Norwood Family At Cornsay Colliery

A Memory of Cornsay Colliery.

Many of the paternal side of my family lived in Cornsay Colliery - in fact my father was born there in 1913. My great grandfather, Robert Norwood, worked at the Ferens and Love colliery there where he was responsible for all the rope work used on the haulage ways in the drift mines, and he and my great grandmother raised 7 children there. He and one of his daughters died there on two consecutive days, of Spanish Flu in 1919 and were buried in Hamsteels churchyard. Another daughter died of the same illness several weeks later.
My grandfather, Lancelot, worked at the colliery and was a member of the Mine Rescue team until the early 1920's when he moved to Birtley. While at Cornsay he met my grandmother from Waterhouses when she was in service as a maid at Colepike Hall for Lady Taylor Smith, and they married in 1912 and lived in West Street where my father was born.
Many other family members also lived at Cornsay. My great grandmother's uncle, John Hardy, had a shop in Commercial Terrace selling China, my great great grandmother's brother Thomas Myers was the first butcher there, my great grandfather's cousin and his son were respectively Postmaster, and ran a tailors and tobacconist shop there.
My great grandmother's brother WK Hardy was Colliery Cashier and lived at the top house (no23) of Hawkhills Terrace, and the village doctor - Dr Young - lodged there. Later, when a dentist from Birtley began visiting the village, he hired a room at my great grandfather's uncle, Charles Norwood's house in School Street.
My various relatives were involved in many village activities. The Hardy's were heavily involved in the Methodist Church (sidesmen etc.,) and were Councillors, while the Wilkinson side of the family were in the town Brass Band each year escorting the Lodge banner at the 'Big Meeting' at Durham.
Cornsay Colliery is now much changed. Luckily I have a small number of old photographs of the place as it was - two of the Drift entrances, the plane crash in 1917, the 1911 Jubilee parade, etc.. The colliery closing however, marked the end of its time as a thriving mining village.
Commercial Terrace would be quite recognisable to the villagers of 1911 although it now has no shops. The. Royal Oak public house is still open for business, although the Fir Tree ( always known as the 'Monkeys Nest ) has been closed for over 25 years.
All the 'pit rows of miners houses, the colliery buildings and haulage ways, and the Pipe works have gone, but where Hawkhills Terrace stood are a number of new detached houses. The top one of these I believe, is actually the top house of Hawkhills which has been modernised, re roofed and clad in new brick. The Lodge and South Terrace still stand.

If anyone is really interested in the history of Cornsay Colliery, I can recommend a booklet recording reminiscences of old ex residents collected in 1977 by T T Ayer and called Cornsay Colliery - A Portrait of a Durham Mining Village. Some libraries have it in their Reference section.
R A Norwood. 2016.

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