Thrislington township, formerly in the parish of Bishop Middleham, was joined to the parish of Cornforth for ecclesiastical purposes by order of council in 1865. It remained a separate township until 1946 when it was incorporated with Cornforth. The old township was bounded on the west by the main King's Cross to Edinburgh railway. From the north of this railway the boundary ran eastwards until reaching the Cornforth to Metal Bridge road a few yards north of the level crossing of the Clarence Railway (the low line). From there the eastern boundary was the present road to Stob Cross. After leaving there it ran from nearly three quarters of a mile towards Bishop Middleham.

Leaving this road the boundary went westwards to rejoin the main line railway a few hundred yards south of Steetley Works. In all an area of some 594 acres. The above information may help the reader to understand why so many industries used the name Thrislington instead of West Cornforth.
There was a village here in early days perhaps in Saxon times. The name means "Thorstein's Farm" probably an Anglo-saxon who was named "Thrael." Over the years the name has had various spellings: 1208 Tursteintun; 1263 Thurstanton; 1309 Thurstaneton; 1637 Thruslington.

In 1263 an agreement was made by the Thurstantons (who had taken the name of the village) and the Fulthorpes and others with Hugh the Prior, and the Convent of Durham to the following effect. "The Prior concedes that the owners and tenants of Thurstanton (Thrislington) shall have sufficient common of pasture on the moor of Fery (Ferryhill) for forty head of cattle, saving in such enclosures as the Prior holds at the present day; and if Thurstanton cattle trespass on the enclosures, the fine shall be one penny for thirteen head. Thurstanton shall also have pasture for ten score sheep.

And for this concession the owners of Thurstanton grant to the Prior all their marsh belonging to their land of Thurstanton."In March 1288 we read of a Bernard of Thrislington a local landowner was "refused leave of his house, until he had consented to plight his troth to Agnes de Merlay" By 1336 the manor and the greater part of the village was owned by Roger Fulthorpe. In 1613 the manor passed from this family to the Shaws, and shortly after this a new manor house was built, the late Thrislington Hall demolished in 1979. The hall was purchased from the Shaws by Sir Thomas Robinson of Rokeby, who later conveyed it to Hendry Hopper of Durham. Tradition says Oliver Cromwell stayed there. For many years the hall was occupied by people associated with the Thrislington Collieries. In 1873 it was on lease to the Rosedale and Ferryhill Coal and Iron Co. Ltd. The last tenant was a Captain P. Rickinson whom older people will remember.

The township of Thrislington never contained more than 20 houses. The population was in 1811 - 14; 1821 - 14; 1831 - 15; 1841 - 24; 1851 - 45, with five cottages (this marked increase due no doubt to the opening of a colliery); 1861 - 38 (decrease owing to the closure of the colliery); 1871 - 93 (due to new industries in the township). Being a separate parish it had its own overseers and in 1910 John Walton was the Assistant Overseer.
 

QUARRIES

Before 1857 there was a small quarry the limestone from this, after burning in a kiIn, was used as mortar used in the construction of all buildings at that time before the advent of cement. This quarry was a quarter of a mile north of Thrislington Hall and the same distance west of Thrislington Colliery.
In 1956 Steetley opened a quarry at Thrislington which became known as Thrislington Works and used the best deposits of pure dolomite in the country. The refined products from these works are used for making magnesium, for flux in steelmaking and also agricultural lime. The works slowly spread towards the old hall and to the site of the mediaeval village. The University of Durham Archaelogy Department decided to investigate the site before it was destroyed. During the summers of 1973-74 the foundation of several houses were uncovered, and also the old manor house. Vast quantities of pottery dating from the 12th-15th centuries were unearthed, also a few pieces of Bronze Age pottery and one piece of Roman. The quarry moving eastwards threatened the site of an area of Special Scientific Interest at Thrislington Plantation. Steetley reached an agreement with the Nature Conservancy Council to relocate that part of the Plantation which was to be disturbed. This involved removing the turf prior to quarrying and replanting it elsewhere clear of any further quarrying operations. This was accomplished from 1982-90.
 

COAL MINES

The first mines were of the simplest form, the coal being extracted by means of drifts, no attempt being made to reach the deeper seams. The first mention of coal in the Thrislington area is in 1329 when a worker was fatally injured while he was being hauled from the pit-bottom, he fell down the shaft after losing his grip on the rope. In 1447 a certain Rollyn Dronsmith of Middleham was one of the lessees of a coalpit at Thrislington. The first Thrislington Colliery was sunk in 1835, about half a mile south of the late Cornforth station. The owners of the colliery Messrs. Wain & Co. erected a village for their workmen called New Thrislington which waslater to be known as West Cornforth. In 1851 this colliery owned by George Ellis was then called the Thrislington Coal Co. By 1857 this was abandoned and the houses were principally occupied by the miners of Whitworth Colliery and the workmen of the Iron Storks at Spennymoor.

