Tow Law is a town and

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 ...

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 a few miles to the south 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 ...

and 5 miles to the north west of Crook. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 1,952, increasing to 2,138 at the 2011 Census. The main road through the town is the A68, which starts in

Darlington Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. It lies on the River Skerne, west of Middlesbrough and south of Durham. Darlington had a population of 107,800 at the 2021 Census, making it a "large town" ...

and goes on north, ending near

Dalkeith Dalkeith ( ; , ) is a town in Midlothian, Scotland, on the River Esk. It was granted a burgh of barony in 1401 and a burgh of regality in 1541. The settlement of Dalkeith grew southwestwards from its 12th-century castle (now Dalkeith Pala ...

, just south-east of

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

. The River Deerness rises from a spring on the eastern edge of the town. Tow Law Town football club is based in the town. The town is mentioned in

Mark Knopfler Mark Freuder Knopfler OBE (born 12 August 1949) is a British musician. He was the lead guitarist, singer and songwriter of the rock band Dire Straits from 1977 to 1995, and he is the one of the two members who stayed during the band's existence ...

's song "Hill Farmer's Blues" from his album '' The Ragpicker's Dream''.

History

The name "Tow Law" is 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 ...

''tot hlaw'' meaning "lookout mound," the name of a house which stood there before the iron works and the village were built. St Philip & St James' Church Tow Law, designed by C. Hodgson Fowler, was completed in 1869. There was rapid growth in the mid 19th century after the Weardale Iron and Coal Company was established here in 1845.

Blast furnace A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally pig iron, but also others such as lead or copper. ''Blast'' refers to the combustion air being supplied above atmospheric pressure. In a ...

s were built and collieries were opened; the population was about 2000 in 1851, and 5000 in 1881. The town constituted an urban district from 1894 until 1974.

21st century

Since December 2001 the town has had a 2.3

Megawatt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...

wind farm consisting of three -high

wind-powered Wind power is the use of wind energy to generate useful work. Historically, wind power was used by sails, windmills and windpumps, but today it is mostly used to generate electricity. This article deals only with wind power for electricity ge ...

turbines. During the 2001 foot and mouth crisis,

MAFF MAFF(S) may refer to: * MAFF (gene), a transcription factor * Malmö Arab Film Festival, held in Malmö (Sweden), the largest Arabic film festival in Europe * Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (United Kingdom), a former department of UK g ...

buried diseased animals at the former Inkerman Pit site. This was an emotive issue for local residents, who were disturbed by vehicle movements and smells from the pit. Many protesters attended the site every day for six months but had no effect and Defra continued to keep the site operational until the spring of 2002.

Notable people

* Albert Ernest Hillary, English chocolate manufacturer and Liberal politician * Sean Hodgson, Britain's longest serving prisoner (27 years) found to be innocent * Alan Milburn, British Labour politician * Alice Pickering (1860-1939), tennis player who twice reached the Wimbledon Championship Final. * Katherine Ashton Simpson (1858–1951), the British author, poet and painter. *

Chris Waddle Christopher Roland Waddle (born 14 December 1960) is an English former professional football player and manager. He had a spell as Burnley manager during the 1997–98 season, but has not returned to coaching since. Largely since retiring he h ...

, former Premier League footballer played for Tow Law Town A.F.C.

References

External links

Tow Law History Society
{{authority control Towns in County Durham Civil parishes in County Durham Wind farms in England