Most buildings in Lanchester's historic heart predate the industrial age but like many other places in County Durham, Lanchester saw the greatest changes in the nineteenth and twentieth century.

If you glance at old maps or photos of Lanchester you soon notice the imposing Victorian buildings of Lanchester Union Workhouse. Erected in 1839 and extended later in the century, its buildings dominated the western side of the village between Front Street and the railway line.

Managed by a board of 28 guardians, the workhouse provided accommodation for the poor and needy in return for their carrying out menial tasks. Housing around 150 inmates, it served the population of North West Durham (the Union) but in the census of 1881 a third of the inmates gave their birthplace as Ireland. Most inmates were either older than 50 or less than 16 years of age. Intriguingly, one fourteen-year-old inmate of 1881 was a scholar called Margaret Lanchester and her birthplace is recorded as unknown.

The workhouse became Lee Hill Hospital around 1939 and operated until closure and eventual demolition in 1980. A street called Lee Hill Court now occupies the site but the workhouse boardroom survives. For a time this served as a courthouse and police station and as Lanchester library since 1973.

Lanchester Valley Railway opened in 1862 and ran along the western flank of the workhouse. It linked Consett iron works with Cleveland's iron supplies and joined the main line along with the Dearness Railway near Langley Moor. Dismantled in 1965, the line is now the Lanchester Valley Walk.

Lanchester's railway crossed the Smallhope Burn by an iron bridge south of the village before crossing it again by a wooden viaduct at Hurbuck, a mile and a half to the west. An embankment now covers the viaduct. Railway bridges also crossed Newbiggin Lane and Station Road but were demolished in 1972.

North of Station Road, Lanchester's former railway station of 1862 closed to passengers in 1939 and is now a private house in a little park alongside the Valley Walk. Day-trippers from Tyneside once alighted from trains at this station for picnics on Lanchester green and throngs of miners assembled here on miners' gala day before their journey to Durham.

Lanchester has far too many older buildings to be described as a pit village, but it had its share of mines. Lanchester Colliery was situated on the south side of the railway near a house called Lizards north west of the village. The colliery owners were Ferens and Love and later S.A Sadler but the mine was disused by the end of the nineteenth century. Several drifts also existed in and around the village including Fenhall Drift that closed in 1963. At Peth Bank just east of the village a substance called Witherite was also mined between 1930 and 1958. It was used in the manufacture of paper, glass and paint.

Just south of Lanchester was Malton Colliery, operated by Love, Sadler and later the NCB. It opened in 1870 and from 1890 held the distinction of providing gas for lighting Lanchester village. Malton Colliery closed in 1961 and the site is now more or less occupied by a pretty picnic spot incorporating Lanchester Valley Walk and the little River Browney.

Schools and places of worship are always important in village history and although Lanchester church was built in 1147 the first school was not established until 1748. In 1804 a young man of 25 called John Hodgson (1779-1945) became schoolmaster at Lanchester before he became Curate of Satley and Esh. Later, the Reverend Hodgson, as he became, was famed as the principal historian of Northumberland.

In 1819 a little Methodist chapel was erected on the green by public subscription that served as a school on weekdays. Two new Methodist chapels (Primitive and Wesleyan) built in 1868 and 1884 superseded this chapel and it became a blacksmith's shop. The two new chapels were united in 1945 and one served for a time as the village hall.

A new school opened on the corner of Newbiggin Road and Front Street but closed in 1964 when pupils were transferred to a new school across the road.

The old school became Lanchester Community Centre, taking over this role from the village hall. A Catholic church and small convent opened in the village in 1901 but was succeeded in 1925 by a new Catholic church of Bavarian design in Kitswell Road.

For a time, nuns from the convent taught children at a Roman Catholic mixed school erected in 1905 but they later returned to the Catholic establishment at Esh Laude. The most important educational development of recent times was St Bede's RC Secondary School. It opened in 1966 and dominates the northern edge of Lanchester.

Other cultural developments in Lanchester include the Memorial Hall opened near Kitswell Road in 1922. It became the Labour Exchange and the Empress cinema and is now the site of a block of flats for the elderly.

In fact housing development has been the most prominent feature of the Lanchester's most recent history. The village population of 700 or so souls grew very little between 1801 and 1850 and although some growth occurred in the later 1800s, the biggest changes came in the twentieth century.

A council housing estate was erected along Durham Road after World War Two and between 1959-1969 the village population doubled with new brick houses supplementing the stone dwellings of the village core. Lanchester is increasingly seen as a highly desirable place to live and large new housing estates sprung up east and west of the village in the 1970s and 80s.

By 1988 Lanchester was a home to 4,000 residents, but fortunately despite its growth it still manages to retain its rural village charm.

Next week we look at the halls and houses in and around Lanchester

If you have Durham memories you would like to share with The Northern Echo, write to David Simpson, Durham Memories, The Northern Echo, Priestgate, Darlington, DL1 1NF. E-mail David.Simpson@nne.co.uk or telephone (01325) 505098

Published: 30/04/2004