Father time, whose hands are never idle, works innumerable changes each succeeding year of his long and continued reign. Time and tide wait for no man, so it is said, but history and her recorder-the historian-wait for both. The daily, monthly, and yearly course of the history of the world's actions is one of continual change, and this continual change, though imperceptible to many persons, and especially those to whom each day is a repetition of the one just past, has been going on, is now going on, and will continue to go on, as long as the world is a world.

Who in the year 1828, travelling a long the narrow and indistinct track which led across the dreary fell land that separated the two villages of Thornley and Cornsay, would have thought that ere another score of years had passed over their heads, that there would appear a thriving village, increasing in population, as the coal-mines and ironworks were gradually developed, and in time to become a market-town, and as such, perhaps, the most elevated in England?

Yet so it was to be. Little more than sixty years ago, the spot where the town of Tow Law now stands, was in part covered with heather and ling, and rough coarse benty grass, upon which the hardy mountain sheep browsed during the wormier months of the year ; and in part converted into fields, or, to use a term more appropriate to the enclosures, garths, some of which were the meadows, and the remainder the cultivated lands, on which oats and patches of potatoes were grown, which formed the land belonging to the little old-fashioned red pan-tiled farmstead, situated in the hollow, to the south-west of the presents town, and known by the name of Towlowe, part of the buildings of which still remain.

This solitary farmhouse, which stood near what was then the northern extremity of the township of Thornley, was at the date above mentioned, occupied by Ralph Chapman, who was the first to work coal in the immediate neighbourhood of Tow Law. At this time Thornley was only a small village, less than it even now is, and now it is not very large, and in its school, which was built by subscription in 1824, divine service was performed every Saturday evening by the curate of Wolsingham, at that time the Rev. Philip Brownrigg, and at Helm Park there was a small landsale colliery, where the farmers living in the neighbourhood, both near and far, used to obtain their coal for household purposes.

Previous to 1840, the above Ralph Chapman sunk shafts at various places here and there, on Hedley Fell, or Cornsay Common as it is often called, in close proximity to the present town, and as soon as the coal round the bottom of one shaft was worked out, another was sunk, which accounts for the numerous holes filled with water, the remains of these old shafts, found on the fell. The coals were brought to the surface in corves by means of a gin. These gins-short for engine-were upright pieces of timber with a large drum at the top. To the upright, a horizontal beam, called a start, was fastened two or three feet from the ground, and to the one horse, or more, was fastened. The horse, or horses as the case might be, walked round and round, in a circular track, or gin-gan as it was termed, thus turning the rope drum above, and so wound or unwound the coil, or fakes, of rope. The ropes from the drum passed over pulleys erected on frames over the pit-shaft, and to the end of each rope, clipped or spring hooks were spliced, and by these the corf was fastened or hung on. A corf-plural corves- was a kind of crate, or large box, made of hazel sticks woven together, which could be fastened to the bogie-wheels, and so be moved from place to place at the bottom of the shaft, or slung on to the rope and brought with its contents to the surface.

These shafts, or gin-pits as they were generally called, did not employ meny hands, sometimes there were only two persons, one going below to hew the coal and fill the corves, and the other remaining at the top with the gin horse to bring them to the surface ; at others, when there was a large demand for the "black diamonds," an extra hand or two would be employed in hewing the coal, or in putting and fastening or unfastening the corves.

May 15th, 1890.

Part Two

At the period Chapman began to work to coal near the edge of the bleak common of Cornsay and Hedley, there were few pits in the western portion of the county of Durham. The out-crop of the Coal Measures passing southwards from Allansford on the Derwent, by an imaginary line by way of Satley, Tow Law, Firtree, Harperley Gate, and Witton-le-Wear, and then by a curve of several miles westward to Cockfield, makes that portion of the Durham Coal field in the west of the county of only a small area, and a distance of 16 miles or more, there was only the land-sale colliery's at Helm Park to supply a wide district. The coal obtained at that place being of a good quality for household purposes, carts and wagons came many miles, even out of Weardale and parts of Yorkshire, to get supplies.

