Whellan’s business directory of 1894 records that Joshua Elliott carried out the business of Beer Retailer on the site that is now the home and stables, known as the Board, at the far end of the village, opposite the Old Vicarage.
By 1910 the licensee was Joshua Elliott, in the 1934 Kelly’s directory the listed Beer Retailer is William Thompson, and again in 1938. From 1925 the Board Inn Off Licence premises were owned by North Eastern Breweries Ltd. of Sunderland.
The property was sold to William Thompson (licensee) in 1957. In living memory the place was commonly known as “Billy Elgie’s”, or “the Jerry”. Villagers remember Double Maxim, from the Vaux Brewery, was sold there. Customers could also buy paraffin and 2-stroke petrol measured out in a jug. Outside the premises was a yellow petrol pump (now a part of Beamish Museum collection), “Billy Elgie” ran a filling station and his daughter, Connie, had a taxi business based there too. Pigs were kept on the land and their crazy donkey, Toska, grazed in the churchyard.
In the 1930’s there was a small holding and a furniture workshop behind the Board. A relative of Mrs Elva Hockaday lived in a self-made caravan for many years behind the premises.