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The Old Weardale Repository (OWR) at oldwdale.info
Research Notes page

This OWR Research Notes page contains research studies and notes.

Contents of this Research Notes page:

  • Iron Works and Mining
  • WW1 POW camps

    • Research into the blast furnaces at Stanhope and Tow Law, owned by Weardale Iron Company.
    Including details of all primary evidence about these furnaces, from newspapers, reports, books etc. This history traces the numbers of furnaces, building dates, numbers in blast, accidents etc.
  • Weardale Iron Company Blast Furnace Notes (0.6 MB) Link

    • Copies of parts of Hunt's Mineral Statistics, relating to Weardale blast furnaces, iron works and iron ore production and transport.
    With a summary of all this information, concerning Stanhope, Tow Law and Witton Park Iron Works and the iron ore mines and quarries in Weardale.
  • Summary of Weardale Blast Furnace Statistics from Mineral Statistics (0.6 MB) Link
  • Weardale_Furnace_Stats_1850s (3.4 MB) Link
  • Weardale_Furnace_Stats_1860s (6.1 MB) Link
  • Weardale_Furnace_Stats_1870s (10.5 MB) Link
  • Weardale_Furnace_Stats_1880s (13.7 MB) Link
  • Weardale_Furnace_Stats_1890s (7.6 MB) Link

    • Weardale information in "The Mining and Smelting Magazine", 1862-1865.
  • Summary of 1860s Weardale Information in "The Mining and Smelting Magazine" (0.5 MB) Link
  • Extracts of "The Mining and Smelting Magazine" concerning Weardale in 1860s. Including all monthly Trade Reviews for Northumberland and Durham Counties. (8.5 MB) Link
  • Summary of "On the Present Position of the Metallurgy of Iron in England" by Gruner and Lan, 1861, in Mining and Smelting Magazine, 3 Feb 1862 (0.5 MB) Link
  • "The Iron Manufacture of the North of England. Districts of Cleveland, Durham, and Cumberland" by Gruner and Lan, 1861, in Mining and Smelting Magazine, 3 Jun 1863 (0.9 MB) Link
  • Summary of "On the Weardale Iron Ores", by Charles Attwood, 1863, given at the Meeting of the British Association, in Mining and Smelting Magazine, 3 Oct 1863 (0.2 MB) Link
  • "Report on the Metallurgy of the District", by I Lowthian Bell, T Sopwith, Dr Richardson and T Spencer, 1863, given at the Meeting of the British Association. Including sections on "The Manufacture of Iron in Connection with the Northumberland and Durham Coal-field", "Lead Metallurgy of the District", and "The Manufacture of Steel in Northumberland and Durham". In Mining and Smelting Magazine, 3 Nov 1863 (1.0 MB) Link


    • World War 1 German prisoner-of-war camps in Weardale for POWs working in quarries.
    In August 1916 the Ministry of Munitions recognised an urgent need for increased supplies of limestone and ganister for use in new blast furnaces that were being built to increase the production of iron and steel. So the ministry took over four limestone quarries and two ganister quarries in Weardale and arranged to work them with German POW labour. Four camps to house the POWs were established in Weardale, at Stanhope (Newlandside), Eastgate (Rose Hill), Castleside (Healeyfield), and Harperley.

    This section gives details of what was done and of the POW camps.

  • Details of the work done are given in the 1919 book by F H Hatch, "The Iron and Steel Industry of the United Kingdom under War Conditions". The full book is on-line on archive.org here. A pdf of selected pages from the book, relevant to Weardale, is here (8.8 MB).
  • Stanhope POW camp.
    Details are on durhamatwar.org.uk about the camp here, about one of the guards here, and about one of the prisoners here.

    Stanhope POW camp, also called Newlandside Working Camp, was near Stanhope engine shed. POWs from here worked limestone at Newlandside quarry, Rogerley quarry and Newfield quarry (at the east end of Ashes quarry, Stanhope). The Stanhope camp was established on 18 August 1916 and inspected on 19 September 1916, when it held 220 German POWs housed in 24 bell tents.

  • Eastgate POW camp.
    Eastgate POW camp report of inspection on 18 June 1917 is here (5.0 MB).
    Eastgate POW camp report of inspection on 18 February 1918 is here (6.1 MB).
    A little information is on durhamatwar.org.uk about the camp here and about one of the guards here.

    The only detailed information on Eastgate camp is in the inspection reports which are on this website. These are Swiss Embassy reports from 1917 and 1918, held in the Bundesarchiv in Berlin, reference BA/Berlin/R901/83061. Scans of copies from the Bundesarchiv have kindly been provided by Professor Panayi of De Montfort University, Leicester.
    Eastgate POW camp was at Rose Hill Farm to the west of Eastgate and east of Heights quarry. It was established on 18 September 1916.
    POWs from here worked limestone at Heights quarry, and between October 1916 and June 1917 built the Heights Quarry Incline, also called Cambokeels Incline, from Heights quarry down to the North Eastern Railway Wear Valley Branch at Cambokeels.
    The camp was inspected on 18 June 1917, when it held 210 POWs housed mainly in huts. Some POWs had been working on building the new quarry incline "until a week ago" and the incline "is now practically complete". Note that this proves that the much published date of 1915 for the building of the Heights Quarry Incline is incorrect.
    The camp was inspected again on 18 February 1918, when it held 310 POWs housed in huts.

  • Castleside (Healeyfield) POW camp.
    Details are on durhamatwar.org.uk about the camp here.

    Castleside POW camp, also called Healeyfield Working Camp, was near Healeyfield ganister quarry where the POWs worked. It was established on 18 August 1916 and inspected on 18 September 1916, when it held 110 German POWs housed in bell tents.

  • Harperley POW camp.
    Details are on durhamatwar.org.uk about the camp here.

    Harperley POW camp was initially at Harperley Farm (with tents) and then moved to Shipley Moss (with huts), near Knitsley Fell ganister quarry where the POWs worked. The camp was opened in September 1916 and inspected in June 1917 and again February 1918. In June 1917 it held 230 POWs.