The second Thrislington Colliery was sunk in 1867, the first shaft being named Lady Jane and later a second shaft, Florence, A tradition not only in mining but ships and steam engines which are also referred to as females.

The pit started coal production in 1869. The first owners free James Morrison & Co. who also owned the Rosedale and Ferryhill Iron Co. Later a series of owners followed: Thrislington Coal Co; Sir A, Snood; North Bitchburn Coal Co.; Henry Stobart & Co. Ltd the last owner being the NCB in 1947. In 1894 only the "Harvey" seam was worked which was four feet thick at a depth of 103 fathoms. The output of the pit was 450 tons per day and one-fourth of this was made into coke, The workforce consisted of 450 men and boys. The pit was at the top of the hill about half a mile east of Cornforth station. This hill then became known as "Pit Bank", Like all collieries the pit had its share of fatalities but never any disasters in the way of explosions or floodings. There was a strike of short duration which achieved some fame and became known as the "Black Clock Strike", This was a plague of cockroaches which started in the Busty stables of the pit ponies. These had been brought into the pit among the feed for the ponies, the warmth being an ideal breeding place for them.

The pit ponies when brought out of the pit were put out to graze at Thrislington Plantation then renamed the "Donkey Wood." At this time the pit also claimed to be the only colliery in Durham which used a donkey.

For a number of years the output from the colliery was transported by a wagon way which came from the colliery, passing through a small cutting behind what is now the Community Centre and bordered by the allotment gardens, This wagon way terminated at Cornforth station and was in use until an incline was constructed going through Thrislington Wood, on the erection of a coke works in 1915. In the same wood there was a drift and from this, water was pumped out of the pit.

On the night of the 25th November 1911 a fire started at the colliery in the winder house and spread to the wooden supports of the winding gear, One of the pulley wheels in which the ropes of the winding gear ran fell over the mouth of the shaft. After the fire the whole new structure of winding gear was replaced in steel. A shaft was sunk in August 1929 beside the Hare and Hounds public house, this was to facilitate the time men had to spend travelling underground. A new colliery manager's house was built in 1930 at Stob Cross for a Mr I.T. Dickerson. Previous to this colliery owners had lived in Thrislington Hall and managers in the houses in the colliery yard which were also the offices. A drift mine was made near Coxhoe Bridge 1941-42 close to the old Cornforth Colliery. On nationalisation in 1947 a board was erected at Thrislington Colliery announcing "NCB. This colliery is the property of the nation On 23rd July 1955 Pit Head Baths were opened by Dr. Reed of the NCB. A new landsale coal depot was built in 1957, the old one being half way down the pit bank. Before 1958 men working underground walked to their place of work, then in that year man riding trams were introduced. The pit becoming uneconomical to work due to geological problems closed March 1967, so ending over 500 years of mining at Thrislington. By 1971 all traces of the pit were removed, the waste heaps were levelled and the whole area was landscaped obliterating the site of coke ovens, chemical works and all that industrial area stretching from Cornforth Station to the top of the hill.
After the colliery was dismantled the site was occupied by "Golightly" who had dismantled the pit, coke ovens and chemical works. Later the site was taken over by the present firm of "Banks", Behind the old landsale coal depot belonging to the Colliery a road haulage business was run by R.W.A. Hepple & Sons commencing c1925. This firm transported various raw materials, limestone, coal, tar slag etc. and closed in the 1960s.
 

COKE WORKS

A battery of Beehive Coke Ovens was in existence before 1871 and were situated about half a mile to the west of Thrislington Colliery. This type of oven was so named because its shape resembled an old fashioned beehive. These ovens were filled with coal which after being burnt left behind coke. In those days no attempt was made to distil the gases given off. The coke from these ovens was used by the iron works, the owners of which also owned the coke ovens. These ovens ceased working by the end of the century, Then about 1900 a new battery of patent ovens was constructed near Cornforth station, this site being later occupied by West Cornforth Chemical Works. These ovens not only produced coke but the gases given off were processed, producing coal tar, sulphate of ammonia and benzole. A man named Tom White was killed at these works on 27th August 1909. These ovens closed in 1915.
A new battery of ovens adjoining Thrislington Colliery was built by the Germans in 1914 and commenced operations in December 1915. These ovens produced the same products as those mentioned above. During the depression years 1930-33 these works closed down (the coke actually left in the ovens). On recommencing, the works continued production until 1954, then finally closed when a new battery was built at Fishburn. All the products from the last works were taken by rail an incline having been constructed down the hillside at Thrislington Wood These coke ovens were all the property of the various owners of Thrislington Colliery. All traces of the last mentioned works were removed by the end of 1971.
 

