This thesis was submitted in February 1940 by Ada Temple B.A. for a Degree of Master of Letters, Durham University.  Pages 136 to 216 refer to the Gaunless Valley villages and at:

• page 177 are details of Evenwood,
• page 181 are details of Ramshaw. 

This section will simply reprint the written word to provide the reader with an accurate account of Ada Temple’s work.  Other pages review the situation in Woodland, Butterknowle, Copley, Cockfield, West Auckland and St. Helens.

EVENWOOD

Evenwood at the present is less distressed than any other village in the Gaunless valley.  Since 1897, it has expanded to embrace the three small hamlets, by name Stones End, Swan’s Row and The Oaks, which lie between the village green and the Gaunless, half a mile to the north.  The growth of the village in the last forty years has been closely connected with the development of Randolph Pit, which was sun in 1892 and has given steady employment up to the present time to between 500 and 1,000 miners and coke oven men.

Coal mining in Evenwood is not a recent feature.  It was here that coal together with ironstone was worked in the 14th and 15th Centuries.  Between 1821 and 1845, this locality was the scene of great activity and coal was worked at Thrushwood, Storey Lodge, Gordon Gill and at Evenwood itself.  It was the most populous part of the valley and the colliery hamlets at The Oaks and Gordon Gill were among the first colliery houses to be built in South West Durham.  The district underwent depression in 1851 and again in the unsettled years between 1878 and 1882 but apart from those short periods, when miners left the village, employment has been steady up to the present time.

Unlike the villages of Woodland, Butterknowle and Cockfield already described, Evenwood cannot, by small holdings, support more than a fraction of its present population.  From a small rural village, it has grown into a prosperous mining village and except by drastic and wholesale depopulation, there is not possibility of a reversion to its primary purpose.  Mining, since the beginning of the last century has been on a larger scale than that found up the valley and, while it does not approach the size of those in the Wear Valley, the mining community is large and distinct from the farming element.

At present the majority of the miners are working but prospects of continued employment are not bright.  Their future depends almost wholly upon Randolph Colliery and operations are not expanding.  In fact, the number of miners engaged at the pit was reduced from 909 in 1929 to 575 in 1936 (including those employed at Gordon House) and further dismissals have followed.  This has been connected with reorganisation in management and with the introduction of machine mining.  Further, about thirty miners were engaged at West Tees Colliery at Ramshaw until the summer of 1939 but owing to the closing of this colliery, they are now out of employment.

There is, therefore, a certain amount of unemployment in the village.  It is not of long duration when compared with that at Escomb, for instance, and it is relieved by periods of temporary work on the roads.  The partial depression has resulted in the removal of several young miners and their wives to Bishop Auckland, Fishburn and Thrislington.  Widespread evidence of distress are no found in the village and the community is vigorous and progressive – a feature which is shown in its management of the Social Service Centre.

Housing conditions are varied.  Several streets of substantial houses with four or five rooms have been built privately in the last 40 years.  The Oaks, on the other hand, should be demolished.  The colliery houses have two or three low rooms and very primitive earth closets stand across the rough, unsurfaced roadway opposite to the front doors.

In spite of its somewhat restricted industry and unsuitable houses to be found in some parts of the village, Evenwood cannot be classed as derelict, though the first effects of depression are beginning to make themselves felt.

RAMSHAW

Ramshaw is a scattered hamlet of about 80 houses, linked with Evenwood by the Gaunless bridge.  It consists chiefly of old colliery property.  The main centre of the village lies between Evenwood Railway Station and the Gaunless but isolated colliery rows, hidden in hollows in the valley of the Gaunless Beck are also included in it.

In 1937 and 1938 Ramshaw was a relatively prosperous village.  Over 70% of its employable inhabitants were occupied in mining either at Randolph Pit at Evenwood less than a mile away or at West Tees Colliery in the village itself or in one of the small local drifts.  Its prosperity depended largely upon West Tees Colliery, which after its opening in 1936, absorbed the unwanted miners, who had been displaced as a result of the restrictions of operations at the Randolph Colliery. (Number of employees 1923-931; 1929-909; 1936-575).  This newly opened colliery, which was worked by the firm of Stobart & Co., consisted of a series of drifts, driven into the hillside as near as possible to the outcrop edge of the various seams and in all 231 men and boys were employed there in September 1937.

Of these only 68 were drawn from Evenwood and Ramshaw while the majority of the remainder cycled or walked in from Toft Hill, Etherley and Witton Park.  This feature is explained by the fact that there was ot a large surplus of unemployed miners in Evenwood and Ramshaw at the time when the new colliery was opened and the main supply was drawn from villages, which for almost a century had been connected with Stobart’s collieries. 

In the summer of 1939, the West Tees Colliery closed down, in spite of the local forecast, that it would develop into a larger concern than even Randolph Colliery.  Actually, this cicle of events had taken place in the past, for the West Tees Colliery was only a new name for a series of older pits in the locality known variously as Railey Fell, Gordon Gill and Bowes Close.  Its closing down qualified Ramshaw for a place among the distressed villages of south-west Durham.  In previous periods of depression, displaced miners found employment at the Gordon House Colliery (Cockfield), at Randolph Colliery (Evenwood) or at one of the West Auckland-St. Helens pits, but in the present instance, restricted in local industry has made re-employment in the locality difficult.  Consequently, the unemployment figure has risen.  This may only be a temporary phase, since there is a possibility that the colliery will be reopened when another lease is arranged.

A comparison of the circumstances prevailing in 1937 and 1939 shows how slight is the margin between prosperity and depression in the small colliery villages, where mining on a small scale is the only means of livelihood.  Though Ramshaw cannot be considered as a derelict village, either in view of its unemployment percentage or employment facilities (work is still available within a mile), its outlook is not hopeful.

Housing conditions in Ramshaw are very typical of those found in many of the more scattered colliery villages.  The two streets which face each other across the road from Evenwood to Toft Hill, consist of 2,3 or 4 roomed stone cottages.  They show a drab but trim front to the roadway but travellers on the Bishop Auckland to Barnard Castle Railway may look down on to the low sloping roofs of the back premises, which are reminiscent of Phoenix Row, Witton Park or the colliery rows at Rainton Gate, to mention but two examples.

The remainder of Ramshaw is scattered in short streets of 5 or 7 houses, which is situated a short distance east of West Tees Colliery.  These houses are the best to be found in the scattered rows.  They have 4 rooms and a garden at the front.  There is no yard or privacy at the back in spite of the fact that the narrow lane on to which the back door opens and in which their out buildings are situated, is the main approach to the street.

Taken as a whole, Ramshaw cannot be regarded as a derelict village.  It is, however, in a rather worse position than its near neighbour Evenwood.  Housing conditions are worse, in that there are fewer good houses in Ramshaw than Evenwood and employment is rather more precarious.  The figures relating to malnutrition among children are illustrative of the position in the 2 villages.  In Evenwood, a percentage of 30.6 out of a total of 170 were in receipt of free milk in November 1938, while in Ramshaw out of a total of 144 children, 50% were considered undernourished.      

Below: This photo of West Tees Colliery is included in Ada Temple’s thesis