Tudhoe is a village in

County Durham County Durham ( ), officially simply Durham,UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. is a ceremonial county in North East England.North East Assembly �About North East E ...

, in England. It is situated approximately south of the city of

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county * Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in N ...

. It lies just outside

Spennymoor Spennymoor is a town and civil parish in County Durham, England. It is south of the River Wear and is south of Durham. The civil parish includes the villages of Kirk Merrington, Middlestone Moor, Byers Green and Tudhoe. History Origins The ...

, a short distance to the west of the Great North Road. The village is now a quiet backwater, its

green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combin ...

cul-de-sac A dead end, also known as a cul-de-sac (, from French for 'bag-bottom'), no through road or no exit road, is a street with only one inlet or outlet. The term "dead end" is understood in all varieties of English, but the official terminology ...

that runs down from the main road towards the

River Wear The River Wear (, ) in North East England rises in the Pennines and flows eastwards, mostly through County Durham to the North Sea in the City of Sunderland. At long, it is one of the region's longest rivers, wends in a steep valley through ...

. In former times, however, Tudhoe lay at the centre of a network of roads: one ran to Durham by way of Sunderland Bridge and

Croxdale Croxdale is a village in the civil parish of Croxdale and Hett, situated about south of Durham City, in County Durham , England and on the A167 road, formerly part of the Great North Road. It is on the route of the East Coast Main Line and at ...

, another to

Kirk Merrington Kirk Merrington is a village in County Durham, in England. It is situated between the towns of Bishop Auckland and Ferryhill. It is part of the Spennymoor township. A notable resident is TV personality Scarlett Moffatt, best known for appeari ...

, a third to

Bishop Auckland Bishop Auckland () is a market town and civil parish at the confluence of the River Wear and the River Gaunless in County Durham, northern England. It is northwest of Darlington and southwest of Durham. Much of the town's early history surr ...

, a fourth to Whitworth and

Byers Green Byers Green is a village in County Durham, in England. It is situated to the north of Bishop Auckland, between Willington and Spennymoor, and a short distance from the River Wear. Byers Green Hall has been the home of the Trotter family since th ...

, and a fifth across a ford to

Brancepeth Castle Brancepeth Castle is a castle in the village of Brancepeth in County Durham, England, some 5 miles south-west of the city of Durham (). It is a Grade I listed building. History A succession of buildings has been on the site. The first was a No ...

and village on the far side of the river. All except the Brancepeth road are shown, somewhat schematically, on Thomas Jeffrey's map of County Durham of 1758. Tudhoe is now dwarfed by

, an industrial town that grew up around the Tudhoe iron works in the 19th century. The modern town of Spennymoor lies only a few fields from Tudhoe, but the contours are such that it cannot be seen from most of the village, and Tudhoe today gives the impression that it is still an isolated country village. For most of its history, Tudhoe has been in the parish of Brancepeth. The parish church of St Brandon's, dating from the 16th century, was one of the finest village churches in County Durham until its destruction by fire in 1998. Brancepeth lies across the River Wear from Tudhoe; there has never been a bridge, and the ford was not an easy one. In winter, it was often impassable, and Tudhoe baptisms, weddings and burials then took place at Whitworth. Because of this, Tudhoe was always seen (from Brancepeth) as an isolated outpost. Tudhoe's own

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of t ...

churches, Holy Innocents and St David's, were not built until 1866 and 1880, respectively, though there is a large

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

church, dedicated to St.

Charles Borromeo Charles Borromeo ( it, Carlo Borromeo; la, Carolus Borromeus; 2 October 1538 – 3 November 1584) was the Archbishop of Milan from 1564 to 1584 and a cardinal of the Catholic Church. He was a leading figure of the Counter-Reformation combat ...

, which was founded in 1858. Tudhoe was renowned as a mining village until the end of the 20th century. Until the closure of the mines, the wealthy Colliery Masters took up residence in a grand mansion known as The Loggins, which stands in several acres of its own land and overlooks the area. Tudhoe United FC are the local football team and play in Spennymoor Sunday League.

References

External links

Village history

Picture Spennymoor (including Tudhoe)

Tudhoe Cricket Club
{{authority control Villages in County Durham Spennymoor