Collieries have been an important part of many communities across the North-East, but the opening of ironworks and the development if new estates ensured an end to the cycle of decay.

By 1894, collieries in Belmont and Gilesgate Moor had closed and a Durham directory of that year states that New Durham, Carrville and Dragonville had fallen into decay.

New Durham village, a mining community on the north side of Sherburn Road was particularly badly hit.

In 1881, the census shows that many of its houses were already uninhabited and demolition of its streets had begun by the 1890s. Only remnants of John Street and Love Street survived into the 1920s.

Elsewhere in Gilesgate Moor, 19th Century housing in Teasdale Terrace, Ernest Place, Bell's Ville and Dragon Ville mostly survived, as did terraces in Broomside and Carrville.

Most locals were miners, but an alternative form of employment arrived in the 1860s.

This was the Grange Ironworks at Carrville, on the site of the earlier Grange Colliery. It stood on a site west of the present A1(M)/A690 motorway interchange, where a caravan site is now located. It became an ironworks in 1867 and manufactured steam engines, colliery equipment, buildings, bridges and ship anchors.

Employees came from New Durham, Dragonville, Leamside and Fencehouses and the works gave its name to the Grange Foundry Inn, at Gilesgate Moor.

Unfortunately, like the colliery before it, the ironworks fell on hard times and the business eventually closed in 1926.

Today, the major clue to its existence is an isolated row of houses called Maureen Terrace.

Maureen was not a person, but a misspelling of the word marine, perhaps recalling maritime orders that were part of the business.

This terrace and a nearby house, once occupied by management, were built to serve the ironworks.

Although the collieries of the area had closed, two reopened as smaller concerns in the 20th Century.

One was the Grange Colliery that reopened on the site of the ironworks after 1926. A little wagonway was constructed, linking it to drift mines alongside the River Wear in Kepier Wood, and these were probably the main source of coal. The wagonway passed underneath the arches of Brasside-Belmont viaduct to reach the drifts just to the north.

During the Second World War, German aircraft bombed the colliery site in an incident that apparently brought danger to Durham Cathedral. However, this is a story we will leave for next week. Suffice to say that Grange Colliery was probably disused by the time of the raid.

The other colliery that reopened in the 20th Century was Kepier Grange Colliery.

It had closed in 1890 and stood where Belmont Industrial Estate is now located, but reopened on a different site near the railway line that is now the A690. The new location was approximately where the road from Belmont industrial estate now joins the A690.

Some Gilesgate Moor miners also found work in the 20s and 30s just outside the area, as a significant number are known to have crossed the River Wear on a daily basis to work at Frankland Pit, near Brasside, which reopened during this period.

Grange Ironworks constructed a bridge across the river for these miners, but it has long since gone.

It was in the 1920s and 30s that Gilesgate Moor began its transition from mining community to suburb of Durham City.

Early developments included new houses called The Moorlands and Musgrave Gardens.

Slum clearances in Durham City centre during the 1930s also had an impact.

The city's ancient, densely-populated streets of Framwellgate and Millburngate were demolished in the clearance, and residents were relocated to Gilesgate Moor, where a brand new housing estate called Sherburn Road Estate was specially constructed on the south side of Sherburn Road.

A new street called Frank Street was also built on the north side of the road where New Durham village had once stood. In October 1934, the Durham County Advertiser interviewed some of the delighted residents who had made the move to the new estate.

Many of the people relocating to Gilesgate Moor were Roman Catholics of Irish origin and, since there was no Catholic church in Gilesgate Moor, services were initially held in the Crescent Cinema, later the Rex, on Sunderland Road.

This cinema had opened in 1927, but closed in 1958. It was one of two in the area, the other being the Majestic, which was in business from 1938-1961, on Sherburn Road. Both buildings can still be seen.

Priests from St Cuthberts RC church in Elvet provided services at the Crescent Cinema until a purpose-built hall opened in Mill Lane in 1939.

Here, services were held under the jurisdiction of the Elvet church, until Gilesgate Moor became a separate Catholic parish in 1948.

The actual Roman Catholic church, next door to the hall and dedicated to St Joseph, was not built until 1966.

In the 1950s, a large council housing estate was built north of Sunderland road with the war providing a theme for its street names.

War leaders were commemorated in streets such as Montgomery Road, Churchill Avenue and Roosevelt Road, while others took their name from local Victoria Cross winners including Annand, Bradford, Donnini, Heaviside, McNally and Wakenshaw. Elsewhere, estates sprung up north of Blue House Farm near Carville High Street - the blue-painted house is still there - and in the old Pemberton-owned land between the High Street and Broomside.

One major event in the area's history was the construction of the motorway and adjoining A690 in the 1960s and 70s, and the subsequent growth of private housing estates at High Grange, Gilesgate Moor and Belmont south of Broomside Lane.

The industrial estates built at Dragonville after the war and at Belmont in the 1970s are another feature of this suburban development, and the days of the a decaying mining settlement area now seem a long time ago.