Spennymoor - 1902

SPENNYMOOR is a market town, with a station on the Bishop Auckland and Ferry Hill branch of the North Eastern Railway, and is 4 miles west from Ferry Hill, 5 ½ miles north-east from Bishop Auckland and 6 miles south from Durham, 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 and 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. Andrews 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 and 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 and Shildon Water Works. The ecclesiastical parish of St. Paul was constituted from Whitworth, October 29, 1875. The church of St. Paul erected in 1857 and enlarged in 1876 and again in 1890 at a total cost of 1,060, is a plain building of stone, in the Gothic style, consisting of chancel nave, aisles, south porch, and western tower containing 8 tubular bells: there are several memorial windows, including one erected by the parishioners December, 1878, to the Rev. 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 300, with residence in the gift of the Dean and Chapter of Durham, and held since 1875 by the Rev. Joseph Short B.D. of Durham University. There are Baptist, Wesleyan Methodist, Primitive Methodist, Free Methodist and Welsh Calvanistic Methodist chapels, a Christian Lay Church and an Evangelistic mission room. 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 Headly Memorial Hall, and two market halls, one in Spennymoor proper and the other in Tudhoe Grange adjoining. The market is held on Saturday. The North-Eastern Hotel, adjoining the Railway Station, was erected in 1894, and is well appointed throughout. Victoria Park, 16 acres in extent, was opened to the public in June, 1889; it is laid out with flower beds and walks and contains a bandstand and an artificial lake; it is now under the control of the Urban District Council. The area of Spennymoor Urban District Council is: Spennymoor, 176; Tudhoe Parish,1,852; Merrington Lane Parish, 318; Low Spennymoor, 232; Whitworth Parish, 817; total 3,395 acres; rateable value, 43,352; the population in 1901 was 16,661; the population of St. Paul’s ecclesiastical parish in 1891 was 5,468. Post, M. O. & T. O., T. M. O., Express Delivery, Parcel Post, S. B. & Annuity & Insurance Office, George R. Keate, 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 opens daily from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. & 8 to 10 a.m. on Sundays for callers & dispatched at 5.10 p.m. only on Sundays. All the Letter Boxes are collected in time for several dispatches. URBAN DISTRICT COUNCIL Offices, Silver Street. Meeting day, the last Thursday in every month at 6.30 p.m. MEMBERS All retire in April, 1903. Chairman, Peter Knox Vice-Chairman, Thomas Raine SPENNYMOOR WARD William Archer John W. Berriman N. Butterfield Thomas S. Cheeseman John Coldwell H. Copeland Thomas Grant John Reavley Robert Telfer LOW SPENNYMOOR LOW SPENNYMOOR was constituted a separate township in 1894, and is included in the Urban District of Spennymoor. The area is 197 acres; rateable value, 1,633; the population in 1901 was 1,175. Letters through Spennymoor for this place.

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