A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



on both sides in relief. (PL I, fig. 3, which is rather 

 larger than full size.) 



The pommel is spherical and ijin. in diameter. 

 There is a hole into which the knuckle-bow appears 

 to have entered, but it is now filled up with lead, and 

 a new one made nearer to the grip. 



In 1828, the manufacture of sword-blades was 

 still carried on at Shotley Bridge by Mr. Christo- 

 pher Oley, a direct descendant of the first German 

 sword-blade maker.*'' 



It is interesting to note that Thomas Bewick, 

 in his autobiography, tells us that his first employ- 

 ment was to etch sword-blades for William and 

 Nicholas Oley, sword manufacturers at Shotley 

 Bridge." 



But by 1832 the district had lost much of its 

 industrial glory : — 



The iron works at Wlnlaton Mill were formerly of 

 great extent, and the several paper mills, steel forges, 

 and other manufacturing establishments in the Vale, 

 evince how well this part of the country is adapted 

 for such purposes. But cutlery at Shotley Bridge is 

 almost forgotten ; Winlaton Mill is comparatively a 

 deserted village.'^ 



The Bertrams, another family of German 

 settlers, worked the Blackhall steel mills.*' The 

 ruins of the mill still remain, and a curious old 

 sun-dial of German type is built into one of the 

 walls ; further up the Derwent, on the opposite 

 side at Derwentcote, there is another old steel 

 mill ; both these mills were in the hands of 

 Isaac Cookson early in the nineteenth century,^" 

 but there is no evidence that the Bertrams were 

 ever at Derwentcote. 



There were very few industrial enterprises 

 of the later eighteenth and early nineteenth 

 centuries in Durham with which the name of 

 Cookson was not connected. The first blast 

 furnace with coked coal in the north of England 

 was erected by Mr. I. Cookson, on Chester burn, 

 at Whitehill.*'^ The foundry was begun early 

 in the eighteenth century.'^ Some indentures re- 



'"^ White and Parson, op. cit. ii, 174. In a letter 

 from William Bell to Robert Surtees written 21 June, 

 I 8 I 2, there is a reference to these swords. ' Last 

 week I met with a fine sword made by the Ouleys of 

 Shotley Bridge, which has the figure of William and 

 Mary on the blade with " Shotley Bridge 1697," you 

 no doubt h.ave seen such.' 



" A. Dobson, Memoirs of Thomas Bewick, 57-8. 



^ T. Sopwith (Surveyor), Observations to accompany 

 a Map of the Vale of Derwent, 1832. 



"' Arch. Jel. xxiii, 128. 



*" White and Parson, op. cit. ii, 185. Mr. N. C. 

 Cookson tells me that when he was called upon to 

 wind up the business, between twenty and thirty years 

 ago, he found a mere handful of men, but the steel 

 they produced was of extraordinary excellence, and 

 the workers were all between sixty and seventy. 



^' ' Manufacture of Iron,' Industrial Resources of Tyne, 

 Tees, and IV ear, 84. 



'* Mr. N. C. Cookson thinks that the blast fur- 

 naces at Whitehill were started about 1704. 



cited in a deed of 1760 throw considerable light 

 on some of the Durham foundries working at that 

 time : — 



also that by indenture dated 25 March 7 George I, 

 between William Cotesworth late of Gateshead Park 

 and the said Isaac Cookson and Joseph Button, the 

 two latter were entitled to the two houses lately built 

 for a founding house for casting iron wares near the 

 East end of the Quay or staith called Old Trunk Staith 

 at Gateshead, for the residue of a lease. It is wit- 

 nessed that the parties thereunto should be partners 

 in the art trade or mystery of carrying on iron 

 foundries at . . . and Gateshead for 3 1 years from 

 I September 1729, and that the capital should be 

 48oOj{^ of which Joseph Button contributed <^og£ 

 And whereas Joseph Button died, leaving John Button 

 executor, and the said John Button is dead also, 

 leaving Gabriel Hall and John Cookson executors ; 

 And whereas John Button and the other parties 

 agreed for a 31 years lease of ground near Whitehill, 

 CO : Durham, and have built a blast furnace etc. there, 

 and the said John Button at his death and his co- 

 partners were entitled to a freehold estate, mill and 

 colliery near Clifton, 4/5 of an iron foundry and 

 several messuages in Pipewellgate, and freehold pre- 

 mises in Clifton, Gateshead, Whitehill, and Newcastle. 

 And whereas Gabriel Hall and John Cookson arc 

 entitled as devisees and executors of the said John 

 Button to one sixteenth part or share of the said four- 

 fifths of the premises in Pipewellgate and the same of 

 all the other premises and profits, and have agreed to 

 sell the said shares to the said John Williams for 8iOj^. 

 Now this indenture witnesseth etc.^' 



Witnesses : John Widdrington 

 Nat Punshon. 



The Whitehill furnace was 35 ft. high, 12 ft. 

 across the boshes, and produced 25 tons of iron 

 per week. The blast was supplied by bellows 

 worked by a water-wheel placed on Chester 

 burn, but the poor supply of water led to the 

 furnace being abandoned. The iron ore came 

 from Robin Hood's Bay as well as from the 

 immediate neighbourhood, and at one time the 

 Government got most of their ordnance from the 

 forge at Whitehill. There still lives an old 

 inhabitant of the ' Furnance,' as the row of cot- 

 tages close to the site of the works is called, who 

 can describe the situation of the different parts of 

 the works, having got his information from his 

 grandfather, who worked at the ordnance fac- 

 tory, and he asserts that the bank on the opposite 

 side of the burn, which rises to a considerable 

 height, is studded with cannon balls, for the 

 cast-iron guns made there were tested by the 

 balls being projected across the river. A tra- 

 dition is still current that Cookson wealth owes 

 its origin to their command of capital, which 

 enabled them to fulfil their contracts and take 

 payment in government stock, which at the 

 period of their greatest activity during the Napo- 

 leonic wars was very low, and to make colossal 

 profits by realizing when consols rose after the 



™ From a copy of the original deed, kindly lent me 

 by Mr. Richard Welford, Gosforth. 



290 



