Brasside outline of a history by Marie Therese Pinder Present day Brasside is a small village situated some two and a half to three miles north east of Durham City. The population of approximately 350 adults plus children is not growing very rapidly because of planning restrictions on the building of new houses as defined by the County Structure Plan. Also included in the statistics are the inhabitants of farms in the neighbourhood and those living on a static caravan site at Finchale Abbey. There is a hidden population: the hundreds of inmates in Low Newton and Frankland Prison, both situated at Brasside and both currently being expanded, who are not included in the electoral roll for the ward of Framwellgate Moor (Part), as prisoners are not entitled to vote. The place name of Brasside is thought to mean broad hillside (Bradside), and its history goes back to 1313. The local industries in the nineteenth century were farming, coal mining and brick making. There was also a quarry in the area. The geology of the area consists of carboniferous Westphalian Coal Measures: a series of deltaic sediments, sandstone s, siltstones and shales with many seams of coal and underlying seatearths. Brasside is in the Civil Parish of Framwellgate Moor which today forms part of the City of Durham District although it was within the township of Framwellgate Moor in the 19th and earlier part of the 20th centuries. Information such as Census Returns comes under Framwellgate Moor ward. Brasside is now in the ecclesiastical parish of St. Cuthbert with St Aidan which are situated, respectively, at North End, Durham
City, and Framwellgate Moor. Previously it was in the ecclesiastical parish of the Chapelry of St. Margaret (St. Oswald) for which parish registers survive from the year 1538. The area was also served by a mission church known as St.Chad s. This small brick building with a tin roof was erected at the south end of Long Row, (situated on the bridleway of Frankland Lane which leads from Durham City to Finchale Priory), in the early part of the 20th century. Sunday services, Sunday school and christenings took place there although weddings and funerals were conducted at St. Cuthberts. The vicar and churchwarden of St. Cuthberts, Reverend Tolliday and Billy Chicken, and university students from St. Chad s College in Durham, were involved in the services, as were local lay people. It closed in 1936, by which time the entire population, with the exception of one or two families, had been rehoused from Long Row, Short Row and Office Row to the new estate built by Durham Rural District Council approximately half a mile away on Finchale Avenue; and, together with almost all the houses and other buildings, it was subsequently demolished. Children attended the local Board School, created from firstly one, and then two houses in Long Row, during the latter part of the 19th into the 20th century, with education provided by the purpose built elementary school at Framwellgate Moor from the 1930s to the 1960s. A Board School log book has survived from 1886 to 1904. Nowadays, children attend primary and secondary schools in Newton Hall and Framwellgate Moor or further afield within the Durham City area. Some of the children in the families living at Brasside Colliery and Frankland Colliery Houses in the 1851 census were described as scholars, but I have not yet identified the educational establishment (s) they are likely to have attended.
The nearest collieries to Brasside were situated at Frankland Wood, Frankland and Brasside. Records are incomplete, but evidence so far identified suggests that at least one pit was operating in the 1840s and the latest date for closure of a pit was in the 1930s. Over 100 pits/collieries are listed within 5 miles of the Brasside based collieries, not all of which would have been open at any one time. So far, I have not been able to ascertain if any of the Brasside pits had a horse gin or a steam engine. Given the dates and sizes of the collieries there would not have been any pit head baths. I do not know if there were any products in addition to coal. In the 1920s, the miners built a community hall in which various entertainments took place for the enjoyment of the local population and this building still stands, now converted to a private home. I have been fortunate enough to know several people who grew up in, or whose families lived in Long Row and Short Row, including the late David Burn and members of the Pugh and Tindale families, and I would like to take this opportunity of thanking them for sharing their memories and family stories which have greatly added to my understanding and knowledge of the area. Printed references to the history of Brasside can be found in the following publications: Brown, G., Framwellgate Moor Parish: Historical Events of the Nineteen Hundreds. Unpublished typescript dated 1974, pp.167 169 Butler, D., (ed.), Tithe Apportionment s and Maps of the City of Durham. Durham County Local History Society, Documentary Series no. 7, 1988 Durham County Record Office, (E/C 116) Brasside Board School Log Book, 1866 1904. Unpublished document.
Durham County Record Office, (EP/Du.SA 2/4) Brasside Mission Register of Services, 1903 1936. Unpublished document Durham County Record Office, Durham Collieries a listing. D.C.R.O., 2001, p19 Durham County Record Office, Durham Places in the Mid Nineteenth Century. D.C.R.O., 1996,p.15 Durham District Council, Electoral roll 2002 Emery, N., The coal miners of Durham. Alan Sutton, 1992, p.6 Framwellgate Moor Parish Council, The Parish of the Villages of Framwellgate Moor, Pity Me and Brasside: official handbook. 1983 Greenwell, C., Map of the County Palatine of Durham, first surveyed in the years 1818 and 1819, with alterations,additions 1850 Johnson, G.A.L., (ed.), Robsons Geology of North East England, 2nd edition. Transactions of the Natural History Society of Northumbria, 1995, vol. 56, p.267 Ordnance Survey, Various maps of the Durham area: including geological maps, various scales. 1st 2nd 3rd, and modern editions, 1850s 1990s. Page, W., (ed), Victoria County history of the County of Durham. St. Catherine Press, 1928, vol. 111, p.148 Public Record Office, 1841 and 1851 Censuses. H.O. 107 Surtees, R., History and Antiquities of the County Palatine of Durham. E.P. Publishing Ltd. In collaboration with Durham County Library, 1840, reprinted 1972, vol. 1V, p.141 Transactions of the North of England Institute of Mining Engineers, (author unknown), Plan shewing the course of the so called Wash through a portion of the County of Durham. N.E.I.M.E., c. 1860s, vol. X111 Watts, V., A dictionary of County Durham Place Names. English Place Name Society, 2002, p. 18
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