Crawleyside is a village in the

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 ...

of Stanhope, 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 ...

, England. It is situated to the north of Stanhope, in

Weardale Weardale is a dale, or valley, on the east side of the Pennines in County Durham, England. Large parts of Weardale fall within the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) – the second-largest AONB in England and Wales. The u ...

. In the 2001 census Crawleyside had a population of 170. Crawleyside is on the B6278 road from Stanhope to

Edmundbyers Edmundbyers is a village in County Durham, in England. It is situated a few miles to the west of Consett, near Derwent Reservoir. In 2001 it had a population of 118. The civil parish of Edmondbyers had a population taken at the 2011 Census of ...

and

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 ...

. For cyclists, the 1-in-5 (20%) ascent north through the village is described as "punishing". Crawleyside is described by the author of a walking guide published in 1883 as "a pictureque spot on the hillside immediately overlooking Stanhope; the ascent is rather steep but the prospect is unsurpassed". The settlement is simply named Crawley on an Ordnance Survey map published in 1861. The short-lived

Crawley railway station Crawley railway station is a railway station serving the town of Crawley in West Sussex, England. It is down the line from , measured via Redhill. It is operated by Southern. The station is the last stop on the Arun Valley Line before it join ...

was in operation, 1845–6. The Hogg Hill tunnel entrances north of the village on the

Stanhope and Tyne Railway The Stanhope and Tyne Railway was an early British mineral railway that ran from Stanhope, County Durham, Stanhope to South Shields at the mouth of the River Tyne in County Palatine of Durham, County Durham, England. It ran through the towns of ...

were built in 1832–3 and are Grade II listed. They were designed by T. E. Harrison, with

Robert Stephenson Robert Stephenson , (honoris causa, Hon. causa) (16 October 1803 – 12 October 1859) was an English civil engineer and designer of locomotives. The only son of George Stephenson, the "Father of Railways", he built on the achievements of hi ...

as consulting engineer. The railway transported

lime Lime most commonly refers to: * Lime (fruit), a green citrus fruit * Lime (material), inorganic materials containing calcium, usually calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide * Lime (color), a color between yellow and green Lime may also refer to: Bo ...

from the

lime kilns A lime kiln is a kiln used for the calcination of limestone (calcium carbonate) to produce the form of lime (material), lime called ''quicklime'' (calcium oxide). The chemical equation for this chemical reaction, reaction is: Calcium carbonat ...

at Lanehead Quarry, west of the village to Consett Ironworks. Earlier lime kilns from 1834 were superseded by a more substantial set in 1845, which were in operation until 1901.

Ironstone Ironstone is a sedimentary rock, either deposited directly as a ferruginous sediment or created by chemical replacement, that contains a substantial proportion of an iron ore compound from which iron (Fe) can be smelted commercially. Not to be c ...

whinstone Whinstone is a term used in the quarrying industry to describe any hard dark-coloured Rock (geology), rock. Examples include the igneous rocks, basalt and dolerite, as well as the sedimentary rock chert. Etymology The Northern English/Scots term ...

and

lead Lead () is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol Pb (from Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a Heavy metal (elements), heavy metal that is density, denser than most common materials. Lead is Mohs scale, soft and Ductility, malleabl ...

had also been mined and processed, but from 1930 onwards only the quarrying of limestone took place. In 1938 some of the lime kilns were brought back into use and it was not until the 1960s that processing ceased for good, after which the site was cleared. The Crawley Edge Cairns, in a field to the west of the village are a series of forty-two

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

cairn A cairn is a human-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehistory, t ...

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in County Durham Stanhope, County Durham