| Brandon | |
  Brandon shown within County Durham |
|
| OS grid reference | |
|---|---|
| District | City of Durham |
| Shire county | County Durham |
| Region | North East |
| Constituent country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | DURHAM |
| Postcode district | DH7 |
| Police | Durham |
| Fire | County Durham and Darlington |
| Ambulance | North East |
| European Parliament | North East England |
| List of places: UK • England • County Durham | |
Brandon is a village in County Durham, in England. The British national grid reference system is a system of geographic grid references commonly used in Great Britain, different from using Latitude and Longitude The districts of England are a level of subnational division of England used for the purposes of local government Durham is a local government district in County Durham, England. Metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties are one of the four levels of Subdivisions of England used for the purposes of Local government outside Greater London The region, also known as the government office region, is currently the highest tier of local government sub-national entity of England, with only one North-East England is one of the nine official Regions of England and comprises the combined area of Northumberland, County Durham, Tyne and Wear Constituent country is a phrase used often by official institutions in contexts in which a country makes up a part of a larger entity or grouping England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland This list of sovereign states, alphabetically arranged gives an overview of States around the world with information on the extent of their Sovereignty. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located A post town is a required part of all postal addresses in the United Kingdom, and a basic unit of the postal delivery system UK Postal codes are known as postcodes. UK postcodes are Alphanumeric. The, also known as the Durham postcode area, is a group of postal districts around Chester le Street, Consett, Durham, Houghton le Spring There are a number of law enforcement agencies in the United Kingdom. Durham Constabulary is a Home Office Police force with the responsibility of policing the non-metropolitan county of County Durham and the Unitary The fire service in the United Kingdom operates under separate legislative and administrative arrangements in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and County Durham Fire and Rescue Service is the Statutory fire and rescue service covering an area of, for the Shire county of County Durham plus The North East Ambulance Service NHS Trust (NEAS is the authority responsible for providing NHS Ambulance services in North East England, covering North East England is a Constituency of the European Parliament. A Gazetteer of place names in the United Kingdom showing each place's County, Unitary authority or council area and its geographical coordinates List of places --> List of cities in the United Kingdom List of towns in England Lists of places This is a list of places in County Durham, in England. The area covered is the entire ceremonial county, hence the inclusion of places in unitary A geographic coordinate system enables every location on the Earth to be specified in three coordinates using mainly a spherical coordinate system. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland It is situated a short distance to the southwest of Durham. Durham (ˈdʌrəm in RP, locally ˈdʏrəm is a small city and main settlement of the City of Durham district of County Durham, England Brandon was originally one of the seven townships within the ancient Parish of Brancepeth. It grew from a sparsely populated agricultural area into a populous mining district after the establishment of collieries and later coke and fireclay works. Until the 19th century Brandon village, formally known as East Brandon, was one of the larger settlements in Brancepeth Parish.
Brandon was also a manor of the medieval lordship of Brancepeth and as such was possessed by the Neville family, the Earls of Westmoreland, while Holywell, Langley, Littleburn and other such localities were the sites of large freehold gentry houses.
After the northern rising of 1569, Elizabeth I confiscated Brancepeth Castle and its territories. These were administered as Crown Lands until the 1620s and plundered by a series of courtiers and Royal lessees. In 1628-29 these lands were conveyed to the City of London, when Charles I was forced to redeem his debts to the city. Charles I, (19 November 1600 &ndash 30 January 1649 was King of England, Scotland and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution. The Brancepeth lands were broken up in a series of sales to London merchants and financiers who in turn resold to local buyers at high profits. The one exception to this fate was Brandon manor, which remained in the hands of its London buyer. A silk merchant, Edward Cropley, bought the whole estate of Brandon manor for £1,700 in 1630, and his family held onto the property till 1710. It was then conveyed to the Earl of Shaftesbury and remained in his family until the 1800s.
In 1796 William Russell, a coal owner, retired from mining on Tyneside and spent part of his fortune on buying and restructuring Brancepeth Castle. He set about repurchasing as much as possible of the old lordship broken up in the sales of the 1630s.
In 1806 he purchased the Brandon estate from the then Earl of Shaftesbury for £105,000. Russell's granddaughter married into the Irish peerage, and the name Hamilton-Russell and title Viscount Boyne became connected with the district.
In 1801 the Brandon and Byshottles population was 522; in 1811, 435; in 1851, 525; by 1881 it had risen to 10,850; and in 1891, it was 14,240. There had been a decline in population during the 1830s owing to the removal of workmen who had been engaged on the rebuilding and enlargement of Brancepeth Castle, with the population falling to 427. The stone for this building work had been quarried in Brandon village, and Sawmills Lane is thought to have been constructed as a more direct route for the carting of stone to Brancepeth.
The great majority of the local workforce was engaged in agriculture, when the lessee of Brandon's coal seams was as much a farmer as he was a collier. It is recorded that John Shaw was operating a landsale pit in 1836 using a whim-gin, usually employing horses or a bull, to raise the coal to the surface.
It was to be the 1850s when the area was to experience a dramatic change, as the iron and manufacturing industries required coal and coke in ever-increasing quantities. Entrepreneurs like the Newcastle firm of Straker and Love obtained the site that was to become Brandon colliery, sinking the 'A' shaft in 1856 and the 'C' pit in 1860. In 1894, 1150 men and boys were employed working the Hutton, Busty, and Brockwell seams of coal at this colliery. Brandon Pit house was sunk in 1924. Coal mining finally came to an end at Brandon on 15 March 1968. Events 44 BC - Julius Caesar, Dictator of the Roman Republic, is stabbed to death by Marcus Junius Brutus, Year 1968 ( MCMLXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar.
Other firms arrived to take leases. Bell Brothers of Newcastle and Middlesbrough commenced sinking at Browney colliery in 1871, with coal being drawn in 1873 from three shafts working the Brockwell, Busty, and Hutton seams. The firm was taken over by Dorman Long & Co. in 1923. In 1930, 625 were employed at the colliery. In July 1938 the pit closed due to flooding. In North Brancepeth the coal company secured the lease to Littleburn colliery, in 1870 sinking the engineer shaft to the Busty seam, followed by the merchant shaft to the Brockwell in 1871. In 1931 the company went into liquidation, and the pit was re-opened by Bearpark Coal and Coke Co. on a smaller scale to work the Busty seam, until flooding from the River Browney forced its closure in December 1950. The River Browney is a River in County Durham, England, and the largest Tributary of the River Wear.
It was to be in May 1877 under a newly confirmed provisional order that Brandon and Byshottles Parish was formed into a local government district governed by a local board, finally breaking away from the Parish of Brancepeth. The local board was superseded by the formation of the Urban District Council after the Local Government Act of 1894 was passed. The Brandon and Byshottles Urban District Council continued until it was amalgamated with Durham City and Rural Councils to form the City of Durham District Council in 1974. The Brandon and Byshottles Parish Council represents the area today.
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