Spread Eagle, Cottingham

The Spread Eagle on the corner of Cottingham High Street was originally a thatched cottage and the pub served pints to villagers from at least 1854 through to 2020.

The Old Spread

In the 1950s, the landlord and his family used to live in the house you can see to the left of the pub in the last picture above.

Former villager Ann Giles, who was born in the cottage next to the pub, recalls: “It was a lovely, cosy little pub with small rooms. I remember the village football team used to change in a room at the back and had to run down the street to play matches. In those days you went upstairs to the skittle room and if they threw the cheeses too hard they used to fly out of the window and we children would get them and throw them back up.” (Information from a press clipping in Corby Library Archives).

The New Spread Eagle, 1960s

In the 1960s, a new Spread Eagle was built behind the original pub, which was subsequently demolished. The first picture above shows this construction in progress. In the two pictures taken from High Street, you can see the empty frame that held the Crown Inn pub sign in the foreground.

In the pictures above, you can see the single storey extension that was built into the front of the pub at a later date, after the old thatched pub had been demolished. This section housed the restaurant that sat up a couple of steps from the main lounge bar, and there was another bar area, with a pool table and dart board, in the back room. After a troubled few years, the Spread Eagle eventually closed for good in 2020 and has subsequently been converted into apartments.

Landlords