The rapid growth of the coal trade consequent upon the opening of dormant mines by the introduction of railways, increased the working of the "black diamonds" with great impulse, and a number of miners and pits had hitherto lain in almost a stagnated state became vast centres of busy wealth, increased population, and constant labour. Tow Law seems to have been blest with impulses in her early days, for soon after the supplies of coal had been increased, two great moments presented themselves and gave her the chance and means of rapid advancement both in wealth and prosperity. The first was the opening out of the district by the construction of that portion of the Consett and darlington Railway lying between Crook and Cold Rowley in the year 1844, which gave a vent for further increasing the coal exports of the place, and an outlet by which the mineral treasures could be sent to the Tees for shipping and other purposes. The construction of this railway, and its opening as both a passenger and traffic route, forms one of the most important land marks in the history of this part of North-West Durham. It extended the commerce of this part of the county by affording a cheap and facile transit for both agricultural and mineral produce, as well as yielding an easier mode of travelling to the population resident in the near neighbourhood of its route. This railway, known as the Consett and Darlington Branch of the North-Eastern Railway, was the first passenger and the second traffic line in this portion of the county, and was consequently one of the greatest benefits given to, or acquired by the district. The first traffic line was the Stanhope and Tyne Railway, constructed in 1834 at a cost of more than half a million pounds sterling, and was thirty-two miles long. It extended from Lanehead, near Stanhope, to south Shields by way of Waskerley, Cold Rowley, Pontop, Annfield Plain, and North Biddick. In May, 1842, an Act of Parliament divided the line, the upper part becoming part of the Wear and Derwent Railway, the old name of the line through Tow Law, and the lower or eastern part the Pontop and South Shields Line. Now that Tow Law had received its opportunity for a promotion it wanted only the means to carry it out and a mind wherewith to guide the undertaking, and these were not lacking, for a persevering gentleman was turning his attention to the bleak and apparently barren moor - a man whose mind was filled with good and useful theories, and whose will put those theories in practice, a man who was to become one of the greatest benefactors of the county of Durham and whose name was ever to be held in remembrance and respect by the works he founded and the towns he called into existence - and this was Charles Attwood, a member of a Worcestershire family who had long been connected with the manufacture of steel goods in Shropshire, but at this period a resident of the north of England.

In the years 1843, Mr. Charles Attwood, of Wickham, a principal in the Tyne Crown Glass Company, a firm making good crown and broad glass - of Gateshead, and person knowing something of the science of mineralogy, had his attention called to a mineral deposit in Weardale which differed very much from the lead deposits. A Mr. Walton, a native of Weardale, and the owner of a small freehold estate in that district, but in this year the proprietor of a small public house in the neighbourhood of Westgate Street, Newcastle-on-Tyne, a man who had speculated in lead mining, and who, whilst working for lead, had often come upon a peculiar mineral which was new to him, showed a piece of it to Mr. Attwood, and asked him what it was. After a careful examination Mr. Attwood pronounced it to be a very rich and peculiar quality of iron ore, and made an inspection of the locality where it was found, when he became fully convinced that the district was a rich one, and immediately formed an idea of turning the discovery into practical account. To be nearer the scene of his proposed speculation, he obtained a three year lease of, and removed from Whickham to reside at, Bishop Oak, North of Wolsingham.

Just at that same period another person had found that a vast amount of mineral wealth lay beneath those western fells, for only a few days before Mr. Attwood's inspection of the district, Mr. Cuthbert Rippon, of Stanhope Castle, had been on the spot, and concluded a lease for the workings of all the ironstone in the two manors of Stanhope and Wolsingham.

Mr. Attwood's ideas and plans now seemed to be checked, but he was not a man to be deprived of his energetic spirits, for he well knew that where there's a will there's a way, and to get over the difficulty of such circumstances he made arrangements with Mr. Rippon for the sub-lease of the manor, but on much less advantageous terms than he could have made with Mr. Wilkinson, the Lord of the Manor.

Mr. Rippon erected a blast furnace at Stanhope Burn, to the north-west of Stanhope, in 1845, for the purpose of burning the ironstone, but as soon as he had made arrangement with Mr. Attwood for the sub-lease of the manor, he sold it to him. Mr. Attwood's co-adventurers and co-speculators were the well known firm of Messes. Baring Brothers, bankers, London, whose confidence in the judgement and commercial abilities of Mr. Attwood was evinced by their placing unlimited credit at his command.

