•  Consett, County Durham

          Click on the map for other historical maps of this place

In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Consett like this:

CONSETT, a township and a chapelry in Lanchester parish, Durham. The township bears also the name of Conside-cum-Knitsley; lies at the terminus of the Lanchester branch of the Northeastern railway, near Shotley-Bridge, on the river Derwent, 8½ miles N of Wolsingham; and has a post office under Gateshead. ...

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Acres, 2, 617. Real property, £52, 239; of which £34, 700 are in iron-works, and £1, 000 in mines. Pop., 4, 953. Houses, 823. This place, besides having very extensive iron-works of its own, is the centre of a great coal mining and iron-working region, including Blackhill, Leadgate, Towlaw, Ebchester, Lanchester, Medomsley, Crook, Blanchland, and other places; and it publishes a weekly newspaper. -The chapelry was constituted in 1862; and is more extensive than the township. Post town, Consett, under Gateshead. Pop., about 5, 500. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Durham. Value, £300.* Patron, alternately the Crown and the Bishop. There are two Methodist chapels.

Although the Bartholomew and Imperial gazetteers both describe Berry Edge as being east of Leadgate, both the Ordnance Survey First Series one-inch map and the six-inch map of 1862 clearly name the main settlement of what is now Consett as "Berry Edge", with the name "Consett" attached only to the iron works and, further west, Consett Hall.

Consett through time

Consett is now part of Derwentside district. Click here for graphs and data of how Derwentside has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Consett itself, go to Units and Statistics.

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