Potto, North Yorkshire

Potto is a village and civil parish in the Hambleton district of North Yorkshire, England. It is 5 miles south-west of Stokesley and near the main A172 road.HistoryIn the middle-to-late 1950s the village became known as the village with "the pub that never opened". If a person wanted to enter, the then owner a Mr. Heslop would look through the window to see if you were respectable or not. After his death, the pub and contents were sold off, the "Johnnie Walker" copper serving tray passing into the hands of the late Richard Preston senior, steam preservationist who passed it on to his grandson (nephew of the second Richard) who still looks after it. Potto also boasted a railway station, but fell to the furtive failures of Dr. Beeching in the middle of the 1950s. It was bought up by the original Richard, whose son put it to use founding the business Prestons of Potto. Other material includes the station-master's lamp, the station clock and diverse photographic material, last train, etc.GeographyLocated close to the western border of North York Moors National Park, Potto is a small village that has a pub, a church and a haulage company. The surrounding villages are Swainby in south, Hutton Rudby and Rudby in north, Faceby and Carlton in Cleveland to the east. It is 11.5 miles from Northallerton, and 14 miles from Middlesbrough and Stockton-on-Tees.