A firm was established in 1845, for the working of the ironstone mines, under the name of the "Weardale Iron Company," with Mr. Attwood as the managing partner. The Company afterwards became Weardale Iron and Coal Company, Limited. The blast furnaces at Stanhope Burn, although a suitable one for its proximity to the ironstone, was too far distant from the supplies of coal, and Mr. Attwood sought out a more suitable situation. This he found at the then small village of Tow Law, not many miles distant, where were abundant supplies for the manufacture of coke for smelting purposes. In 1846, under his management, five blast furnaces were erected at Tow Law for the smelting of the ironstone, and the Weardale Iron Company having obtained a lease of the coal royalties in the immediate neighbourhood of Tow Law, Thornley, and Cornsay, from William Russell, Esq., of Brancepeth Castle, the Lord of the Manor, then assumed the name of "Coal Company" in addition to that of "Iron Company," and sank a shaft, not far to the north of the furnaces, to which they gave the name of Black Prince.

August 15th, 1890.

From the year 1845 dates the prosperity of Tow Law. In that year some of the first buildings in place were erected, consisting of six small cottage at Black field, now Inkerman, called Brown's Buildings or Bowns Houses - those lower cottages at the east end of Inkerman Row facing towards Tow Law - built by William Brown for the workmen employed at the Blackfields Pit. One of them was afterwards used as a kind of jerry house or beerhouse ; four cottages on the west of the street between Dan's Castle and the Cemetery, then called, and still known under the name by the older residents as Milk and Water Row - a name given to them by their first tenants, because one of the owners of them (G---- W-------) sold milk in Dan's Castle, which was said to have contained more than a fair quantity of water ; and the Milestone Inn, built at the place where a milestone stands denoting that it is ten miles from West Auckland, and twenty miles from Corbridge, the road through Tow Law being called the West Auckland and Corbridge Turnpike, or the North Turnpike, by Henry Armstrong, who, on the completion, went to reside therein, and thus became the first seller of "ales and porter, wines and spirits," in the place, occupying the house to within about eight years of his death, which occurred March 16th, 1890. One of the buildings in the Milk and water Row was at first intended for a three-storey structure, and was erected by a person named "Tea Johnny," or more properly John Smith, the former being the name by which he was more generally known, and which he received on account of his travelling through the adjoining county and hawking tea. The building, however, owing to its having too narrow a foundation, and consequently being top-heavy, was blown down by a strong wind before its completion, and a cottage similar to the others erected in its place. Mr. Pickard, the owner of the Royal George Pit, erected five cottages, for some of the workmen employed at that pit. The middle one was gable-fronted, and they all had overhanging "easings" or roofs behind. They are still standing, but in rather a dilapidated condition, between the south end of the Black Prince and the Tow Law and Hedley Hill Road, and facing to the east. He next built six small cottages, which are still standing, with their south-western gable ends to the main Street at Dan's Castle. These were known as Forster's Cottages, from the name of the builder - Edward Foster of Shildon - and are now called more generally "Short Row."

During the time these building were in course of construction the workmen there employed were obliged to find lodgings where best they could, and the greater number of them had to stay with farmers and others in the neighbourhood, many of whom had as far as fourteen and more boarders at one time. A few found lodgings in the "Cabins" named in a former paper, whilst others had not infrequently to travel long distances to and from their work.

When the Weardale Iron and Coal Company sank the Black Prince Colliery they erected as temporary residence for their workmen, two rows of buildings to the west of the pit. These buildings were for the greater part constructed of sods, dug from the surface of the adjoining fell, and lighted by one small window of four panes. They were only one storey high, and consisted chiefly of a sing room, and that not many yards square, with a smaller apartment behind. The foundation of each fireplace with part of the chimney and four gable ends were the only portion built of stone, whilst their roof were of wood. These two rows of buildings were locally known by the name "The Huts," and it is only about twenty years ago that the last vestiges of the last of them disappeared. The site of the eastern row is now occupied by the western one of the rows now known as the "North Cottages." The inhabitants of many of these huts forty years ago appear to have been somewhat of a lawless lot, being rude and uncouth in their manners, and addicted very much to drinking and gambling. Their nights and leisure time, and especially the Sundays, being generally spent around the whisky bottle, playing at cards and other games of chance for, not infrequently, large stakes. Many a time before the Sabbath closed a fight or quarrel took place, in which fists, stones, and anything the combatants could lay hands on, played a prominent part. These "rows," happily, never led to anything more serious than a black eye, scratched and scarred faces, sore chests, painful arms and torn clothes.

The year 1846 saw other buildings go up, and Tow Law assume the appearance of a rising village. The Weardale Iron Company erected a block of cottages near the Black Prince Colliery known as the Prince Row, for their workmen there employed, and then two rows of houses, small old-fashioned looking buildings, called the Mechanics Cottages, above the blast furnaces, for the workmen there engaged. Private persons also began to erect dwelling houses and places of business in the hitherto bleak fell top became a centre of trade and wealth.

September 15th, 1890.