Spennymoor (GB)

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Spennymoor is a town and civil parish in County Durham, England. It is south of the River Wear and is 7 mi south of Durham. The civil parish includes the villages of Kirk Merrington, Middlestone Moor, Byers Green and Tudhoe.The land on which Spennymoor now stands was once a vast expanse of moorland covered with thorn and whin bushes (Spenny Moor). In 1336 its place-name was recorded as Spendingmor. The name is probably derived from the Old English or Old Norse spenning and mōr, meaning a moor with a fence or enclosure.

Modern Spennymoor was built on mining and has its origins with the sinking of the Wittered pit in 1839. Rough houses were built for the pit workers – houses with two rooms and a loft, more like "piggeries than human habitation" according to Dodd. The first coal from Merrington Colliery was brought up in 1841; a pit with a chequered career which only prospered under the partnership of L.M Reay and R.S. Johnson, who made a fortune out of it.The coal mining at Whitworth and a small foundry at Merrington Lane were the earliest industries, but in 1853 the Weardale Iron and Coal Company opened its great ironworks at Tudhoe. As a result, many hundreds of immigrant workers came here from the Midlands and more rows of dark little houses were erected. More workers came from Wales and Lancashire, with the opening of the mine at Page Bank (ten lives were lost in a pit fire here in 1858), and with the sinking of a new pit at Tudhoe in the 1880s.

World War II had diverse effects upon the town. On the one hand it brought housing efforts almost to a standstill, but on the industry front it saw the resurgence of Spennymoor as a major centre. The main factor was the opening in 1941 of a Royal Ordnance Factory at Merrington Lane and since then this estate has provided a constant source of alternative employment to the coal industry. The end of World War II, however, saw this industrial activity greatly curtailed and hard times returned, although without the severity of the earlier pre-war years. The run-down of the mining industry, however, was nevertheless a serious blow.

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Spennymoor

1898 Spennymoor Code 1 Double circle and bars

1909 Spennymoor Double circle and bars with Maltese cross, used on mail leaving town by Rail.

Town Sub-Offices

Clyde Terrace

File:Spennymoor (GB) CT a.jpg

Middlestone Moor

File:Spennymoor (GB) MM a.jpg

Mount Pleasant

File:Spennymoor (GB) MP a.jpg

Tudhow Colliery

File:Spennymoor (GB) TC a.jpg

Outer Sub Offices

Byers Green

File:Spennymoor (GB) BG a.jpg

Page Bank

File:Spennymoor (GB) PB a.jpg