Know your Parish

Cramlington

Joan Bunting

Few people passing Cramlington New Town by road or rail would attribute to this rapidly expanding community any history.  They would of course be wrong.   A brief outline is as follows: The remains of two Anglo-Saxon towns have been found near the railway line.   These later developed into the hamlet of Whitelaw which later still became Whitelaw Farm. In the ninth century the Vikings attacked and eventually settled - mainly under a King Kramel hence Kramel'ton - Cramlington. In 1163 - A chapel, ‘Our Chapel of St. Mary’ was erected on the site of the present church (St.  Nicholas). By1270- the village of Cramlington consisted of a hall, a chapel, four cottages and a water mill owned by Adam of Jesmond. In 1327 the Chapel of St. Mary' was renamed St.Nicholas. By 1665 St. Nicholas was almost completely ruined and the Lawson family, who owned most of Cramlington, paid for repairs.

By the early seventeenth century - Coal was being mined at Plessy and taken by horse drawn wagon to Blyth. Hartford Colliery begun. In 1812 - both mines closed. and a Church school opened. Nineteenth century - Cramlington population increasing, due to opening of collieries and East Coast railway line: 1821 Census - 280 inhabitants; 1851 - 3,367.

On the 1 July 1847 - Railway opened - Station Master: Joseph Mundy. We also know that the grocer and flour dealer was Thomas Atthy, James Barras was butcher,  John Bell another grocer, William Bell a brick-maker and the surgeon was Robert Craig. In 1851 there were four public houses, including the Railway Tavern which still exists to this day. In 1853 a Girls’ School opened. In 1865 - a new church was built, and completed in 1868.

By 1855 Cramlington consisted of three distinct communities: the old village, West Cramlington, established around one of the larger pits; and East Cramlington, taking its character from nearby Seaton Delaval.

Early twentieth century - Shankhouse had a famous football team, “Shank-house Black Watch", who played and won all over the country.

Mining accidents were a fact of life in the village. For example: 2 .3.1860 Burradon and Hartley - a gas explosion killed 76 men and boys; in 1862 Hartley Pit disaster -215 men and boys died after the beam from the engine fell, blocking the shaft ; 1886 a seven year old boy was killed

Apart from mining, the other main employment was farming. There were four main farms: Bells, Whitehall, East and West Farms. Much of the old farm land remained until fairly recently. Some of the land was used as an airfield in the First World War.  Now even more is providing the site of the new town, many of whose estates take the names of the twelve farms listed the 1886 directory, and others from the pits and coal seams upon which they are built.

Landowners of Cramlington since Kramel have included: Nicholas de Grenville (barony of Ellingham); the Gaugy family (Lords of Jesmond); and William Cram- lington; whose daughters both married into the Lawson family and took East & West Cramlington respectively as their portions. West Cramlington remained with the Lawsons until a member of the Lawson family, sold it to Sir Matthew White Ridley in 1834. East Cramlington was purchased from Sir John Lawson in 1791 by Robert Storey and his daughter and heiress married George Shum, who built Arcot House (now a golf club). He was succeeded by Henry Shum-Storey whose daughter married Captain Shawe in 1872. A Mrs Shawe-Storey was living at Arcot in 1928.

Cramlington became a parish in 1800 having previously been a chapelry of St. Nicholas, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The original parish records are at Woodhorn archives are more or less complete from 1665.

Editors note

Bishops' Transcripts exist, with gaps, from 1762 to 1858 at the University of Durham. Special collections and Archives at Palace Green Library, Durham City. These are now on-line link from this website Marriages between 1814 and 1836 can be found on-line at Genuki (Northumberland) Methodist records for Shankhouse baptisms 1908-1951, Cramlington Baptisms 1969-1974. Cramlington Colliery - Marriages 1950-1969

The NDFHS hold the following records for Cramlington: Baptisms from 1665 to 1839, Marriages from 1665 to 1839, Burials 1666 to 1813, Monumental Inscriptions for St Nicholas Churchyard

Books on-line at Google

An Historical, Topographical, and Descriptive view of the County of Northumberland by Enas Mackenzie page 410-412 gives a short history of the Parish.

Memorial for 1862 New Hartley pit disaster and an account of the disaster can be found on the Durham mining museum website, the site covers not just Durham but the northern counties of Northumberland, Cumberland, and Westmorland.