Spennymoor - 1910

Spennymoor is a market town, with a station on the Bishop Auckland Ferry Hill branch of the North eastern railway, and is 4 miles west from Ferry Hill, 5 ½ north-east from Bishop Auckland, 6 south from Durham and 249 from London, in the Bishop Auckland division of the county, north-west division of Darlington ward, petty sessional division and county court district of Bishop Auckland, Auckland Union, and rural deanery and archdeaconry of Auckland and diocese of Durham. The town, which from July, 1864, was controlled by a Local Board, is now governed by an Urban District Council of twenty-one members, formed under the provisions of the “Local Government Act, 1894" (56 & 57 Vict. C. 73). Spennymoor Urban District was extended 31 December, 1894, and comprises the civil parishes of Tudhoe, Whitworth, Low Spennymoor and Merrington Lane; and likewise contains the following ecclesiastical parishes, viz.,:- Holy Innocents of Tudhoe, St. Andrew’s of Tudhoe Grange, St. Paul’s of Spennymoor and part of Whitworth. This place has rapidly advanced in importance, wealth and population, owing to the product of coal and the establishment of the Weardale Steel, Coal & Coke Co. Ltd., who employ many hundred men: in a few years it has risen from an obscure township into a wealthy town. It is lighted with gas and by electric light and supplied with water from the Weardale & Shildon Water Works. By Local Government Board order No. 32,175, parts of the civil parishes of Ferryhill, Merrington, Tudhoe and Whitworth were, in 1894, added to the Urban District. The ecclesiastical parish of St. Paul’ was constituted from Whiotworth, October 29th. 1875. The Church of St. Paul erected in 1857 and enlarged in 1876 and again in 1890, at a total cost of one thousand and sixty pounds, is a plain building of stone, in the Gothic style, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, south porch, and western tower, containing tubular bells; there are several memorial windows, including one erected by the parishioners December, 1878, to the Reverend Charles carr B. A. vicar of Whitworth, 1848-81; there are sittings for 482 persons. The register dates from the year 1858. The living is a vicarage, net yearly value three hundred pounds, with residence, in the gift of the Dean and Chapter of Durham, and held since 1900 by the Reverend Joseph Short B. D., D. C. L. of Durham University. There are Baptist (English and Welsh), Wesleyan Methodist, Primitive Methodist, United Methodist and Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Chapels, a Christian Lay church and Salvation Army Halls. The Town Hall, in High Street, chiefly used for concerts and other public entertainments, is 70 by 34 feet, and has a platform at one end 31 by 16 feet, and private entrances. There is also a theatre, Masonic Hall, the Hedley Memorial Hall, and two market halls, one in Spennymoor proper and the other in Tudhoe Grange adjoining. The Assemble Hall, in Duncombe street holding 900 people, is now used as an auction sale room. The market is held every Saturday. The North Eastern hotel, adjoining the railway station, was erected in 1894. The Urban District Isolation Hospital in Merrington lane parish, was erected in 1902 at a cost of six thousand five hundred pounds, and will hold twelve patients. Victoria park, 16 acres in extent, was opened to the public in 1889; it is laid out with flower beds and walkes, and contains a band stand and artificial lake; it is now under the control of the Urban district Council. The area of Spennymoor Urban District is : Low Spennymoor, 237; Tudhoe parish, 1,853; Merrington Lane parish, 315; Whitworth parish, 983; total, 3,388 acres; assessable value in 1910, thirty six thousand one hundred and thirty four pounds; the population in 1901 was, Low Spennymoor, 1,175; Merrington Lane 1,598; Tudhoe, 7,652; Whitworth, 6, 240; total, 16,665. The population of the Urban District Wards in 1901 