Leadgate is a village in

County Durham County Durham, officially simply Durham, is a ceremonial county in North East England.UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. The county borders Northumberland and Tyne an ...

, in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. It is situated to the north-east of

Consett Consett is a town in the County Durham (district), County Durham district, in the ceremonial county of County Durham, Durham, England, about south-west of Newcastle upon Tyne. It had a population of 27,394 in 2001 and an estimate of 25,812 in ...

. The Roman road

Dere Street Dere Street or Deere Street is a modern designation of a Roman roads, Roman road which ran north from Eboracum (York), crossing the Stanegate at Corbridge (Hadrian's Wall was crossed at the Portgate, just to the north) and continuing beyond int ...

runs straight through the middle of Leadgate, today this is known as Durham Road and the B6309. The place-name 'Leadgate' is first attested in 1590 and derives from the

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

'hlidgeat', which means 'swing-gate'. The Church of England parish church of St Ives was built in 1865–68 by

Charles Hodgson Fowler Charles Hodgson Fowler (2 March 1840 – 14 December 1910) was a prolific English ecclesiology, ecclesiastical architect who specialised in building and, especially, Victorian restoration, restoring churches. Life He was born in Nottinghamshir ...

. The Roman Catholic church of Our Blessed Lady and St. Joseph lies a little way out of the village at Brooms. It was built 1866-69 by E. W. Pugin and served the Irish migrant community. Brooms was the birthplace of Thomas Smith (1763-1831), Roman Catholic bishop. Leadgate was the home of the workers and staff of the Eden colliery which opened in 1844, and was closed on the 18 July 1980. There was a smaller coal mine at Bradley Colliery which seems to have closed before 1875. Leadgate was also home to many working for the

Consett Iron Company The Consett Iron Company Ltd was an industrial business based in the Consett area of County Durham in the United Kingdom. The company owned coal mines and limestone quarries, and manufactured iron and steel. It was registered on 4 April 1864 a ...

(about 2 miles away) and which closed in the 1980s. On the current site of Bradley Workshops there was also the Bradley Iron Works which seems to have operated between 1856 and 1866 being taken over by the Consett Iron Company. Leadgate now stands as a small village with a close-knit community. Plans to regenerate the area have been on the local councils' planning board for some time and improvements are being made. The retail economy of Leadgate is centered on Front Street which until the construction of the Leadgate bypass formed one of the main routes from Newcastle into Consett. Front Street hosts a number of independent businesses as well as a local co-operative. The coast-to-coast cycle route runs through Leadgate and follows the path of the former Stanhope and Tyne railway. The last train ran on the line on 17 March 1984. On 17 August 2020 the Bradley open-cast mine, the last

coal mine Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

in England, was closed.

References

External links

* * Villages in County Durham Consett {{Durham-geo-stub