IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Derwent Street, CONSETT, DH8 8LT

Local pub on Derwent Street, in Blackhill, a suburb of Consett.

This building is on the corner of Park Road and Bessemer Street. It is now a Christian meeting house but was previously Lloyds Bank.

View southward, towards Bishop Auckland (via Tow Law) and Durham. Station served by passenger trains from Bishop Auckland (withdrawn north of Tow Law 5/39), Newcastle via Lintz Green until 1/2/54 (goods 11/11/63) and lastly from Newcastle via Birtley and Consett until 23/5/55 when station and lines were closed.

This milepost stands on National Cycle Network route 14 which links Gateshead via the Derwent Path to NCN route 7 (Consett and Sunderland) at Lydgett's Junction, a short way to the south. The milepost finger to the right is pointing to Consett town centre. The milepost is one of 1000 donated to the National Cycle Network project by the Royal Bank of Scotland. There are four designs of these mileposts - this one is an example of the "Welsh" pattern designed by Welsh artist Andrew Rowe; the design takes inspiration from the nautical and industrial heritage of the artist's native Swansea. On the far side of the open green are two good examples of roof-mounted solar panels.

View looking north towards Durham Road, the main road through Blackhill.

A reminder of Consett's past as a steel town. The Bessemer process was the first large scale method of producing steel, although I think Consett used the open hearth method mostly.

This was the first Catholic church built in Consett, in 1857. It was built to serve the large Irish Catholic community which had settled in Blackhill. The men came over to work in the steelworks and to escape the potato famine. The architect was Matthias Dunn, who designed the building in Gothic revival style. The clock tower wasn't completed until 1884.