Durham County Local History Society

News

Journal 88 has been published. Click for details of Journal 88 Contents and Editorial.

Mark Egan says I am grateful to all our contributors and please do get in touch if you would like to write for us – I am happy to provide advice and guidance. Email marksanddancer@googlemail.com

Publications

The Society publishes original research on a range of local topics and new publications are available to members at reduced prices.

The Society's older publications are now only available through Durham County Record Office.

Details of publications stocked by the Record Office can be accessed by clicking here.

The Record Office has an on-line shop see : Record Office Shop

The Society welcomes proposals for new publications and you can contact us by clicking here.

Occasional Publications

At the Feet of the Angel.

Birtley: the Growth of an Industrial Community in the Nineteenth Century by Robert Hull with a Foreword by Sir Antony Gormley.

The Society launched this new book by Robert Hull on 6th December 2023 at Birtley Library.

The book is priced at £15 but will be available to members at £10. It is a paperback book of 192 pages with six maps and 15 black and white illustrations.

Full priced books are available at:

• Gateshead Central Library, Prince Consort Road, Gateshead NE8 4LN
• Birtley Branch Library, Durham Road, Birtley, Chester le Street DH3 1LE

The book is also available from the Society’s Secretary, Dr John Banham, c/o 21 St. Marys Grove, Tudhoe Village, Spennymoor DL16 6LR (e-mail: jdbdclhs@gmail.com ). If you wish to mail order postage and packing will be an additional £3.50 (NB full price £15, members’ price £10). Cheques should be made payable to Durham County Local History Society.

At the Feet of the Angel tells the story of how the industrial community of Birtley developed in the nineteenth century. During this time the Birtley Iron Company and the Pelaw Main collieries were to develop and prosper changing not only the township of Birtley but also the neighbouring villages of Urpeth and Ouston. The driving force behind these developments was the engineer and entrepreneur Benjamin Thompson. In partnership with the Perkins and Hunt families, Thompson put Birtley at the forefront of the technological development of the coal, iron and railway industries in the first part of the nineteenth century. They brought major investment to the region funding capital projects in coal, engineering and railroads, breaking the monopoly of long established landowners and vested interests. Using vestry and council records the author charts the relationship between the Birtley Iron Company and the new community.

As Sir Antony Gormley explains in his Foreword, the story of Birtley deepens understanding and appreciation of the various mixed and entangled lives in the North East, from workers above ground to those below, taking forward the industrial revolution.

Robert Hull grew up in Birtley and studied history at Leicester University before completing an MBA at the Manchester Business School. Following a career as a senior EU official, in his retirement he has completed his research into the history of his home town in the nineteenth century.

In July 2022, the Society produced one of its occasional publications to mark the Bicentenary of the opening of the Hetton Colliery Railway.

The Hetton Coal Company 1820-1836: Adventurers or Madmen? by John Banham.

Paperback 170 pages and five illustrations, price £15. This is being sold by HCR200, c/o Easington Lane Community Access Point, Brickgarth, Easington Lane, Houghton-le-Spring, DH5 0LE. See also the: HCR 200 Ebay Shop

A Visit to the Seaside - PRICE £15 (including postage & packing) in UK only: large paperback, 220 pages and 45 figures. The experiences of Durham people going on holiday by steam train for over 100 years have receded into folk memory. Colin Ryder started his working life with British Rail in the 1960s but this is more than a railwayman’s book. In social history terms, it shows just how much our lives have changed since then, not least through the loss of the railway lines and stations then prominent throughout the County.

To order a copy contact the Secretary Dr John Banham on 01388 816209, e-mail by clicking here or write to him c/o 21 St. Marys Grove, Tudhoe Village, Spennymoor DL16 6LR

Documentary Series

In March 2022, the Society published the tenth volume in its Documentary Series. The Sanctuary Records of Durham and Beverley 1464 – 1539, with an Introduction and Notes by Tim Griffiths. This is a translation of medieval Latin records originally published by the Surtees Society in 1837.

Paperback, 303 pages. This was distributed free to members, but a few copies are still available for sale - price £20 plus postage & packing.

VOLUME 9 - George Bowes' Canvassing Books for the Parliamentary By-Election in the City of Durham January 1729/30 by Elizabeth Fewster was published in September 2015. The Society’s first publication in its documentary series for twenty years, by Elizabeth Fewster, has been well received. It was featured in 2016 in the British Association for Local History Review Editor’s round-up ‘highlighting recent work across a broad geographical and chronological spread’ in The Local Historian, April 2016, vol. 46, no. 2. See below for the review by Dr Sarah Rose.

The North East of England also has a long history of significant privilege when it came to power and authority, with the County Palatine of Durham being controlled by the bishop.
...
The longevity of these institutions raises important questions about the rights of citizenship – questions also provoked by Magna Carta in terms of political participation, rights, and liberties. In Durham, such was the power ofthe bishop, that it had no right to elected representation until 1673. Given how relatively recent parliamentary representation came there, the Durham City by-election of 1729/30 thus forms an important episode. Records relating to event have been published by the Durham County Local History Society to celebrate their 50th anniversary in 2014 (congratulations!). George Bowes’ Canvassing Books provide numerous insights into the processes of election in an era when the franchise was limited within the City to Freeman (a member of the City’s trade companies). As is explained in the thorough introduction to this volume, George Bowes dominated local politics, having represented Durham County for over thirty years. He had used his considerable wealth to literally buy the support of voters to secure his own position, before turning his attentions to helping the Tory candidate for the City. Bowes’s canvassing books name the potential voters – 1,405 people in all – giving their address and occupation, as well as annotations about whether they could be swayed. A variety of social class is represented among the electorate, together with some fifty occupations and some 65 Roman Catholics (who were barred from voting unless they swore oaths of Supremacy and Abjuration). To aid future analysis, this edited version has done away with the alphabetical arrangement of the original text and grouped people according to company. An additional column has also been added, giving dates of admission to each company, drawn from the Durham City Guild Records. This information can thus lend much to our understanding of the City and its workings in this era, as well as assisting research into individuals or families. Read more

Biographies

The Durham Biographies series was published in six volumes between 2000 and 2009, and some volumes are available at the Record Office :

Click here for a cumulative index to Durham Biographies.