Research Projects

by Jane Hatcher

General Background History

Pelton Fell is a settlement which grew up in the 19th century around Pelton Colliery. The older village of Pelton, a short distance to the north, gets its name from the “tun”, or settlement with a “pele” or palisade, or perhaps the “shovel-shaped” hill(1). The addition of the suffix “Fell” suggests that the settlement grew up in what had been a clearing or open country.

Pelton Fell is not separately mentioned in the trades directory of 1848 (2), but a brief description of Pelton is included under the heading of Chester-le-Street. The population of Pelton had been 1,030 at the 1841 Census. The entry mentions the new church which had been built in 1842, mainly at the expense of the local landowners and colliery owners. Holy Trinity Church was designed by G. Jackson in the Early English style (3). A “commodious” parsonage had also been built. Two schools are mentioned, along with Wesleyan and Primitive Methodist chapels. These details are confirmed by the 1st edition of the 6 inch Ordnance Survey map of 1856, which shows the original settlement of Pelton as a small nucleated village. Prominently marked are Pelton House, The Parsonage, and Parochial School (Girls). Further west is marked Parochial School (Boys) and Trinity Church, at that time a perpetual curacy. Pelton Fell is shown as a small development around Pelton Colliery, and on the Pontop and South Shields Branch of the North Eastern Railway. Also mentioned are Burnt Houses, Burnthouse Bank and Burnthouse Quarries, Howlet Hall, Pelton Cottage and The Colliery Hotel. To the south-west is Chester Grange. To the south-east is Whitehill Hall and Whitehill Paper Mill. To the north is Battles Green with a Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, Chapel Row and an old shaft. West of this at South Newfield is High Row.

By the time of a directory of 1879 (4), the church at Pelton had been raised in status to an ecclesiastical parish, which is specifically stated to include Pelton Fell. Wesleyan and Primitive Methodist chapels are mentioned at Pelton Fell, where there is said to be also a good school, supported by the colliery owners. Of the 81 directory entries for Pelton, 7 now specifically mention Pelton Fell, including the Co-operative Store and Owlet Inn.

The 2nd edition of the map in 1898 shows that Pelton Fell has expanded considerably. Between Pelton and Pelton Fell a new railway line has appeared, the Annfield Plain Branch of the North Eastern Railway, with Pelton Station marked at Battles Green. Nearby is a Recreation Ground, and two new schools have also appeared at Battles Green, as well as a new Methodist Chapel. To the south is marked Whitehall Terrace (5), and there is a Mission Hall at Chester Grange, with new terraced housing further west called Grange Terrace. There is extensive development to the north-west of Pelton Fell at Newfield.

By the 1910 directory (6), Pelton Fell has the telegraph office which also served Pelton. Pelton Fell has two mission churches as well as Wesleyan, United Methodist and Primitive Methodist chapels. The Literary Institute, with a library of 1,700 volumes, had been erected by the owners of Pelton Colliery and could seat 500 persons. Pelton Fell now has its own section of 31 directory entries, including a bank, chemist, watch maker and surgeon. The 1921 Ordnance Survey map shows that more development had taken place. At Battles Green there was now an Institute, and considerable building had taken place along Pelton Lane towards West Pelton, including a new school. Dunsany Terrace, named after Lord Dunsancy, one of the local coal owners (7), had been built next to Pelton Fell Colliery.

Mining History

The area of County Durham which included Pelton was one which saw a great deal of new mining activity in the mid-19th century. As more powerful steam engines were developed for pumping and winding, coal could for the first time be mined from the depth at which it was found in the Pelton area. Pelton Fell was the name given to the settlement which grew up around Pelton Colliery, sunk in 1835, and later called Pelton Fell Colliery (8). Colliery owners had contributed towards the expense of building the new church at Pelton in 1842 (9). The 1856 map shows Pelton Colliery and ‘shaft’ situated immediately south of The Colliery Hotel at Pelton Fell. Just west of Battles Green an old shaft is marked. Waldridge Colliery, situated to the south, is shown as being connected by the Waldridge Waggon Way to Pelton Colliery, which was on a railway line.

Pelton features quite prominently in Fordyce’s important work of 1860 on coal mining (10). Pelton Colliery forms one of the illustrations, the scene showing the pit-head buildings and winding gear, also horse-drawn chaldrons. The author says that there was an air shaft of 64 fathoms, and a working shaft of 53 fathoms, the seam wrought being the Hutton which was about 4 � feet thick, and the coal was used principally for the manufacture of gas. West Pelton Colliery had been opened only shortly before 1860, with two pits sunk to the Hutton seam, the mine using both a powerful pumping engine and two winding engines.

The 1898 map shows there now to be the Pelton Colliery Incline. There is extensive development to the north-west at Newfield, with Pelton Colliery (Newfield Pit) being marked, and extensive coke ovens shown. There were apparently 210 coke ovens here (11). By the 1921 map, one gasometer is shown at Pelton Fell Colliery, with another, and a drift, at Newfield Pit.

(1) Victor Watts, A Dictionary of County Durham Place-Names, (2002), p. 93.

(2) Slater’s Directory of Durham (1848) pp. 186-9.

(3) Nikolaus Pevsner, The Buildings of England: County Durham, (1983), p. 370.

(4) Kelly’s Post Office Directory, (1879), pp. 171-2.

(5) Where the officials’ houses were, according to one of the participants on a Durham Miner Project course.

(6) Kelly’s Directory of Durham and Northumberland (1910), pp. 309-310.

(7) DCRO, Durham Collieries, (2001), p. 60.

(8) DCRO, Durham Collieries, (2001), p. 60.

(9) Slater’s Directory of Durham (1848) p. 186.

(10) W. Fordyce, A History of Coal, Coke, Coalfields and Iron Manufacture in Northern England, (1860/1973), pp. 74-76.

(11) Information from a student on a Durham Miner Project course.

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