The Station Hotel was one of two pubs in the village with a ball alley. A very tall brick wall was smoothed with cement for the purpose of playing handball. The name change came about when James and Hannah Etherington ran the hotel in the early 20th century. Their two-year-old granddaughter got out on to the stairwell at the back, prompting James to call her a little monkey after her mother, in trying to grab her, fell down the stairs. Initially he renamed the pub the Monkey and it later became the New Monkey.
In 1954 Harry Callow moved from the Big Jug in Durham City to run the pub with his 80-year-old mother, who always dressed like Queen Victoria. It developed a reputation for lock-ins, with villagers trusted to operate the large brass cash register once Harry had gone to bed.
