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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Durham => Topic started by: Elliven on Thursday 11 December 25 14:39 GMT (UK)
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Can anyone please tell me if there are any old (pre OS) maps of the Consett area. To be more specific, I am looking to find the exact location of a blacksmith's workshop that stood on or near the site of what is now the Grey Horse public house in Sherburn Terrace in modern Consett.
This pub was built in 1848 when the town of Consett was barely established, so the map would have to pre-date that time. Many thanks.
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According to Google the first OS maps of County Durham did not appear until at least 1854.
The National Library of Scotland Map section has many older maps of the county but nothing like the detail on an OS map. The earliest OS map on the NLS site appears to have been surveyed around that time and published in 1857.
https://maps.nls.uk/
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To RJ_Paton
Thank you for that information
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Sorry - correction surveyed in 1857 and published 1862
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Have you checked Durham Archives catalogue?
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hanes teulu,
No, but I will be visiting the records office next week and I will do that.
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I had a look at Historical Directories but earliest on line for Sherburn is 1851 -
https://leicester.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16445coll4/id/312131/rec/3
(click on > for next page)
Can see a "Bay Horse Inn" but not "Grey Horse Inn". Had checked the '57 map which records the "Target Inn" in that location. Later maps show "Grey Horse Inn".
Meant to add - how are you able to pinpoint the Grey Horse Inn as the location of the lost smithy?
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The 1858 Directory has the "Gray Horse" -
https://leicester.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16445coll4/id/320909/rec/4
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hanes teulu,
The Sherburn you looked up is at least 12 miles away from Consett, on the other side of Durham City.
The Sherburn Road you found is in Consett and the Target Inn did become The Grey Horse but that was in the 19th Century. I have no real hard evidence of the existence of an earlier building but there are many persistent mentions of an older smithy on the site. Originally the pub also had a smithy so it is likely that the new pub was a replacement for an older business.
One of the stories suggests that the original building was a single storey thatched building and the blacksmith brewed his ale as a sideline to supplement his income. This was quite a common occurence in those days.
At the time the present building was erected, the steel works at Consett were in their infancy and the present town of Consett was just beginning to emerge from what had been a few scattered houses and farms. The pub was in easy walking distance of the steel works and, if the story is true, it was in a very good position for steel workers and farm workers alike.
A footpath emerges from the countryside very close to the pub and this is reputed to have been a drover's path. If true, this would have been an ideal place for drovers to rest and take refreshment and to have the metal cleats attached to the feet of the cattle as they approached the harder roads.
The cleats were like horse shoes but covered the whole hoof, thus preventing damage from pebbles and sharp stones.
It is all very circumstantial and I am trying to prove, or disprove, the story. If true, it means that The Target/Grey Horse is, by far, the oldest pub in Consett. If untrue, it means that that honour goes to The Black Horse which was renamed the Stirling Castle and is now demolished.
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hanes teulu,
Also note that the Target/Grey Horse was in a very good position and was built in 1848 in the infancy of the steel works when Consett was just emerging as an important industrial town.
It was positioned at the end of a reputed drover's trail and was ideally placed for moving animals to Durham City and the two important market towns of Shotley Bridge and Lanchester. Before the rise of Stanley (coal mining) and Consett (steel making), these two places were much more important than they are today - they are now both very attractive dormer villages for the wider areas but they were both important administrative centres at that time.
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This map shows a Roman Road coming into Leadgate - and a smithy is marked. Would drovers have been using this route?
https://maps.nls.uk/view/101168243#zoom=5.8&lat=3165&lon=6643&layers=BT
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hanes teulu,
No, that road goes from York to Scotland but if Scottish drovers used it, they would have branched off somewhere north of Consett, perhaps towards Shotley Bridge.
The map was revised in 1895 and shows the whole of Sherburn Terrace but, when the Target/Grey Horse was built, there were large gaps in Sherburn Terrace. If you look carefully, the pub was located on the road just below the second r in Carr Ho(use). Carr House being the extreme edge of Consett (or Conside and Knitsley as it was then known).
This map no longer shows the footpath/drover's trail that existed at the time and is now all built over. It is so frustrating as I live only about 2 miles away from the site of the pub and I can find virtually nothing on it's history!
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Looking at the OS 6-inch map 1857/1862: https://maps.nls.uk/view/266662366
Follow your path to the NW, across Barhouse Lane to Black Fine. It crosses a parish and township boundary where it appears to have been disrupted by quarries and an enclosure road, Black Fine Bank, but then it sets off northwestwards across fields probably enclosed during the 18th cent. This part of the route was probably modified by an enclosure award. Then it joins a pre-enclosure lane to Benfieldside and Shotley Bridge. I would be asking Durham Archives if there is an enclosure award for Benfieldside township, and looking at the section which sets out bridle roads, usually near the beginning, between sections on roads and footpaths. Hopefully there is a map.