When the pits were opened in the vicinity of the present town of Tow Law, they drew several who went to Helm Park to obtain their coals at them; and Chapman, by charging a smaller sum, 1s 6d, or 1s 9d. for two corves, about ten hundredweight, than that paid at the pit, 2s 6d, and more for the same quantity, increased his trade. To keep his customers supplied, he employed more hewer, amongst whom was his brother Nicholas, who afterwards lived and died at Wolsingham. The last gin pit which he worked was on the fell between Inkerman and Stonefoothill Farm, at the spot where the present airshaft stands. This one was worked much longer than any of the others, and a good road, now, however, much cut up, led across the fell from the Wolsingham and Cornsay turnpike to it.

Other persons besides Chapman found that a vast amount of mineral wealth lay beneath the surface of Cornsay Common, for several shafts followed his. His immediate successor was William Brown, who sank shafts and worked out the coal in various parts of the fell nearer to the Cornsay Turnpike. Traces of some of them are still visible. a mound with remains of the shaft and the marks of the gingan, or circular tracks, on which the horses travelled when raising or lowering the corves, with the tracks of the road made by carts leading the coals, may still be seen near the centre of the pasture field, north of Inkerman, and behind the cottages known as Nattras's Cabin, on the High House Farm. This was the last one that he sank. One of the first was between this one and the cabin just named, and another was near the corner of the same field at the south end of the cottage. These were gin pits, but he had, at one time, a drift which went in from the fell near the north end of the cabin, from which he worked coals out of the same field. He also had a shaft near where the present Inkerman brick works stand. In the workings of these pits, he went below and hewed coal, whilst a woman of the name Peggy (Brown) drove the horses in the gingan, or acted as brakes woman, whilst he was working the shaft near the brick works already mentioned, where he had a little engine to raise or lower the corves.

The next to sink a gin pit was Ralph Johnson, who has a shaft near the main street of Tow law, a short distance north-west of the road leading from thence to the Black Prince Colliery. Long after it had been worked out, when Charles Attwood came to Tow Law, he gave the site to some person to build a house thereon. The house was accordingly built near the edge, whilst the mouth of the shaft was boarded over, and covered with earth to form the backyard. The yard remained firm for some years, but the property changed hands, and one morning during the winter following the transaction, the tenant on going out found that his yard had disappeared, the rottenness of the timber, aided by the frost, having been unable to support the weight. Luckily for the inhabitants that it happened during the early morning, or perhaps it might have had some serious accident attendant with it. The hole was immediately afterwards filled up with stones and earth, and a solid foundation given to the place.

Johnson afterwards, about 1841, sank another shaft at the top of the bank, which was afterwards known by the name of the Dan's Castle pit, and was worked in the same manner as the others-by a gin. The old shaft, now bricked round standing in front of the Co-operative Stores, occupies its site. The brick shaft was made by the Weardale Iron Company, after they got possession of the royalties of coal, and sank the Black Prince, first as an air shaft for the workings of that colliery, and afterwards as a shaft from whence to pump out water.

The next shaft put down was near the farmhouse of High West House, by Thomas Snowdon, and was called the Lady Jane pit. The coals were at first brought to the surface by ordinary horse-gin, but this eventually gave way to a small engine. The shaft was at a later date bricked round, and still stands by the side of the road leading from Tow Law and Hedley Hill Road down past the farmhouse to Old Hedleyhope.

Following the Lady Jane was a shaft , which was sunk by John Pickard, near what is now called the Brickflats - west of the former pit - to which was given the name of Royal George ; the old brick air chimney afterwards erected on its site for the Black Prince workings is still standing. This pit was the largest of all that had hitherto been in existence on Cornsay and Hedley Fell, employed from a dozen to a score of miners.

About this time William Brown, who, as we have seen, was one of those who had gin-pits on the fell, and who had left this part to live in the neighbourhood of West Auckland, returned with two partners, and shank a shaft at the north-west end of Tow Law, to which was given the name of Blackfields. This company, which was known as Brown, Ruddock, and another, worked coal on a scale larger than what Brown had done previously, and employed generally about a dozen more persons at the pit.

