The Veterinary Arms owes its origins to another local inn on the outskirts of Hunmanby, the Royal Oak which is situated on the major road (A165) passing to the east of the village. In the 1800s the Royal Oak became a licensed premises in order to provide refreshment, lodgings and fresh horses for the fast Hull to Scarborough stagecoach. Upon reaching the Hunmanby Gap cross roads the post horn was sounded (a long horn blown by the coach drivers mate) which alerted staff at the Royal Oak to make ready a fresh team of horses and have food ready for the passengers. This would speed up the stop therefore not holding up the stage for to long. This was very important, as the stagecoach was at this time in keen competetion with the railways. However by 1900 the stagecoach was suspended, the railways beginning to take more and more trade from the roads. Meanwhile up in the village of Hunmanby a local vet Mr Fred Belt, who was in keen competetion with other local vets decided to diversify and bought the license from the Royal Oak, (which became a Temperance Hotel) transferring it to his premises in Hungate Lane Hunmanby. He installed a landlord /landlady and thus the Veterinary Arms public house was born. The Veterinary Arms (up to its closure in 1992), was believed to be the only pubic house/inn in England bearing this unique name. It remained as a simple beer house, as pubs were known in those days, until the 1960s.When it gained its full license. Oliver Bosomworth and Henry Blackburn were two landlords that spring to mind who ran the Vet, (as it was christened by the locals) until, along with an adjoining cottage it was purchased by Mr Ernest Read who utilised the cottage, creating the latter day licensed premises. This conversion included a restaurant and an enlarged bar and lounge area and thus the Veterinary Arms became quite a respected establishment. Following in the footsteps of Ernest Read came Peter and Shirley Clarke who after a while handed over to the late and popular Roy and Margaret Scothern. Changing hands again, prior to Mr Jim Peel and his wife Sue taking over, the Vet suffered a fall in trade which resulted in Jim and Sue applying for planning permission to convert it back to domestic dwellings. With planning permission granted the Veterinary Arms public house finally closed its doors in 1992..

The Vet had been a popular pub in the village and like other pubs, produced good darts and dominos teams. Being a Camerons house, some darts were played on Friday nights in the Camerons sponsored league, as well as Wednesday nights in the Hunmanby and District darts and dominos league. Team players would move around the village pubs in pursuit of darts and dominos and as a result the Vet had a successful team in the Friday league. Added to its popularity, as a pub the vet also became a popular place to eat out, and in later years also catered for private functions as a result of an extension being added to the rear of the premises. Some popular resident's of the vet (familiar to the writer) included Harry Robson (young Harry), George Jeorge (alias Polish George), George Gash, Harry Arnell, Harry Stockdale, (the local butcher) Hockey Collins, Jack Maw (a local joiner) and George Emerson to name just a few. A refreshing tipple of these locals was a pint of Strongarm bitter for which The Camerons Brewery (based at Hartlepool) was famed for brewing. The technique involved using water from their own well, which the brewery was actually built around. Completing this story, The Royal Oak regained its license due to an increase in trade, in the late fifties and early sixties, because of the summer influx of people visiting Butlins (up to its closure in 1984), Primrose Valley and Reighton Gap holiday centres, continuing to this day, to trade as a popular local public house.

Note: The two gentlemen standing outside the Veterinary Arms are as follows....
The short man on the left is Arthur Lawty and the tall man is Ernest Shepherd.