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Cornsay
Cornsay maps
Historic maps of Cornsay and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Cornsay maps
Cornsay photos
We have no photos of Cornsay, although we do have photos of these nearby places:
Lanchester| Langley Park| Crook| Wolsingham| Ushaw Moor| Castleside| Leadgate| Annfield Plain| Consett| Catchgate| Willington| Howden Le Wear| Witton Gilbert| Brancepeth
Cornsay area books
Displaying 1 of 3 books about Cornsay and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Cornsay
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County Durham memories
The Good Old Days ( I Think)
My name is Jimmy Gascoigne. I was born in Cornsay Colliery in 1953. I went to Cornsay School and Waterhouses. I remember having a great time in them days, getting into trouble at the brick yard more often than not off my dad who worked there. I had the paper round for quite a few years. I remember a few people from our class, June Hosler, Pamela White, Judith Simpson, Nev Chapman my best mate who died in 2009, rest in peace mate, Ian Platt, Tony Riddly. I don't think the place has changed much. If anyone else knows me or has any memories you can email me at: gascoigne490@btinternet.com.
Quebec
My memory of Quebec was the Co-op store and the swings next to the football ground, also when I was a boy I worked for Tommy Quinn on his farm delivering the milk then helping out with the animals, them were the days, hanging on the back of the milk truck, you would never get a way with it these days. Does anyone remember Austin Simpson who lived over the beck at Esh Winning? They say he went to hospital and when they washed him they found a vest. How time flies by but I can remember as though it was yesterday.
2011 Wonderful People of Sunniside
If you happen upon Sunniside near Tow Law be sure to visit one of the two pubs. They are the most friendly I have ever been to. Just introduce yourself and mention this note. At one point they wanted Sunniside to die off as a village but the beautiful people that own the pubs, there are no shops, nothing but them, open their arms offering coffee, tea, and good company. The Comedian offers the best food you could ever eat and the Moss Inn offers old fashioned hospitality. The reason I am writing this is that I have never been to a community so steeped in local history, books, calendars and old men that are willing to tell you all. Please come to Sunniside and make yourself known, this is a village of wonderful people and they deserve to be recognised. The Comedian has one of the last 5's walls in the area, as I said, steeped in local history. It's a totally quality place to be, please visit and... Read more
James Joseph Irvine (Autobiography) 1911 - 1990
Stretching over about a mile on the A68 road to Edinburgh from Darlington, lies the small mining town of Tow Law. Approaching it from Elm Park Road Ends, on a clear day, as you pass the various openings in the terraces of the sandstone houses and cottages, at regular intervals like colour slides, you catch glimpses of the rounded moorlands and hills over and around the Wear Valley. These glimpses of the brown or purple moorland are the redemption of this land and insignificant little town. Not that it is insignificant to the people who live there because they have, especially the older ones, a fierce loyalty to this place. Nor to me either, because that is where I was born on October 30th 1911 in one of these same little colliery cottages in Baring Street, now demolished and rebuilt with the grander name of Baring Court. In the early decades of the 1900's it was a hard place to live in. Tough, because of the harsh slavish work of the pitmen, the... Read more
Esh Winning
I left Esh Winning with my family in 1963 when I was 5 or 6 for a new life in Staffordshire. We initially lived at North Terrace, which is no longer there and later 4 South Terrace. Like Ruth Hill, my father worked at Esh Winning Colliery and had to leave for greener pastures when it closed. I clearly remember the pit ponies and wondered at the time why they were made to work. They did look sad. I remember a pond with a wall around it next to the pit which we used to play in and even then knew we really shouldnt have. My father's brother (Uncle Jim) used to work as a draughtsman in the building on the right as you turned towards the road leading to North Terrace (By the Beck) and once we were let into his inner sanctum to see where he worked. Sometimes my brother and I used to call into the chip shop in the High Street next to Ellas and ask if... Read more
Old Time's Sake
My name is Ken Chapman. I was born in Esh Winning in 1954 and moved away in 1972. I have not been back very much, but do miss people I knew who I worked and went to school with. I went to school at Cornsay colliery and Waterhouses. I didn't have too bad a childhood, although my brother and sister were quite older than me so I was like an only child. I lived on the Hamsteels estate, had mates like the Rewburys, Cricks, McCorts, and out of Esh there was Jewitts, who lived on a farm up at Old Cornsay. I oftern think of all those school mates and think to myself, do they do the same? So if any of them or anyone knows of them and would like to get in touch for old time's sake you can email me at:- kennethcken@aol.com
Morris Family
I was born in Dryburn Hospital, Durham and was christened in St Paul's church in 1960. We lived in Hamilton Row by the Black Horse pub, my dad played darts in the pub and was a miner in the local colliery. Then we moved to Waterhouses until my family moved down to the West Midlands in 1963. My other half of the family came from Bearpark. I still have a lot of family scattered over County Durham. If you know my Morris or Ward family get in touch, my email address is: sharonwillis59@yahoo.co.uk. It would be nice to hear from people in the area who knew my family, my mam and dad were Keith and Muriel Morris.
