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Allensford

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Wharnley Burn Water Fall
Wharnley Burn Water Fall

Allensford is a small country park and hamlet in County Durham, in England. It is on the River Derwent, about 2 miles SW of Consett, and 1 mile north of Castleside. Allensford was first recorded as Aleynforth in Bishop Hatfield's survey of c. 1382. The placename is sometimes listed as Allansford; "At Allansford...is a bridge over the Derwent into Northumberland, surrounded by some of the most beautiful scenery on that stream; there are a few cottages on each side of the river".It is uncertain when a bridge replaced the ford. However, a bridge was in existence in the late 17th century when the structure was in a "very ruinous and in greate decay” according to the Northumberland Quarter Sessions for 1687–1697.Allensford Mill farmhouse was originally called the Belsay Castle Inn, named after the estate of the Middleton family of Belsay Castle. Part of the inn was built in the late 17th century and may have been a bastle. Later additions continued throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. The inn was licensed until 1869. The upper room in the outbuilding served as a nonconformist chapel.Denis Hayford (c.1635–1733), a pioneer of the steel industry, acquired the lease of Allensford furnace and forge in 1692; this was upstream from his established business in Shotley Bridge. The lease seems to have lapsed in 1713. The site of the furnace is marked on Ordnance Survey maps.It has a dedicated campsite. The adjacent woodland forms the Allensford Woods Local Nature Reserve, covering 17.5 hectares (43 acres).

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Allensford (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Allensford
Allensford Bank,

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Latitude Longitude
N 54.846561 ° E -1.88149 °
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Allensford Bank

Allensford Bank
DH8 9AY
England, United Kingdom
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Wharnley Burn Water Fall
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Healeyfield
Healeyfield

Healeyfield is a village and civil parish in County Durham, England. The population of the civil parish taken from the 2011 census was 1,544. It is situated to the south west of Consett. First documented in the Boldon Book as Heleie, “Alain de Chilton, holds Heley, as is contained in his charter, for Cornforth...”. The village is also listed in Bishops Hatfield's survey (1381) as Heley, "...being held by John de Chilton". The Chilton family seem to have held the manor and vill of Healyfield for 200 years as there is a charter of 1280 describing John of Chilton as Lord of Heleyfield (sic). As part of bishop Hugh du Puiset's extension and protection of his demesne, agriculture was pushed in the upper reaches of the Derwent valley including grants made to Healeyfield and other villages in the area. The place name probably means “the high clearing”.There may have been a medieval chapel located at Healeyfield (though there is some confusion in the records with a chapel at Rowley). The chapel at Rowley/Healeyfield is first mentioned in 1228 and again in 1291 (as Ruley). The site of the chapel is not known though in the nineteenth century a ruin described as a chapel was noted near Healeyfield.Healeyfield and the surrounding area had three lead mines; Healeyfield mine, Silvertongue mine and Dean Howl mine which were all disused by the 1920s. There was a smelting mill at nearby Watergate, Castleside. The mill was built in 1805 and this smelted ores from the Healeyfield mines changing over in 1913 to the smelting of lead residues. The mill ceased functioning in the 1920s.The village was the site of a prisoner of war camp during the First World War from where two prisoners escaped. The camp was established in August 1916 and the prisoners extracted ganister from a nearby quarry.