Carterway Heads

Muggleswick is a village and civil parish in County Durham, England. It is situated a few miles to the west of Consett. the population was 130 at the 2001 Census reducing to 113 at the 2011 Census.The village has a number of farms and domestic dwellings as well as the Church of England church, generally accepted as dedicated to All Saints, and village hall (previously the school). Amenities other than that consist of the phone box with its adjacent litter bin. Agriculture is primarily sheep farming with some cattle and hay. Listed in the Boldon Book (1183).—“The Prior holds Muglyngwyc, as is expressed in his charter, as well of the Bishop's favour, as in exchange for Herdewic. And in Bishop Hatfield’s survey of c. 1382, “The Prior holds the manor of Mugliswyk in exchange for the vill of Herdwyk. The estate has remained ever since vested in the Church of Durham.” There are the ruins of a hunting lodge, or grange, for the Prior of Durham, which is a listed building. The monastic grange was built for the priors of Durham by Prior Hugh of Darlington, while he held office between 1258 and 1272, on what is thought to have been the site of an earlier grange. The grange lay within a deer park, which Prior Hugh was granted permission to enclose in 1259. The buildings of the grange were in use throughout the medieval period; a document of 1464 records that the buildings consisted of a hall, chapel, grange and a dairy. The names Priory Farm and Grange Farm testify to the influence of Durham as do the stone remains of the grange including a wall suggesting a three-storey building, described as "impressive" by Pevsner.The church (dedicated to All Saints) was built in 1259, probably as part of the grange. The present building dates from circa 1869. The Mayer tomb in the graveyard was made by the sculptor John Graham Lough. In 1663 the so-called Muggleswick Plot took place (also referred to as the Derwentdale Plot, and similar to the Farnley Wood Plot). John Ellrington, a servant of Lady Foster of Blanchland, informed the authorities that there were seditious meetings taking place in the area with a plot to overthrow the government, parliament and the church. Ellrington implicated over 30 people including some of the gentry. The information was false but showed the febrile political situation of the time. The plot was taken seriously and Bishop Cosin sent in the militia and nine people were arrested. The others escaped.John Carr, the schoolmaster and writer, was born in Muggleswick. In the United Kingdom Census 2001 the population of the village was 130 with 66 male and 64 femaleA significant area of the south and west of the village is taken up by Muggleswick Common, an area of upland moorland used for grouse rearing (and associated game (food) shooting) and sheep grazing. This area consists predominantly of heather with encroaching bracken. The Common is part of the Muggleswick, Stanhope and Edmundbyers Commons and Blanchland Moor Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), designated as such by Natural England for its habitat diversity and the presence of a range of plant and bird species of national and international importance.To the east, the village is bordered by the Derwent Gorge and Horsleyhope Ravine SSSI. This area has been classified as such due to the range of plant species and areas that have remained free from human interference.

Burnhope Burn is a Site of Special Scientific Interest in the Wear Valley district of north County Durham, England. It consists of a 12.6-acre (5.1 ha) area of woodland, carr, fen and mire in the valley of Burnhope Burn, just below the dam of the Derwent Reservoir, a mile (1.6 km) north-east of the village of Edmundbyers. It contains a range of habitats that are characteristic of poorly drained soils and that are rare or local in County Durham; such as smooth-stalked sedge (Carex levigata), bogbean (Menyanthes) and globeflower (Trollius). In a small basin-mire in the northern part of the site, there are abundant communities of a number of species that have a localised distribution elsewhere in the county.

Derwent Gorge and Horsleyhope Ravine is a Site of Special Scientific Interest in the Derwentside district of north County Durham and the Tynedale district of south Northumberland, England. It consists of two separate areas of woodland, one in the gorge of the River Derwent and the other in the ravine of its tributary, the Horsleyhope Burn, south-east of the village of Muggleswick. On the dry acidic soils of the upper slopes, the woodland is dominated by sessile oak, Quercus petraea. Some areas have been coppiced in the past but where the slopes are steepest, and least accessible, there appears to have been no human interference.

Snods Edge is a small hamlet in South Northumberland, about 4 miles (6 km) from Consett. The name is thought to have derived from "snow's edge", referring to the hamlet's close proximity (about 5 km or 3 mi) to the North Pennines.

St Andrew's Church, Shotley, is a redundant Anglican church standing in an isolated position at a height of 960 feet (293 m) on Greymare Hill in Northumberland, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building, and is in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust.

Edmundbyers is a village in County Durham, in England. It is situated a few miles to the west of Consett, near Derwent Reservoir. In 2001 it had a population of 118. The civil parish of Edmondbyers had a population taken at the 2011 Census of 173. Today, the village has a pub, a youth hostel, a church, a village hall and a small shop. A bus service, the 773, serves the village, connecting it to Townfield, Hunstanworth and Consett. There is evidence of prehistoric settlement in the area from the Neolithic era onwards. It is listed in the Boldon Book (1183): "Alan Bruntoft holds Edmundbires for his service in the forest”. However, Bishop Hatfield's survey of c. 1382 shows that the land had been transferred to Durham Cathedral: “The Prior holds the vill of Edmundbires, sometime of Alan Bruntop, by forest service”.The village church, St Edmund's, has evidence of pre-Norman building, but it mainly dates from the 12th century, with renovations from 1859 onwards. The pre-Reformation stone altar was rediscovered and replaced in the church during the restoration. There is a list of rectors beginning with Richard de Kirkeby in 1275 and ending with John Durie, A. M., on 2 July 1629. The incumbents after 1629 have also been in charge of the parish of Muggleswick.A Wesleyan Methodist chapel was erected in 1835. The Primitive Methodists met in a private house. The parish school was erected in 1825.The youth hostel (dated 1936 over the lintel) is made up of three houses built in the mid- to late 18th century.Edmundbyers Cross is one of only three wayside crosses still in its original position in County Durham, and the only known example on the route between Stanhope and Edmundbyers.

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.

Minsteracres is an 18th-century mansion house, now a Christian retreat centre, in Northumberland, England. It is a Grade II listed building.The house was built in 1758 by George Silvertop. Originally erected with two storeys, a third storey was added in 1811 and a new North wing was built in 1865.The Silvertops were a Roman Catholic family. George Silvertop was in 1831 the first Catholic appointed High Sheriff of Northumberland following the repeal of the penal law. His nephew Henry Charles Silvertop, High Sheriff in 1859 built a Catholic chapel adjoining the hall, and dedicated to St Elizabeth of Hungary in 1854. The chapel is a Grade II listed building.The Silvertop family sold the House in 1949 for conversion to a Passionist Monastery. A retreat house was opened in 1967, and in the 1970s links were established with the Selly Park sisters and the Sisters of Mercy from Sunderland. Since 2012 Minsteracres has been run by a charitable trust on behalf of the Passionist community. It describes itself as a "Christian place of prayer with a resident community rooted in the Roman Catholic Passionist tradition".In the early 1960s Consett artist Sheila Mackie painted two large murals Agony in the Garden and The Conversion of Saul, each 40 feet (12 m) by 12 feet (3.7 m) for the Minsteracres retreat house; they were known to still exist in 2010 and are listed in the database PostWar Murals Database, last updated 2013.The east and west lodges, stable block, entrance screen with flanking walls and a group of farm buildings are all separately grade II listed.

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).

Horsleyhope is a village in County Durham, England. It is situated a few miles to the south-west of Consett.