Carr House is in a small detached piece of Ebchester parish and township (137 acres) which may have its own enclosure award.
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Thank you MollyC,
That is an interesting idea. By 1848, when the pub was built, the drover's roads were becoming less important but I am curious to know whether there was a smithy on the site of this pub before the actual pub was built.
I don't believe that this was a major drover's route. I just wonder whether there was a smithy there before the pub was built. Even a minor droving route would provide blacksmithing and pub business at this point.
If there was a proper smithy there, he might well have brewed ale as a sideline - effectively proving that there was a pub there, or even an inn - if he provided overnight accommodation for one or more persons - even if they slept in a barn.
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At Carr House on the '41 Census is Robert Shotton. I have checked the Census pages (Iviston) for a blacksmith in the locale. The nearest popped up in Kyo.
The only publican is Sarah Swallwell. Her address is simply Iviston.
I checked the tithe maps for the area. There's a map that predates the building of the pub but cannot post details (Ts & Cs of my subscribing).
regards
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hanes teulu,
Thank you for that information. Sadly, Iveston is at least 2 miles from Carr House and Kyo is confusing because there are three places with that name. New Kyo was only built in the late 19th Century and can be discounted. East and West Kyo are both very old villages but all three are even further away from Carr House than Iveston.
It looks like this is going to be mission impossible - but I will keep trying!
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On the '41 Census the Census sheet for Carr House is headed "Township of Iviston". The transcribed address reads "Carr House, Lanchester" - Lanchester being the Parish. I checked all the Census sheets headed Township of Iviston, failing to spot a blacksmith amongst them. The nearest blacksmith to Carr House was in the "Township of Kyo, Annfield Plain".
Sadly, many addresses didn't drill down to house/street number or similar.
Best of luck with the search.
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At reply #14 Sarah Swallwell appears as a publican at Iviston.
See page 177 - Iveston. This tome published 1828.
https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_MbA3AAAAYAAJ/page/176/mode/2up
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Sadly, Iveston is at least 2 miles from Carr House
Lanchester Parish was sub-divided into 'townships' one of which was Iveston. The township comprised a far wider area than just the village of Iveston - it extended as far as Brooms and Stony Heap, and also down to Boggle Hole, where my ancestors lived. As you can see from the link provided in the previous posting, Carr House was in the Township of Iveston.
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Townships were largely translated into Civil Parishes during the later 19th century. They must have entered the 1841 census for Carr House as part of Iviston township as a matter of convenience, but not strictly correctly. It is the large black italic lettering which denotes the township and the boundary of this detached piece is the dot/dash line along the north side of the road, labelled FW meaning the boundary is at the foot of the wall, plus a short length Und(efined). Iveston township lies to the south of the wall, with a note that it also has 229 acres of detached portions elsewhere. (Most of this kind of detached area was "tidied up" by the Divided Parishes Acts from about 1870 onwards.)
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Townships were largely translated into Civil Parishes during the later 19th century. They must have entered the 1841 census for Carr House as part of Iviston township as a matter of convenience, but not strictly correctly. It is the large black italic lettering which denotes the township and the boundary of this detached piece is the dot/dash line along the north side of the road, labelled FW meaning the boundary is at the foot of the wall, plus a short length Und(efined). Iveston township lies to the south of the wall, with a note that it also has 229 acres of detached portions elsewhere. (Most of this kind of detached area was "tidied up" by the Divided Parishes Acts from about 1870 onwards.)
If you check the Tithe map, 1840, Iveston is recorded as the Parish.
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JenB, MollyC and hanes teleu,
That really does surprise me! And that is the second time I have been caught out by detached areas in parishes.
Thanks to all of you for pointing out my mistake.
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As Lanchester parish was more than 46,000 acres its tithe award may have been divided into sections. Iveston village is near the foot of this map sheet and I cannot see a church there. The Ordnance Survey was usually spot-on in recording all these boundaries and acreages, but many relate to medieval landholdings which had become irrelevant by the 19th century and could not be altered until the law was changed.
The 1828 reference is to a directory, which not being an official publication, probably took a pragmatic view about where to list businesses.
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There was certainly, at some time, a Methodist Church in Iveston, but there was never an Anglican Church. All my Reed ancestors of Boggle Hole were baptised and buried at the parish church at Lanchester.
Edit: I had better correct myself and say that many were buried at Lanchester, but a couple were buried at Leadgate and one at Dipton.