Trade at this period in coal had rapidly increased, and to keep up the supply other small coal-owners had, as already stated, opened out pits. Several persons who lived in out-lying districts, and who had hitherto used peat-small square of oblong pieces of peat-moss cut and dried - as fuel, began to use coals oftener than they had hitherto done, and a larger quantity of coal came to be used in the lime kilns at Broadwood and Frosterley. Many of the farmers in the district round where the pits were located, carted a load of coals, which cost them about 1s 6d., to the lime kilns, for which in return they received a load of lime valued at 4s 6d. Frequently a number of carts all laden with coals and bound for the kilns would be on the road together, and then a commotion would be made amongst them, who was to arrive at the place of destination first. In striving for that. In striving for that purpose they would urge on their steeds into a gallop and speed along the road scattering the coals in their career, and generally ending in one of the carts being run into the dyke gutter or overturned in the middle of the road. In these gallopades the cartmen were urged on by the lime-burners, who were delighted to see the "awd farmers hev a gallop on't road."

The growth of Tow Law had been a remarkable one. In 1841 the only habitation in the neighbourhood was the solitary farmhouse which was known by that name. In 1842, when the coal pits had become in general working order, a few low huts, or cabins, as they were named, were erected, and in this years there were seven. Two stood near the site of the present Roman Catholic Chapel and School, with their gable end to the road and facing down the hill. Their walls were of stone, built to a height of eight or nine feet, and roofed with red pantiles. One of them was occupied by Arthur, or as he was better known, Athey, Golightly, who acted as banksman to the Dan's Castle pit, and the other by William Perkins, a miner at the same pit. Two stood on the spot where the present Co-operative Store stands, with walls constructed for the most part of sods, and roofed with grey slates. These faced towards the road, ie., eastwards, and one of them was occupied by "Jinny" Tomlinson, who kept a little shop and sold sugar, coffee, ginger beer, and lots of sundry goods with which persons who lived in the neighbourhood, and might run short of, could be supplied. These buildings each consisted of one room with a smaller apartment or closet behind, and were lighted by means of a very small window. The two on the site of the Store were afterwards pulled down and more substantial structures, but similar in size to the first buildings, erected in their place. They all remained for many years until the sited were required for other purposes, for building larger housed or shops, and went under the name of Dan's Castle, but which of the structures was the abode of that individual I am at a loss to say, nor can I give any information of him other than that he was an Irishman who worked at one of the pits, and constructed one of the cabins just named similar manner to those of his native land.

A fifth cabin stood, and still stands with a very little renovation to its former site, in close proximity to the lady Jane pit, and was known by the name "Nannie's Cabin," whilst a sixth stood near to Johnson's pit near the Prince Road. This latter, at first a sod hut in which the gin driver and banksman might take shelter in during rain or stormy weather, was a stone structure so low that any person might easily touch the eaves, with a red pantiled roof, and was occupied by Ralph Johnson, the owner of the pit. It boasted of two small rooms, and was known by the name of "Jinnie Muggie's Cabin." In 1845 and 1846, when several buildings were in course of erection in Tow Law, this cottage was the common lodging house, and so many as fourteen individuals have found board and lodgings, wheather a home I will not say, within its walls at one time. Jinnie Muggie's cabin was the leading house in Dan's Castle, for the place had not assumed the name of Tow Law in that years, and was the resort of many who came to smoke a pipe and have a friendly chat over a glass of home-made whisky - manufactured on the sly on Hedley and Cornsay Common - every evening. The only other house was a little low place in the vicinity of Brown's pit, called Brown's Cabin, now part of the dwelling known as Nattras's Cabin, near Inkerman. In this same year - 1842 - that part of the present town of Tow Law on the north of the main street as far as the Prince colliery, and between Dan's Castle and Tow Law Hill Terrace, was occupied by two small cultivated fields both sown with oats - the last crop of corn grown there.

July 15th, 1890.