was, Ferryhill, 2, 773; Spennymoor, 6, 052; Tudhoe, 7, 840 Merrington Lane is a civil parish, formed in 1894, by Local Government Board Order No. 31, 709, from that part of Merrington civil parish in Spennymoor Urban District. The area is 315 acres; rateable value, three thousand seven hundred and thirty pounds; the population in 1901 was 1, 598. Here is a Mission Church, which is served from St. Andrew’s Tudhoe. OFFICIAL ESTABLISHMENTS, LOCAL INSTITUTIONS &C. Post, M.O. & T. & Telephonic Express Delivery Office. Charles William Burdon, postmaster. Letters are delivered at 7 a.m. & 3 &7 p.m. & dispatched at 9 .45 & 11 .10 a.m. & 1 .50, 6 .30 & 9 p.m.; office open daily from 7 a.m. to 8 .30 p.m. (Friday until 9 p.m.) & 8 .30 to !0 a.m. on Sundays for callers & dispatched at 5 .10 p.m. only on Sundays. All Letter Boxes are collected in time for several dispatches. Clyde Terrace Town Sub-Post Office & M.O. Office. Miss Edith A. Chambers, sub-postmistress. Letters dispatched 5 .45, 9 .15 & 10 .45 a.m. & 1 .15, 6, 7 .45 & 8 .30 p.m. Sundays, 4 .30 p.m. Mount Pleasant Town Sub-Post & M.O. Office. Miss K. Rymer, sub-postmistress. Letters dispatched 8 .30 & 10 .30 a.m. & 1 .15, 5 .45, 7 .45 & 8 .30 p.m. URBAN DISTRICT COUNCIL Offices, Silver Street, Meeting day, the last Thursday in every month at 6 .30 p.m. MEMBERS All retire in April 1913 Chairman, Henry Copeland Vice-chairman, Anthony Blenkin Spennymoor Ward William Baines Henry Butcher John Coldwell Henry Copeland Richard Cram Robert Fenny John Reavley George William Scott Joseph Short B.D., D.C.L. Tudhoe Ward Richard Birchall John Bland Anthony Blenkin William Fryer John Pinkney G. Rhymer Buston Unwin Thomas Henry Warwick William White Ferry Hill Ward Robert Rudd John George Shaw Thomas C. Sutton Officials Clerk, Frederick Badcock, 3 James Street Treasurer, Arthur Wood Elliff, National Provincial Bank of England Medical Officer of Health, William Mussellwhite M.R.C.S. Eng., L.R.C.P. & D.P.H. Lond. Grange House, Tudhoe Grange Surveyor, C. R. Spencer, Urban District Council offices Sanitary Inspector, Arthur Dowdell, Urban District Council Offices Collector & Market Manager, Miss Henderson, Urban District Council Offices PUBLIC ESTABLISHMENTS Cemetery, Merrington Lane, Frederick Badcock, clerk Freemasons’ Hall, Dundas Street, John T. Gutherie, secretary Hedley memorial hall, Dundas Street Police Station, Park Avenue, Edward S. James, inspector; J. Newton Sergeant & 4 constables Stamp office, High Street, Charles William Burdon, distributor Town Hall, High Street, Anthony Edward Innes, secretary Urban District Isolation Hospital, Merrington Lane, William Mussellwhite, medical officer, Miss Marie A. Elliot, matron TERRITORIAL FORCE 6th. Battalion Durham Light Infantry (Captain Stanley Edgar Badcock; Colour-Seargeant Ernest Baugh, drill instructor) PUBLIC OFFICERS Assistant Overseer, George Byers, 4 St. Paul’s Gardens Clerk to Spennymoor Sub-Committee of County Durham Local Pensions Committee, Frederick Badcock, 3 James Street Inspector of Lodging Houses, Edward S. James, Police Station, Park Avenue Medical Officer & Public Vaccinator, Whitworth District, Auckland Union, Thomas Lambe, M.R.C.S. Eng., L.R.C.P. London, Hillingdon House Relieving Officer, Whitworth District, Auckland Union, William John Sanderson, 12 Beaumont Terrace PUBLIC ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS Durham County Education Committee, Spennymoor District, consists of a sub-committee of 15 members; Thompson Raine, district clerk, Dunhelm, Durham Road Spennymoor (boys, girls & infants), Rosa Street, built in 1878, for 800 children; average attendance 700; John Macfarlan Chisholm, master; Miss Minnie Tweedle, mistress; Miss Ella Dallas, infants’ mistress. High Street (mixed & infants), built in 1859, for 310 children; average attendance, 276; Albert Charles Brown, master; Mrs. Elsie Royston, infants’ mistress

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