The Land of Oak & Iron’s most valuable resource is ultimately its people. We celebrate those people and the way they have created and evolved our culture.
Our Culture
William Shield
Music
The Land of Oak & Iron echoes with music and poetry of all kinds, with a rich tradition of folk in particular. Two figures stand out at opposite ends of the social spectrum: Tommy Armstrong (1848-1920) born in Shotley Bridge, was a songwriter known as the ‘Pitman Poet’ or ‘Bard of the Northern Coalfield’. His songs include Wor Nanny’s a Mazor, The Trimdon Grange Explosion. William Shield (1748-1829) a musical genius, was an English composer born in Swalwell, who studied music with Charles Avison, cathedral organist and tutor to the Bowes family. Shield became one of the directors of Covent Garden Opera house in the 1780s, and a hugely successful composer of light operas, Master of the King’s Music, also a close friend of George IV. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.
Myths and legends
The riches of the Land of Oak & Iron lie not only in fertile soil, mineral wealth, invention, industry and a history that goes back to the Romans. Its greatest wealth lies in its people, and people love stories. The myths & legends of the Land of Oak & Iron were set down in 1902 by chronicler and adventurer James William Fawcett, from Satley, drawing on centuries of traditional tales, many of them passed down by word of mouth. In Tales of Derwentdale, republished by the Trust, you can read Devilish stories of witches, giants, boggles, moss-troopers, murderers and uncanny happenings, richly illustrated by the exquisite wood-cuts of Thomas Bewick.
Thomas Bewick
Rapper dancing
Rapper sword dancing is unique to the North-East of England, originating in mining villages. Its origins are disputed and the tradition varies from village to village, A team of five people continuously linked by flexible swords called rappers weave in and out of figures for display. They are accompnaied by two comic characters known as Tommy and Betty. The Tommy, who introduces the dancers with a traditional calling-on song, and then provides a running commentary, is usually dressed in top hat and tails; the Betty, a man dressed in women’s clothing, proivides a teasing and mocking comic response.
The People
Bowes Family
The earlier owners of the Gibside estate were the Marleys and the Blakistons. In 1693, Elizabeth Blakiston married Sir William Bowes, whose family seat was at Streatlam. His acquisition of the mineral-rich estate seems to have been the reason for Crowley’s move into the Derwent Valley and the Bowes family started to commercially exploit their coal reserves: it was the beginning of a rapid rise in family fortunes. William’s death in 1706 did not affect the enterprise: his widow was a formidable operator in what became known as ‘The Fighting Trade’. It was her third son, George, who built Causey Arch and developed the estate into a Georgian landscape garden.
On his death in 1760, his only child, Mary Eleanor, became England’s wealthiest heiress at the age of 11. She married John Lyon, 9th Earl Strathmore, on her 18th birthday, and when she was widowed in 1776, became the victim of an abusive conman, a period she survived triumphant. Her son, the 10th Earl, restored the family fortunes but, by failing to marry the mother of his only child, ensured that his legacy would be contested. His son, John Bowes, was awarded the English property but not the title, and on his death, Gibside became the property of the Scottish family, now calling themselves Bowes-Lyon.
Cowen Family
The Cowens are central to the story of the LoO&I. When Ambrose Crowley set up his ironworks in Winlaton in 1692, not only was the industrial future of the area dramatically altered, but also its social and political culture. By providing housing, medical care and pensions for his workmen and their families, as well as education for their children, Crowley gave birth to a radically different society. A century later, the Cowens were part of that tradition.
Joseph Cowen was born in Greenside in 1800, the son of a blacksmith, and apprenticed to his father’s trade. The legacy of Crowley’s paternalistic social care was that in the troubled times that came after the Napoleonic Wars, Winlaton became a crucible of political reform, a heartland of the Chartist movement. The Peterloo Massacre in 1819 lit the blue touchpaper: Joseph was one of the leaders of the Winlaton contingent who marched to the Great Meeting on Newcastle Town Moor to protest against what had happened to the peaceful protestors in Manchester.
The turning point in his own fortunes and those of the whole area came when he married Mary Forster in 1822 and went into business with her brother John, making fire-bricks at Blaydon Burn. Rapid expansion led to a rise in status and power: he became an MP, was knighted for his work with the Tyne River Commission, and bought Stella Hall. His son extended the family’s political influence to Europe, bringing foreign radicals to Blaydon and connecting working people to the class struggle across the continent. The Cowen family brought employment, worker education, structural expansion, gas lighting and a water supply to Blaydon and their tradition of philanthropy continued in Joseph Junior’s daughter, Jane, the last owner of Stella Hall.
Stella Hall
Harry Clasper
Henry (Harry) Clasper (1812 – 1870) was a champion rower, winner of both the World and Scottish championships. Born in Dunston, he had worked in the pits in Jarrow and then, back in Dunston, as a coke burner and a wherryman . He was an innovative boat designer who pioneered the development of the racing shell and the use of outriggers; he is also said to have invented spoon-shaped oars. When he died on July 12th 1870 at the age of 58, his funeral procession attracted crowds estimated between 100,000 to 130,000 people.
