Kibblesworth meaning Cybbel's Enclosure.
Is a village 2 miles west of Birtley, Tyne and Wear

Birtley, Tyne and Wear

Birtley is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead, in Tyne and Wear, England. It is situated to the south of Gateshead town and is physically linked to Chester-le-Street across the County boundary in County Durham. Until 1974, Birtley and the adjoining areas of Barley Mow, Vigo and...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. Kibblesworth was a mainly rural community until the development of the pit

Coal mining

The goal of coal mining is to obtain coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content, and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. In the United States,...

 and brickworks

Brickworks

A brickworks also known as a brick factory, is a factory for the manufacturing of bricks, from clay or shale. Usually a brickworks is located on a clay bedrock often with a quarry for clay on site....

 and the resulting increase in population. Now, after the closure of the pit, few of the residents work in the village.

Churches & Chapels

Kibblesworth is in the parish of St. Andrews, Lamesley

Lamesley

Lamesley is a village and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, England. The village is situated towards the south of Gateshead, near to Birtley and Kibblesworth. The parish includes Lamesley village, Kibblesworth, Eighton Banks and the Northside area of Birtley...

. While the area was agricultural, this was the centre of worship for the people of Kibblesworth. After the development of the mining industry, the Primitive Methodist Chapel (1864) and Wesleyan Methodist

Methodist Church of Great Britain

The Methodist Church of Great Britain is the largest Wesleyan Methodist body in the United Kingdom, with congregations across Great Britain . It is the United Kingdom's fourth largest Christian denomination, with around 300,000 members and 6,000 churches...

 Chapel (1867), provided social as well as religious life for the village. The present chapel was built by the Wesleyan Methodists in 1913. The Primitive Methodist Chapel has now been converted into flats after previously being used as a candle

Candle

A candle is a solid block or cylinder of wax with an embedded wick, which is lit to provide light, and sometimes heat.Today, most candles are made from paraffin. Candles can also be made from beeswax, soy, other plant waxes, and tallow...

 makers,

The Colliery

Although there had been coal-mining in the Kibblesworth area from medieval times

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

, relatively few men were employed in the industry until the sinking of Robert Pit in 1842. From this date the fortunes of the village followed those of the industry with particular black spots during the strikes of 1921 and 1926 and the depression of the 1930s, high spots in the boom of the 1950s and 60s, and eventually closure of the pit in 1974.

The Bowes Railway

Bowes Railway

The Bowes Railway, built by George Stephenson in 1826, is the world's only preserved operational standard gauge cable railway system. It was built to transport coal from Durham pits to boats on the River Tyne. Only part of the system now remains.-Background:...

 was used for the transport of coal

Coal

Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...

 from Kibblesworth to the River Tyne

River Tyne

The River Tyne is a river in North East England in Great Britain. It is formed by the confluence of two rivers: the North Tyne and the South Tyne. These two rivers converge at Warden Rock near Hexham in Northumberland at a place dubbed 'The Meeting of the Waters'.The North Tyne rises on the...

 at Jarrow

Jarrow

Jarrow is a town in Tyne and Wear, England, located on the River Tyne, with a population of 27,526. From the middle of the 19th century until 1935, Jarrow was a centre for shipbuilding, and was the starting point of the Jarrow March against unemployment in 1936.-Foundation:The Angles re-occupied...

. The line was started by George Stephenson

George Stephenson

George Stephenson was an English civil engineer and mechanical engineer who built the first public railway line in the world to use steam locomotives...

 in 1826 and extended to Kibblesworth when Robert Pit was sunk in 1842. The railway used three types of power - locomotive

Locomotive

A locomotive is a railway vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. The word originates from the Latin loco – "from a place", ablative of locus, "place" + Medieval Latin motivus, "causing motion", and is a shortened form of the term locomotive engine, first used in the early 19th...

s, stationary steam engine

Stationary steam engine

Stationary steam engines are fixed steam engines used for pumping or driving mills and factories, and for power generation. They are distinct from locomotive engines used on railways, traction engines for heavy steam haulage on roads, steam cars , agricultural engines used for ploughing or...

s and self-acting inclines. There is now a cycletrack that runs along the former track bed.

Spout Burn

The square at Spout Burn was built to house the miners of Robert Pit. It was demolished between 1965 and 1966, and replaced by old people's bungalows the following year and the Grange Estate from 1973.

Kibblesworth Old Hall

Better known as 'the Barracks', the Old Hall was divided up into tenements. The memory survives, in the street named Barrack Terrace. The hall was demolished and replaced by the Miner's Institute in 1934. The area has recently been redeveloped for housing.

Kibblesworth Hall

Demolished in 1973, this hall for many years was the home of the colliery manager.

Kibblesworth School

The original was built in 1875, the school closed in 1972 and has since been redeveloped using Lottery funding to house the village community centre known as the 'Millennium Centre'. The present school opened in 1972.

Chronology

1842 The sinking of Robert Pit

1842-1850 The Square and Barrack Terrace built
Old Hall (Barracks) converted to tenements

1862 Causey Row built

1864 The Opening of Primitive Methodist Chapel

1867 The Opening of Wesleyan Methodist Chapel

1875 The Opening of school

1901 School extensions built, Coronation Terrace built

1908 The Old Plough Inn demolished

1913 The Opening of New Wesleyan Chapel

1914 The Crescent built and Grange Drift opened

1921 Miners' strike

1922 First aged miners' homes, opposite Liddle Terrace

1926 General Strike

1932 Closure of Grange Drift

1934 Barracks demolished and Miners' Welfare Institute built on site

1936 First council housing in Ashvale Avenue and Laburnum Crescent

Opening of Team Valley

Team Valley

Team Valley is a traditionally heavily industrial area of Gateshead in Tyne and Wear, England. More recently it has become home to the 'Retail World' retail park, which makes up just a small percentage of the entirety of the Team Valley Trading Estate...

trading estate

1947 Nationalisation of the pits

1965 The Square demolished

1974 Closure of the pit