Staindrop Past

The Rising development opening in Spring 2024 ✨

"The Rising" means positivity, energy and growth, which is exactly what this highly ambitious development here at Raby Castle has to offer.

The first destination of its kind in the North will include:

🍴 Panoramic views from the Vinery Café Restaurant with fresh, local menus
🏰 Heritage Buildings restored to provide unique, beautiful event spaces
🌸A reimagined 5-acre Walled Garden with a magnificent amphitheatre
🛍️ Stylish Shopping with a thoughtfully curated range of homeware and gifts
💭Exhibition and learning spaces, informing and inspiring future generations

A destination with a difference, where visitors of every generation can discover County Durham’s thrilling past and promising future.

Find out more about the Rising here bit.ly/3EoSJ6F

Hay time at New Raby in the early 20th century -Do you recognise anyone in the picture from from old family photographs?

4 NORTH GREEN - 2nd Installment

By 1851 the house was occupied by Robert Hodgson Bourne, a local Solicitor and with his wife. He was born in 1821 at Bowes. His family was the Bournes of Walker Hall, Winston. In 1835 he was articled as a trainee solicitor. In 1845 he married Jane Jordison, his wife was from Stockton They occupied the house where they had three children Hodgson born in 1847, Robert born in 1849 and Mary Jane born in 1850. They had two servants living in with them. The family later moved from 4 North Green to the South side of the Green and in the next few years had three more children John Charles in 1856, Harry in 1857 and Jane in 1859. They lived there for many years before Robert died in July 1876 at Newcastle on Tyne. Several of their sons died whilst only in their early twenties.
The house passed to John Harker and his wife Jane Harker . She was born in 1807 in Staindrop, her husband John Harker was a Tailor & Draper in the village. He was born in London and had moved to Staindrop. The couple had married and a daughter was born to them in 1841, she was named Annie. John Harker died at the early age of 40yrs in 1853, his daughter Annie she was a Dressmaker.
In 1871 Annie was living in the house with her spinster aunt Ann Atkinson who was born in 1799. They also had a lodger living with them in the house, she was Margaret Alderson who born in 1802 at Gainford. She too was a spinster and they were still all living in the property ten years later. Miss Alderson died in 1883, and her aunt Ann died and Annie moved to a small cottage behind the Congregational Chapel. Just what eventually happened to her is not clear.
In 1891, George Vivian was living in the house, he was working as a Medical Practitioner in the village. He had come to England and stayed at Malton where he met and married his wife in 1885. He was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1857. He studied Medicine at Edinburgh and Glasgow. He was practicing in the village in 1896 when he attended the funeral of colleague Dr Brunskill. In 1901 he was still practising in the village, he became the Medical Officer and Public Vaccinator for the Staindrop District of the Teesdale Union. He later moved to Darlington where he died in 1916.
When he left the village, the house was occupied by Matthew Gibbon and his wife. Matthew Gibbon was a retired Tailor born in 1850 at Woodland. His wife Margaret, was born in Staindrop where they lived with her parents, John and Margaret Clark, on Front street, they had married in 1876 in Staindrop. Her father was a painter in the village. They had no children and sadly, Margaret died in May 1913 aged 60 yrs. Matthew did not long survive his wife dying a few weeks later in August 1913 at the age of 62 years.

1939
The Register records widow Mary Cowell as well as Lily Thompson occupied part of the house, she was born in 1872. Lily Thompson was born in 1907 and had a child with her.
The house consisted of nine rooms so had several tenants, and Plasterer Leslie Warren and wife Margaret also lived in the house with daughter Hilda who worked as a typist.

We've been quiet for while but busy researching sixteenth and seventeenth century Staindrop and the people who lived in the Parish. (Many family names mentioned are still evident in the Village) There are tales to be told and we'll start posting them shortly. In the meantime we have a little history of one of the houses in the village that we haven't mentioned ..... 4 North Green. We start its history in the early eighteenth century and continue through to the beginning of the 20th century - in two installments:

The house is estimated to have been erected circa 1700. Like other buildings on the block it was built by William Crawford. William was a ‘carrier’, transporting goods between settlements around the country. It could be a dangerous occupation liable to robbery along the highways, but it was a remunerative business. He married Elizabeth Carmichael in Staindrop in 1706 and soon after invested in owning some land and property in the expanding village of Staindrop. He had a son Mathew in 1711 and the family lived in the house now known as ‘The Lindens’. The houses then did not have names nor numbers but everyone knew the local people in their neighbourhood and such a house must have belonged to a wealthy family. The house remained in the possession of the family during the 18th century. The men of the family serving as Churchwardens at various periods. In 1800 William Crawford died at the age of 55 yrs. His wife Elizabeth continued to live in the property until her death in 1832 aged 82yrs. The children of William & Elizabeth were now scattered though an unmarried son inherited, he lived over near Yarm.
The House was then acquired by William Brady who had taken over the grocers shop (now Spar) from his father who died in 1811. He rented the house to Jane Barker; the shop next door was rented to John Hanson. The tithe record for 1839 records her as occupant, however by the time of the Census in 1841 it had new occupants, John Wood and his family
John Woods was a Plumber born in 1812 in Bishop Auckland, his wife Jane Crossling b 1811 Staindrop, son Thomas b 1836, son John b 1840. Had apprentice William Robinson b 1821, Elizabeth Crossling aged 15 living with them. Elizabeth was the sister of Jane. His son Thomas was apprenticed as a Plumber with his father. They lived in Office Square near the Manor House, but moved to the larger house on North Green. However, the Woods family then moved from 4 North Green to 27 Front Street and as his business progressed he decided to move from Staindrop. By 1861 he was settled in Tubwell Row in Darlington where he employed 3 working men and 3 Apprentices. The family moved on again, this time to Leeds where John Woods died in 1882.

