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Hedley Hope
Hedley Hope maps
Historic maps of Hedley Hope and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Hedley Hope maps
Hedley Hope photos
We have no photos of Hedley Hope, although we do have photos of these nearby places:
Crook| Wolsingham| Howden Le Wear| Willington| Witton Le Wear| Lanchester| Brancepeth| Hamsterley| Langley Park| Ushaw Moor| Castleside| Witton Gilbert
Hedley Hope area books
Displaying 1 of 3 books about Hedley Hope and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Hedley Hope
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County Durham memories
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
Nanna's House
I remember going to my nana's house in Roddymoor, it was only a bungalow but I was so small I thought it was massive, haha. I remember jumping the little ditch near her house. I remember taking pictures of the horses.
Childhood
I was born in Roddymoore and lived there until I was six, I remember the walk up to the school and the many times we had to walk from my grandparents' home in Crook as the bus couldn't get through due to the snow. I fondly remember a family I adored, Nancy, Walter and their daughters Ann and Gwen and Tommy Griffiths whom I was good friends with. I now live in South Wales with my husband and 2 children but remember my few years in Roddymoore fondly.
Front Street
We did most of our Saturday shopping on Stanley Front Street.
On Monday 28th January 2002, L. Storey, of Stanley, wrote a poem, about some MEMORIES OF STANLEY, in The Northern Echo. It brought back so many of my own memories of growing up in Stanley (not reproduced here for copyright reasons).
Burns Pit Disaster
From his seat, by the fire, my grandad could see the great mound of the spoil heap of Stanley Burns Pit. It was the site of a horrific explosion, on 16th February 1909, in which 168 men and boys lost their lives. He would sometimes talk of the day he heard the enormous explosion, he was 12 years old at the time.
The grandfather of Kevin Keegan (he who played football for Liverpool and England and was once manager of Newcastle United) was one of the few men to escape from the mine that day. It's worth bearing in mind that if his grandfather had not escaped, then there would have been no Kevin Keegan.
200,000 people were supposed to have invaded Stanley on the day of the funerals.
“The pal of death hung over the whole neighbourhood. It was a week never to be forgotten.”
“The bringing home of the bodies, heart-rending scenes at the pit. Wherever you look, you are brought face to face... Read more
Rumbyhill
My grandparents, John and Ginny Loftus, lived at Rumbyhill farm from the 1920's until they retired about 1950. This was the old Rumbyhill farm, subsequently the name was given to the farm across the road.
My mother grew up at the farm and has many happy memories. Granddad used to give out oranges and apples to the children at Christmas. Rumbyhill was a proper little village in those days.
Does anyone remember the Loftus family or have any old photos of Rumbyhill? My mother would love to get in touch or see the photos.
