Tanfield is a village and former

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

, now in the parish of

Stanley Stanley may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Stanley'' (1972 film), an American horror film * ''Stanley'' (1984 film), an Australian comedy * ''Stanley'' (1999 film), an animated short * ''Stanley'' (1956 TV series) ...

, in the

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 ...

district, in the ceremonial county of Durham, England. It is near Stanley, and the location of

Tanfield Railway The Tanfield Railway is a heritage railway in Gateshead and County Durham, England. Running on part of a former horse-drawn colliery wooden waggonway, later rope & horse, lastly rope & loco railway. It operates preserved industrial steam lo ...

, the Causey Arch and Tanfield School. The village was formerly a mining village.

History

The village was first recorded in 1179 as Tamefeld, believed to be Old English for "field by the

River Team The River Team is a tributary of the River Tyne in Gateshead, England. Etymology The name ''Team'' may have a Common Brittonic, Brittonic origin. The name may be from the Brittonic root ''tā-'', with a sense of "melting, thawing, dissolving", ...

", but it is mentioned in an account by

John of Hexham John of Hexham (c. 1160 – 1209) was an English chronicler, known to us merely as the author of a work called the ''Historia XXV. annorum'', which continues the ''Historia regum'' attributed to Symeon of Durham, and contains an account of Englis ...

of the Scottish invasion of 1138. The village church is from the 10th century.

Civil parish

Tanfield was formerly a

chapelry A chapelry was a subdivision of an ecclesiastical parish in England and parts of Lowland Scotland up to the mid 19th century. Status A chapelry had a similar status to a Township (England), township, but was so named as it had a chapel of ease ...

, from 1866 Tanfield was a civil parish in its own right, on 1 April 1937 the parish was abolished and merged with Stanley,

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 ...

and Lamesley. In 1931 the parish had a population of 9236.

Economy

Collieries

* Tanfield Lea Colliery, Tanfield Lea. Closed 25 August 1962. Owners:- Lambton, Hetton & Joicey Collieries Ltd; (1947) NCB. Location:- (Sheet 88) NZ188544, , SW of Newcastle. * Tanfield Moor Colliery, Tantobie. Opened before 1828. Closed Oct 1948. Owners:- Lambton, Hetton & Joicey Collieries Ltd. Location:- (Sheet 88) NZ169545, , SW of Newcastle. * East Tanfield Colliery, Tantobie. Opened 1844. Closed January 1965. Owners: - James Joicey (from 1844), East Tanfield Colliery Co. Limited (from 1917), South Derwentside Coal Co. Limited (from 1929). National Coal Board (from 1947). Location: - (Sheet 88) NZ194552, , SW of Newcastle The village has the highest rate of people aged 16–74 who have never worked, the figure stands at 33.33 percent, in the whole of England and Wales.

Religious sites

The village church of St. Margaret of Antioch dates back to 900 AD, but the present structure was built in the 18th century. It was the parish church of Beamish Hall, former home to the Eden, Joicey and Shafto families. There is a Methodist church in Tanfield Lea.

Notable people

Tanfield was the home of Tommy Armstrong (1848–1919), the "pit-man poet", whose grave is in the village cemetery.

References

External links

Durham Mining Museum
{{authority control Villages in County Durham Mining in County Durham Former civil parishes in County Durham Stanley, County Durham