Consett

Consett Heart – Heritage & Arts Centre,
The Ambulance Hall,
John Street,
Consett, County Durham
DH8 5LA
Contact: CATHERINE MEADES
Email: consettbranch@ndfhs.org.uk

Branch meetings will be on the Fourth Wednesday of the month, starting at 1pm.
All visitors are welcome

Reports of meetings

April 2025

Minutes of NDFHS, Consett Branch Meeting – 23rd April 2025
Attendees:13
Apologies: SN
Meeting chaired by: CM

Presentation
CM opened the meeting and introduced David Butler

David Butler – The 1851 Census of Durham City

The presentation covered off the changes between the 1841 & 1851 Census taken in Durham City. The duties of the local Enumerator Officers were explained and the process of checking households, delivering & collecting Census forms and the completion of the ‘Enumerator Summary Books’ reviewed.

The presentation was well received

Branch Meeting
CM – all minutes of the previous meeting were read and accepted

Matters arising:
● There are still tickets available for the 50th anniversary event. Leaflets were made available to the group. Reminder to include any dietary requirements when booking a place

50th Anniversary celebration:
A discussion then followed regarding the NDFHS event.

Sample Family & Events stories relating to ‘Consett’ were shared with the Group. CM asked the group to submit additional examples. If anyone needs help producing the information, please let us know. At our next meeting we’ll hopefully show everyone the presentation that will be used on 14th June at Brunswick Place.

AOB
● NDFHS Google Group now set up to replace the NE Ancestors mailing list. All members e-mailed with details on 23rd April
● Brief discussion held regarding archive maps from both National Library of Scotland and County Durham Archives
● CM shared some forthcoming events that may be of interest to members. See below

Forthcoming Events:
● 10th May 2025 Local History Event at South Shield Library
● 24th May 2025 Newcastle Central Library Family History Day

March 2025

Minutes of NDFHS, Consett Branch Meeting – 26 March 2025
Attendees:14
Apologies: DH
Meeting chaired by: CM

The minutes of the previous meeting were read and accepted

Matters arising:
● There are still tickets available for the 50th anniversary event. Leaflets were made available to the group. Reminder to include any dietary requirements when booking a place
● BH was thanked for providing the Consett timeline.

Photo sharing:
Members of the group took turns to share a favourite family photo and explain how it had enhanced their research or provided additional questions. Some interesting discussions took place within the group, including possible avenues for helping to solve some of the mysteries.

50th Anniversary celebration:
A discussion took place regarding the various information that could be included in the branch display at the anniversary event. CM and RW shared a range of additional information and possible record sheets with the group.

The group will have a table with a wall behind to exhibit information.

The following items were agreed as the initial plan for the display
● Key points and dates to be displayed on postcards and presented as a timeline
● The population increases to be included alongside the timeline
● ‘People’ stories based on people who were injured or killed at the Consett Ironworks or individual family stories of people moving to the area to be presented on 1 side of A4 paper
● Copy of ordnance survey map of the area for 1863-1867, provided by CM, to be included in the display
● BH will loan relevant Consett history books to be included on the display table

APs
● BH to look for more accurate population numbers for 1901, 1911, 1921
● Members to attempt to put together a relevant story, if possible, and bring it to the next meeting

AOB
● After a number of issues with the North East Ancestors email group, a new email has been set up. The new name will be Durham and Northumberland Roots
● CM read out a letter from the chairman regarding a request for volunteers for the society
● CM shared some forthcoming events that may be of interest to members. See below

Forthcoming Events:
● 29th March 2025 County Durham Forum for History & Heritage. AGM meeting at Bowburn
● 10th May 2025 Local History Event at North Shield Library
● 24th May 2025 Newcastle Central Library Family History Day

February 2025

Minutes of NDFHS, Consett Branch Meeting – 26 February 2025
Attendees:12; Apologies: R N, CB

Meeting chaired by: C M

The meeting was held after an informative talk by Dr John Banham entitled:
Sir Martin Hunter 1757 – 1846 “Medomsley to Miramichi”

CM opened the meeting
The minutes of the last meeting were read and accepted.

Matters arising:
● Membership renewal is now on a rolling program from the date of joining for newer members
● There are still tickets available for the 50th anniversary event. Reminder to include any dietary requirements when booking a place
● BH was reminded about providing the Consett timeline.

