Teesdale in 1854, Teesdale Mercury

Teesdale in 1854

Oct 28, 2004

JUST what was it like to live in Teesdale when the first edition of our paper was printed in 1854?

Did the countryside look much as it does now; and what about the people - were they much the same as dalesmen now, or have we changed?

There were fewer people living in the dale in 1854, the roads were narrower and more winding, especially the one from Barney Bridge to Lartington. There were no cars or trains (not yet) but lots more horses - on farms, pulling carriages and carts and being ridden from place to place.

The steam age had reached Darlington, but for dales folk, horseback was the fastest way of getting around.

Electricity hadn't been developed in 1854 so there was no television, radio or computer games. It sounds good doesn't it? Gas had just arrived at Staindrop so the houses there were brightly lit.

Barnard Castle

There were no street lights there yet, though Barnard Castle gas works had been there since 1835 so that town was quite brightly lit. In general, though, the dale was very dark at night. There were highway robbers about, just like today ­ well, maybe not in Teesdale.

It was hard luck if they attacked you because there were no hospitals. In the wider world the Crimean War had just started and Florence Nightingale had just left England to care for the wounded soldiers. She revolutionised nursing; but that was for the future. Unlike the sick and disabled, the elderly inhabitants of the dale were well looked after by paid nurses in almshouses in Romaldkirk, Ravensworth and Barnard Castle.

For the destitute there was always the workhouse, situated in Galgate in Barnard Castle since 1838 and capable of accommodating 158 people. There were quite a few schools.

Education, then as now, was valued in Teesdale. The schools weren't run by the state but had been started by benefactors such as William Hutchinson of Bowes, John Parkin, who founded schools in Romaldkirk and Lartington, and John Bowes who paid £10 a year for Lunedale School.

Schooling wasn't compulsory ­ not everybody went and so not everybody could read and write. However some schools, such as the Hutchinson School at Bowes, were freely open to all, boys and girls alike. Latin was taught to any boy thought to benefit and scholarships were available for anyone showing particular promise to attend Oxford or Cambridge University.

The Witham Hall in Barnard Castle had a subscription library of over 2000 books. Children employed by the London Lead Company did have to attend school. The company was one of the biggest employers up the dale and 1854 was a successful year, with about 4000 tons of lead being mined. So, unlike today, there were miners in County Durham ­ in fact a new mine had just opened at Eggleshope. Upper Teesdale, had a much more industrial landscape than it has now.

There was a smelting mill at Eggleston and there were spoil heaps and chimneys and mining shops, where the miners lived during the week, scattered over much of the high fells. Teesdale can't have been so 'pretty' then.

Richard Wtson (1833-91) wrote: Large rubbish heaps along the hill side show. The vast extent of hollow ground below." There were also mines at Cockfield and Evenwood and throughout that district but those mines were for coal, not lead.

Staindrop marked the edge of the Durham coalfield. Life was hard and often short for all the miners and quarriers of the dale no matter what they were digging out of the ground.

The owners of the lead mines were Quakers and they encouraged their employees to attend a place of worship as well as to go to school. Not that dales folk needed much encouragement. Most went to church each Sunday, or more likely, to chapel.

John Wesley had visited these parts 100 years previously and Methodism was a force to be reckoned with in Teesdale. The middle years of the 19th Century were times of religious fervour throughout the dale and beyond. Revival came to Evenwood in 1853 and spread, not for the first time, to Cockfield in 1854. Many a Methodist camp meeting was held on Cockfield Fell.

The movement spawned many powerful speakers and teachers. There were musicians and poets also. Richard Watson the Teesdale poet was in his prime in 1854, writing about life in the mining country above Middleton.

Education was encouraged by the chapel. No wonder there were a lot of schools in Teesdale and no wonder they were full.

Many of the miners and quarrymen were farmers, or at least their wives and families were farmers. Outside the towns and villages nearly everyone was a farmer. Teesdale in 1854 was, despite the industry, overwhelmingly rural.

Work on the farms was remorseless and controlled much more by the whim of the weather than today. Farm work was mainly done by hand with neighbours working together for haymaking, sheep shearing and dipping. Around 300 farmers are included in the directories of the time and these are full-time farmers, there were many more farmers who had another job as well.

Barnard Castle was a crowded and not particularly healthy place in which to live. The area nearest the river and along Bridgegate was particularly unpleasant with inefficient drainage and sewerage disposal. In the early 1850s cholera had broken out in the slums of the town and incidents of dysentery and food poisoning were common. Things were improving in the town and the first steps had been made to bring in clean water and a workable drainage and sewage system. Barney would appear dirty to modern eyes, partly because coal was widely used as fuel and the town was often under a pall of smoke from the chimneys.

The town was quite industrial in 1854: there was a large carpet manufactory based at Thorngate Mill and shoe thread was made at Ullathorne Mill. The work was hard, the hours were long and the pay wasn't much. Many families must have known poverty and hardship. Barnard Castle had the usual shopkeepers and tradesmen but to the modern mind there are some surprises. There were large numbers of shoemakers presumably indicating that shoes were made for the individual and not for the mass market. No doubt they were guaranteed to fit the customer. There were six straw bonnet makers in the town and slightly more hatters. Everyone wore hats in those days.

We learn from the first edition of the Teesdale Advertiser that there were no shops in Galgate but there were many in Horse Market and Newgate.

Another surprise about Teesdale was the level of communication with the rest of the country. Coaches left Barnard Castle daily for Darlington and carriers connected with places as far flung as Sunderland, Penrith, Bolton and Newcastle on at least a weekly basis. Even Middleton had its carriers who travelled regularly to Barnard Castle, Darlington and Newcastle.

At Darlington the railways started and from there stretched to London and beyond. Teesdale was not as isolated as it appears and people travelled far from the dale. America and Canada were not unknown to dales people. Many a dalesman tried life in the new world ­ and quite a few returned to Teesdale as well.

Adventurous, independent, religious and educated ­ is that a description of a typical dalesman of 1854? The land that they inhabited was wilder and more industrial than now but in some ways it was an exciting time in which to live. There were many opportunities for ordinary folks if they had the ability or the imagination or a bit of luck. Teesdale in 1854 was on the brink of a new world.