TAR DISTILLATION WORKS

When the battery of coke ovens near Cornforth station was demolished a Tar Distillation Works was constructed on the site, called the Albion Chemical Works. The chimney used for these works was that of the old coke ovens. The owner was a Mr. Dent who had similar works at Selby in Yorkshire. A cooper was employed making barrels, these filled with tar were used in the repairing of roads on the highway. These works caught fire in 1920 and shortly after were taken over by Henry Stobart & Co. Ltd. followed in 1947 by the NCB. The tar for these works was delivered by rail tanks and came from Thrislington, Fishburn and Trimdon coke ovens. After distillation of the tar creosote, pitch, napthalene and anthracene were produced, The name was changed after 1921 to West Cornforth Chemical Works (better known as the tar works). In the late 1940’s an old pit shaft (belonging to the first Thrislington Colliery) which stood in the middle of the works started to subside. Piles had to be driven round it and on these was built a concrete raft.

During the life of these works there had been several fires, but on the night of Thursday, 6th November, 1952 the biggest of all took place, and finally sealed the fate of the works. By the end of 1953 all traces of the works were removed. Many a garden shed had its wood preserved with tar from these works, Parents brought their children suffering from whooping cough to inhale the fumes from a hot bucketful of pitch believing this to be an effective cure.
 

IRON WORKS

Perhaps the most important chapter in Cornforth's history was the building of the iron works and for a short while Cornforth became a boom town. To produce iron three basic materials are needed iron ore, limestone and coke.

To find all three in one area has never been possible but to find two out of three is very fortunate. Here at Thrislington two of these were close at hand so when Mr James Morrison was looking for a site for an iron works he chose this place because a good railway system was nearby and a plentiful supply of coke and limestone. In 1858 Mr Morrison was the proprietor of a Patent Purified Coke Works at Coxhoe and the manager was Joseph Thomas. In 1859 the above James Morrison established the Ferryhill iron Works at Thrislington intending to use the iron ore from Rosedale in the Cleveland Hills. These mines were owned by the Rosedale Iron Co. Ltd. and between 1859-61 nearly 40,000 tons of iron ore was transported to Cornforth the Iron works were situated near Cornforth station lying at the south and north side of the Clarence and Hartlepool railways. A newspaper account reads "On August 17th 1861 a cargo of ironstone from the Spanish port of Santander destined for the blast furnaces at West Cornforth was being discharged at the Victoria Dock, Hartlepool, the first importation of Spanish ore on the N.E. Coast." A limited company was formed in June 1864 and the name changed to the Rosedale and Ferryhill Coal and Iron Co. Ltd.

The same year Prospect House near Cornforth Station was sold by the company. This house had been built by the company c1860, In the grounds were two reservoirs for use at the iron works. In 1865 there were three blast furnaces and four others were in course of erection which when completed would employ 400 persons. The manager was Joseph Thomas and the chief engineer was Henry Telford. Both these men lived at Thrislington villa which was built by the company. The manager's house had an orchard at the front and faced up the hill towards the pit. This house also served as the office for the works. The company at first used coke from Coxhoe and limestone from a quarry near the works. Then by 1867 they were the proprietors of Thrislington Colliery and a battery of coke ovens was built close by. In 1870 they had taken a lease on Highland Quarry near Bishop Middleham conveying the limestone by a railroad crossing the fields and going through Thrislington Wood. In September 1871 two new blast furnaces were being built. These were 95 feet high and 32 feet at the base. These were to take eight or nine months to erect. Weekly output in 1877 was 4,000 tons of pig iron but full capacity, could have been 5,000 tons. A recession in the iron industry in 1879 brought about the collapse of the company with liabilities of £2280,000. At the time the company owned Thrislington and Coxhoe collieries, a limestone quarry at Bishop Middleham and several coke ovens.

There were 10 blast furnaces, two 80 feet in height, four 81 feet, two 103 feet, two 105 feet, the last two being the largest in the world. The works were offered for sale and a condition of sale was that the owner of the land on which the iron works were built should receive 52 tons of coal per annum free of charge, and that free coal should also be supplied to churches, chapels, schools and to the houses of schoolmasters and schoolmistresses, built on the land belonging to the same owner. On June 14th, 1880 a joiner was employed for 8 days barricading up shops, etc. at the works, the cost £1.12s.0d. A new company the Carlton iron Co. Ltd. who also owned East Howle Colliery took over the works. This company in the late 1880s asked the NER for permission to build a footbridge over the main line railway for their workpeople. This was granted, on condition the company built the bridge and kept it in repair, and for this they paid five shillings per year to the NER. The bridge became known as the Jubilee Bridge, No doubt it was constructed in 1887 the year of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, and was demolished in 1968. This company only had a short life and the works closed in 1890. A Mr lseton who was undermanager was told to go and instruct one of the workmen to shut off the blast engine. The man thought this was a joke as the day was April lst but it was all too painfully true. The engine was shut off and so ended the iron works after a life of 30 years.