Share your story!

The team at are inviting local people to share their stories and memories to help them uncover more about the hard-working individuals who kept the castle and estate running over the years. If you’ve got a story to share, please get in touch and email [email protected]

Find out more on their blog:

Share your Story - Raby Estates We need your help! Every day we discover new fascinating stories about the family at Raby, as we establish our archives and collections. We want to invite visitors to share their stories and memories with us, to help us uncover more about the hard-working individuals who kept the castle and estate r...

This gentleman, Frederick John Lax was born in Staindrop in 1860, his father was Joseph Lax, the Headmaster of the National school.

Frederick was musically gifted and studied music eventually becoming a Professor of Music and a music teacher.

In his youth, Frederick played at many social and church functions and other events in Staindrop and was by all accounts a popular young man.

Frederick travelled to London to complete his studies, later marrying and settling in Essex.

For those who wanted and up to date list of our publications and their contents:

1 The Lost Inns of Staindrop
2. The Blacksmiths & Millers of Staindrop
3. The Surgeons & Saddlers of Staindrop
4. The Teachers & Preachers of Staindrop
5. The Georgian & Victorian Soldiers of Stain drop
6. The Quarry men & Masons of Staindrop
7. The Gentleman Volunteers & Staindrop Cavalry
8. The Rebels of Staindrop
9. The Shoemakers & Shopkeepers of Staindrop
10. The Tailors & Dressmakers of Staindrop
11. The Farmers & Farm Workers of Staindrop
12. The Mine Workers of Staindrop
13. The Carpenters, Joiners, and Coachmen
14. Law, Order, & Police in Staindrop
15. The Plumbers, Painters & Glaziers of Staindrop
16. The Poor & the Poor House in Staindrop
17. Houses of Staindrop 39 Front Street
18. Eales House & Amberley House
19. The Deanery & 45 Front Street
20. 3 North Green, the Wheatsheaf, & Gorst Hall
21. 31 &32 North Green, 6 Front Street
22. 1 Duke St, & 4, 17,19 Front Street
23. 47 Front St, Anvil House, Mill Wynd, Winston Rd
24. A Glance at New Raby & Keverstone Clog Factory
25. Clockmakers of Staindrop & Straw Bonnet makers
26. The Servants of Staindrop
27. Staindrop Hall & Musgrave House
28. Forgotten Families and Lost Places of Staindrop
29. Western House & Quaker Meeting House
30. Eales Yard & Walker Family Joiners
31. Marriner Smithy & Moor Road
32. Ruddock's Wynd & Greyhound Inn, Wooff Family
33. Staindrop Highway & Brunskills of Staindrop
34. The Red Lion, Working Men’s Club, The Police Station
35. Dovecote Street, Race’s Wynd, Malvern House
36. Beckside, Moor Bridge House, & Grove House
37. Watsons of Westfield House, Railton's of Staindrop
38. Central Buildings in Staindrop
39. The Allan Family & 41 North Green, 42 North Green
40. John Mountain, The Manor House , William Heppel
41. Staindrop Market, The Alms Houses, John Fawcett
42. Raby Murder
43. Hodgsons Cottages
44. Church View, Wesleyan House
45. The Scarth Family & Cathrick Family of Staindrop
46. John Lee, Joshua Taylor, Elizabeth Woof
47. Garden House, Thomas Leaman
48. Daisy Cottage, Ivy House, Cleatlam
49. Robert Brown, Dun House Farm, Thomas Colton
50. Black Horse Inn, Sun Inn, Wackerfield

We've been quiet for a few months but busy! The research and printing has continued throughout the last 18 months of the pandemic and most aspects of the parish examined. Booklets numbered 49 and 50 are now available via the Wheatsheaf..

In the past Staindrop Parish included nearby Ingleton, parts of Cleatlam, Hilton and Wackerfield. Ingleton got its own church in 1845 and became detached from Staindrop, parts of Cleatlam came under Winston and Gainford parishes. Staindrop Past issue no 49 includes: a look at Dun House Farm, Cleatlam which was in this parish; Thomas Colton, the Raby Butler and Robert Brown, the Molecatcher. Issue No 50 looks at the township of Wackerfield, with family details of some of the people who lived in these places in the past, from the 17th century up to the early 20th century, the Black Horse Inn, and the Sun Inn both at Wackerfield.