You have only to look at the exterior of the Black Swan Hotel to realise that it’s certain to have quite a life-story to tell. Three distinct façades speak of a pedigree that flows back to Tudor times, witnessing the arrival of the motor car and through the coaching days of the 17th and 18th centuries: the Leeds-York ‘Helmsley Highflyer’, known locally as the ‘Mucky Duck’, passed this way three times a week in the 19th century.