On all single line railways a "Staff" was carried on the engine. This was rather like a policeman's truncheon. When this "staff" was handed to the engine driver, in this case by a signalman at Ferryhill Station if another engine arrived at the signal box and there was no "staff" to hand to the driver the signalman then knew there was already an engine on that line, The "staff" was a brass tube with a wooden handle at one end, engraved on the tube was "Ferryhill Iron Works". This "staff" was used by all the works on the line up to the closing of the last works in 1953.

The church of St. Mary and St. Laurence at Rosedale Priory has a carved oak lectern presented by Mr George Leeman, Member of Parliament for York and a Director of the Rosedale and Ferryhill Iron Co. Ltd.
 

IRON FOUNDRY

Shortly before the iron works closed, about 100 yards south of Cornforth station an iron Foundry was established by Mulholland and Maugham Co. Ltd, The name painted on the roof of the building enabled it to be visible by travellers on the Ferryhill to Hartlepool railway. This foundry produced cast iron materials; wheels; spouting; lamp standards; water pipes, etc. No doubt the raw material pig iron was obtained from the iron works. Sand for making the moulds in which the molten metal was poured could be obtained close at hand, the area behind the present Community Centre is all sand. In 1902 Prospect House close to Cornforth station was sold to Benjamin Maughan the director of the foundry, A condition of sale that "he maintain the reservoirs, of which there were two, in good repair and not interfere or destroy them in any way." In 1891 this company provided spouts for the church at Cornforth. In the "Kings Head" public house there was a cast iron support in the bar supporting the floor above which was stamped BM. Mr. Mulholland disappeared from the scene quite early in the firm's history (rumour has it with some of the profits). One of Mr. Maughan's sons lost a leg in an accident at the works when he was trapped against a wall by machinery. The works finished sometime around 1910.
 

SLAG WORKS

Over a number of years the huge heaps of iron slag from the iron works were removed for use on the railways, for packing on the tracks and the making of roads. An example of the use of this slag can be seen as a retaining wall outside Coxhoe Workingmen's Club. A William Barker formed a company and we hear of this slag being used to make church paths at Cornforth Church in 1895, and spread on the school playground in 1902. A crushing plant was erected driven by a gas engine, the gas for which was produced in a stove by burning anthracite, The first slag brought from the north side in wagons had to cross over the Clarence line, then under a bridge which spanned the Hartlepool line. The wagons were pulled by a petrol locomotive. In 1926 the slag was mixed with tar from West Cornforth Chemical Works to produce Tar Macadam used for road building. At least two men were killed at the slay works: James Hunter in 1915 and Ralph Maddison by his injuries in 1925. Over the years thousands of tons of slag was removed until around 1937 the works had closed.
 

WESLEYAN METHODISTS

The miners from Coxhoe Colliery opened a room for preaching, connected with the Wesleyan Methodist movement as early as 1840 at Cornforth but this was closed by 1848. In 1851 the miners at West Cornforth had established a meeting place in a hired room. The general congregation was 18 and Sunday School scholars 16. This proving too small the owners of Thrislington Colliery gave them larger premises and also a room for a day school. The congregation having grown so large it became necessary to have a building of their own, on land given by Mr. G.P. Wilkinson. Work started on a new building, the foundation stone being laid by Mr, Raine of Witton Park who was given a silver trowel suitably inscribed on Monday 25th September 1871. In his speech he said "that in order to add due solemnity to the occasion the blast furnaces at the iron storks had been laid in for a few hours, hence the present quietude and inactivity which struck him so much when he entered the village." He paid tribute to the influence that Methodism had in the village, "drunken scenes on pay nights are less frequent though there are still scenes which is to be expected amongst a population of different nationalities," In the foundation stone there was a cavity in which was laid a bottle containing several coins of the present currency, names of the Trustees, a copy of a local newspaper and The Methodist Recorder, names of minister of the circuit, the architect and builders. The chapel was expected to be completed in about two months and would cost £500 and seat around 400 people. There were no galleries but these coud be added later. Mr Sharp of West Cornforth was the builder. Among the vilitors were the vicar and curate of the Parish Church of Cornforth. After the ceremony a public tea was held in the Mechanics Institute.
 

MINERS WELFARE HALL.