Dating back to the seventeen hundreds, the Black Horse was only one of 10 cottages built on the estate of the infamous Bobby Shafto. MP for County Durham from 1760-68, he was born at Whitworth and was immortalised in the famous northern song, Bonny Bobby Shafto.

The song was used as an election ditty and is thought to be based on the hopes of Mary Bellasis of Brancepeth Castle who believed that Bobby Shafto would come back and marry her. Sadly, he married someone else and Mary is said to have died of a broken heart.

The Black Horse was the first and largest of the cottages which all had red tiled roofs, Hence the name Red Row. Leases were given to build the cottages on the condition that one able bodied man from each cottage was available to work on the quarry or down the coalmine.
The first and largest cottage to be built, a consensus of 1700's shows there were twenty five people living in this one alone. Amongst the residents were, domestic servants, scholars and colliery workers and their children. Legends of the Black Horse gambling den still abound today. People gathered here for drinking and gambling sessions due to its remote country location. Eventually it had to legitimize itself and became a licensed drinking pub around eighteen hundred and fifty.