A discussion then followed about the branch display at the celebration event with the following suggestions being made:
● Items to be displayed vertically, using ribbons to join information
● Information to be included regarding the number of mines in the Consett area and how these relate to the population increase.
● Family stories of how members relatives arrived in the area
● Members to have a look at the book ‘Consett Iron Works: Deaths and Injuries 1850 – 1900’ by Craig Suddick with a view to selecting a couple of people mentioned in the book and writing their ‘story’. No more than 1 side of A4 paper
● BH has information about people in the infirmary that he can share

CM requested that members bring examples of personalised stories to the next meeting.
A reminder was also given to bring a family photo to the next meeting for the personal research discussion.

AOB

The trustees are planning to redo the website. This will obviously take some time. CM to give an update when further information is available.
CM is to have an article included in the magazine next month.

A member then shared a problem with their research focused on families of refugees who came to Shotley Bridge during World War II. Members of the group made suggestions of local places that may have further documents to aid the research.

January 2025

Minutes of NDFHS, Consett Branch Meeting [online] – 22nd January 2025
Attendees:8
Apologies: RW, DH, ML
Meeting chaired by: C M

The meeting was held after an informative talk by Joyce Jackman entitled ‘The Parish Chest’ which discussed some of the documents and resources which can be discovered through the parish chest. A list of examples from Medomsley parish was provided and is attached to these minutes

Members may also find the following links helpful following issues raised in the discussion:
Durham Wills: https://familyrecords.awh.durham.ac.uk/nei/data/simple.php
NDFHS Wills database. This is in the members area so you need to log in. https://www.ndfhs.org.uk/wills/

Minutes of the Branch Meeting
CM opened the meeting by thanking KJ for organising the Zoom meeting and JJ for her interesting talk.
The minutes of the previous meeting were read and accepted.
Matters arising:
CM stated that the Society AGM will be held on 12th July in Newcastle.

November 2024

Minutes of NDFHS, Consett Branch Meeting- 27th November 2024
Attendees:17
Apologies: R W
Chair: C M

The meeting was held after a talk by Julian Harrop from Beamish Museum, entitled: A Treasure of Memories. Julian shared a range of photographs, donated from the Durham Advertiser, that showed Consett and the neighbouring areas during the early 1960s. He also shared some details about the new 1950’s development at Beamish.

CM opened the meeting by welcoming members of the Consett and District Heritage Society and asking them to introduce themselves.

Minutes of last meeting: Read and approved

Matters arising:

No one was able to attend the NDFHS planning meeting on 29th October

On 12th November CM attended:
The Trustees meeting – mostly standard officer reports and discussion about the website redesign. Followed by the 50th Anniversary planning meeting.

Feedback from the planning meeting:

The event will take place at Brunswick Methodist Church, Brunswick Place, Newcastle on 14th June 2025 at 10am.

There will be a charge of £10. This will include lunch. There will be 2 speakers: John Heckels, and a talk on Norman Cornish. There will be presentations from all the branches.

A request was made for volunteers to:
● Set up the stand at the beginning of the day – SN and DB volunteered
● Be at the stand throughout the day
● Take the presentation down at the end of the day

CM made a number of suggestions of what we could present at the event and encouraged members to discuss these and make additional suggestions. The main focus for Consett will be the steel works.

BH already has a timeline which he is happy to share with members. It was agreed that the group will use this as a starting point and look at areas of interest along the timeline to build up the presentation.

Next meeting:
22 January 2025. This will be a Zoom meeting – details to follow in January.
The speaker will be Joyce Jackman ‘The Parish Chest’

September 2024

Minutes of Meeting of NDFHS, Consett Branch – 25 September 2024
Attendees:14
Apologies: None
Meeting chaired by: Catherine Meades
Minutes of last meeting: Read and approved
Matters arising: None

Guest Speaker: Kevin Johnson, Membership Secretary of the Northumberland & Durham Family History Society
Kevin gave a very informative overview of the online and library resources available to members based at the Research Centre. (New England House, Ridley Place, Newcastle Upon Tyne NE1 8JW)

The resources consist of Microfiche & Microfiche Cabinets, covering General Register Office Indexes, Census for Northumberland & Durham 1841 to 1901, Probate and Wills & Parish records. In addition, the Centre holds 2500 Family trees which can be viewed. The 6 x Centre Computers enable members to access Findmypast, Ancestry, Family Search, The Genealogist, FreeBMD, the National Newspaper Library and other genealogy related websites. The current issue with WiFi connectivity should be resolved shortly and members will be updated via e-mail and the Society Website. The Library book shelves contain Family Tree Magazines, unwanted Birth, Marriage & Death Certificates, Shipping, Maritime and Mining records, Armed Forces information, Family History Federation & Genealogists Guides plus others.

