The former mining village of New Brancepeth lies in the Deerness Valley two miles north of Brancepeth village but, despite their names, the two places have little in common. Brancepeth is not even New Brancepeth's nearest neighbour, since Esh Winning, Brandon and Ushaw Moor are much closer.

Until the second part of the 19th Century, New Brancepeth was open farmland on the south bank of the River Deerness.

Despite subsequent mining development some farms, such as Unthank, just east of New Brancepeth, still survive. Unthank was first mentioned in 1314 and may refer to the occasionally thankless task of farming.

West of New Brancepeth is Hareholme Farm, where a chapel once stood close to the river. It was reputedly founded around 1170 by one of Thomas Becket's murderers called Redpath.

The fugitive apparently fled here, but his name does not actually appear among the list of Becket's murderers. The origin of the chapel, marked on Victorian maps, still remains a mystery.

Two streams, both tributaries of the Deerness, dissect the land east and west of New Brancepeth and the larger stream in the west is called the Red Burn.

A house called Sleetburn stood nearby but was demolished in the 19th Century to make way for Sleetburn Colliery.

The mine owners adopted Sleetburn as the name for both the colliery and its village but the name was dropped during the 19th Century in favour of New Brancepeth. Nevertheless, many locals still continue to use the name Sleetburn to this day.

A smaller stream on the eastern side of the village is not named on maps, but Sleetburn corn mill once stood nearby. This stream could very well be the actual Sleet Burn and its proximity to the little 19th Century hamlet called Alum Waters may be an important clue.

A local farmer informs me that this stream occasionally turns white as a result of the alum present in the water. Whiteness would give the stream a sleety appearance.

Alum is a metallic solution occurring in many forms and was traditionally used as a fixative in the dyeing process. A bleaching mill called Primroseside Mill existed quite close to here in the early 19th Century near the farmhouse called Bleach Green.

Alum Waters was built to house coal miners before New Brancepeth came into being. In 1856, Alex Brodie Cochrane leased certain mining rights south of the Deerness from Viscount Boyne of Brancepeth Castle.

The construction, in the 1850s, of the erroneously spelt Dearness Railway facilitated mining development and the Cochranes needed coal for their coke ovens and ironworks at North Ormesby near Middlesbrough.

At first, a small mine called Witty Pit opened at Unthank with its miners residing at Alum Waters. However it was the sinking in 1872 of a shaft for a much bigger colliery at Sleetburn House that resulted in the birth of New Brancepeth.

Cochrane took two unusual steps in establishing his mining village. First, he decided to live nearby. Most coal owners kept their mining villages at arm's length. Cochrane chose a nine-acre woodland site, less than a mile to the west, where he built a mansion called Eshwood Hall.

Cochrane's second unusual step was building New Brancepeth as two separate villages. A northern village called the Low Side overlooked the Deerness and was solely for pitmen. It consisted of terraced streets such as Plantation Row. Further west, colliery officials and craftsmen lived in a separate village of slightly better terraces like Eshwood Street. Assigning particular streets to specific employees was not unusual, but two villages separated by fields made a powerful social statement.

Cochrane's son and successor, Henry Heath Cochrane, relished an almost feudal role. Villagers stood still and silent as he rode through their streets and women could receive reprimanding letters if they gossiped.

The rule of fear seemed to work, as lawlessness was uncommon. Even unruly colliery officials could face relocation to the Low Side.

Eshwood Hall was an esteemed residence, with impressive gardens and an ornamental lake. A railway had been built through the grounds simply for delivering the landscaping materials.

One unusual visitor to the hall was the pioneering US aviator Colonel Samuel Cody. At 5am on July 25, 1911 Cody made an emergency landing at Pit House, near Brandon, during a London to Newcastle air race.

He had breakfast with a New Brancepeth family before staying at Eshwood Hall for two nights while his plane was repaired. The delay was enough to cost him victory.

Henry Cochrane died without issue in 1924 and the North Ormesby branch of his family showed no interest in the hall. Subsequent owners retained the gardens, but a small modern house replaced the hall in 1935.

From 1933, Sleetburn colliery was managed by Weardale Steel, Coal and Coke Company and from 1947 by the National Coal Board. It finally closed in 1953, but some miners found work at Brandon Pit House Colliery.

An aerial ropeway for moving coal once linked these two collieries. Netting had protected some of New Brancepeth's streets from falling coal.

New Brancepeth had seen many changes by the 1950s. No further development took place in the Low Side but the other village expanded eastward until the 1900s with new terraces such as Harvey Street, Jubilee Street, Prospect Terrace and Rock Terrace. Some of these terraces still exist.

Schools had been built in the fields between the two separate villages making New Brancepeth more like a single entity but the schools have now gone along with the earlier terraces of the original two villages. Pringle and Braunsepeth Council estates were built during the 1920s and 1930s and the older terraces were gradually demolished.

Today, New Brancepeth lies almost completely to the south and east of Cochrane's original colliery villages.

If you have memories of Durham you would like to share with The Northern Echo, write to David Simpson, Durham Memories, The Northern Echo, Priestgate, Darlington, DL1 1NF. E-mail David.Simpson nne.co.uk or telephone (01325) 505098.

Published: 09/01/2004