepherd soon
History
The Shepherd & Shepherdess pub and Holly House were built in the 18th Century, but were altered in the late 19th century. The pub is decorated with two life-sized painted lead figures of a Shepherd and a Shepherdess.
The Figures are said to date from the Napoleonic wars (1796-1815) when England’s armaments and munitions capability was restricted by a French blockade on lead. As part of clandestine measures to import the metal without detection, lead works of art were commissioned abroad. One of ten pairs of figures brought from the continent to be melted down for weaponry, the Shepherd and Shepherdess, escaped their intended fate when the squire of beamish Hall purchased them. Firstly, installed above the entrance to the Hall, they were later moved to the lawn when a storm destroyed the accompanying figures of a dog. Sometime in 1870, according to local legend, the squire was returning home after a night’s drinking and stumbled on the figures in the dark. The experience was such a shock that he gave the pair away to the inn at Beamish. Thereafter the pub was known as the Shepherd & shepherdess Inn.