Members can view the records by either calling in or contacting the Centre on 0191 261 2159 specifically if they need to use the Microfiche viewer

AOB: Nothing specific, however members took the chance to question Kevin on a number of opportunities identified above and how best to start. Kevin agreed to provide a copy of his presentation to help members navigate the Society Website

June 2024

Minutes of NDFHS, Consett Branch meeting 26th June 2024
Attendees:11
Apologies: None
Meeting chaired by: Catherine Meades
Minutes of last meeting: Read and approved

Matters arising:
Committee membership: Robin Webb and Brian Harrison have volunteered to join the committee. We are still waiting for confirmation from the Society about the requirements of a forum for the committee.

Update on the preparations for the 50th Anniversary celebrations: Robin attended the meeting. The centre has now moved to its new premises where an entry code is required to get through the door. It is therefore best to ring in advance if anyone is wanting to visit to use the many resources available.

3 possible venues are being considered for the full day event which will take place on either the 7th or 14th June 2025.These are

● The Durham Miners Hall at Brunswick
● The Mining Institute in Newcastle
● Brunswick Chapel

Further updates will follow once prices, availability, catering and parking have been confirmed. It is thought that the cost to members will probably be £20 / £25 for the day.

It has been suggested by the Chairman of the Society that the speakers at the event focus on mining themes and that each branch produces a small display covering an aspect of the topic specific to their area, between 1800’s and 1975; the year that the Society was established.

A possible group visit to Beamish, at a discounted rate, was discussed, along with the suggestion that the new Society premises could be open for member visits on a Sunday during June 2025.

A further planning meeting will be held via Teams/Zoom once the venue information has been collated.

Programme for the remainder of 2024:
25. 09. 2024 Kevin Johnson “Resources available from NDFHS”
23. 10. 2024 Jane Gulliford Lowes “The Horse keeper’s Daughter” – a personal ancestry
27. 11. 2024 Julian Harrop “A Treasure of Memories” – Beamish Museum photos in newspaper archives

AOB:

Correspondence: An email has been received from Joe Fletcher, a member of the society, who has written several articles for the NDFHS Journal. These refer mainly to Consett and District, and he wondered if our members may be interested in reading them. He is happy to list the articles if members are interested and refer them to which journal they were entered. He also gave the following information: I was born at No. 1 Windsor Gardens in 1938 and left the area when I was 10 years old.

The Story – Durham’s new record office: This has now opened, and a couple of members shared relevant information on their recent visits.
The parish records have not been uploaded yet to the system and it may be another couple of months before these are fully available.
There is plenty of parking available.
Jean requested that feedback is given to her regarding any access issues. The record office catalogue can be accessed via www.Durhamrecordoffice.org.uk

Members Forum: Sharing your family history
Catherine started the discussion by sharing some examples of how she has recorded family history, along with a handout of useful weblinks.
There was then an interesting discussion as each member shared the different ways they have trialled sharing their personal family history, along with problems they have incurred.
Point for future discussion:how can we as a group collate useful links and resources in an easily accessible way for all group members?

April 2024

Attendees:12 + 2 Apologies

Meeting chaired by: Catherine Meades

Minutes of last meeting: approved.

Matters arising: Request for additional volunteers to form a committee were repeated. An AGM will need to be held in September and further committee members will be needed for this to take place.

Other business

● Catherine ran through the focus of the next two meetings. The group were asked if they wished the Consett Branch to continue holding meetings after this time.

○ The consensus of the group was that they would like the meetings to continue.

● It was further agreed that meetings would be paused for July and August to allow for holidays and possible grandparent childcare responsibilities.

● The 4th Wednesday in December will be Christmas Day so no meeting will be held. Catherine suggested that perhaps the group could meet for a Christmas lunch earlier in the month.

○ To be discussed after the summer break.

● The group then had a general discussion about suggestions for future talks. These included:

· John North – speaker

· Anthea Lang – speaker

· History of Stockton Railway

· Weardale museum

· History of Fenwick’s

· Alan Godfrey (based in Leadgate) – maps

· The use of tokens as coinage in the Northeast

o Brian has offered to give this talk next year

· The Story – the new record office for Co. Durham

● A further suggestion was made that members of the group could share links to different resources that they have found useful. A list of these could then be put together and made available to all members.

The meeting was then followed by a very interesting talk by Margaret Hedley on the Women of the Durham Coalfield in the 19th century.

Last updated 26th April 2025