Though the old village completely disappeared I, for one, will never forget the place of my birth and hope the following reminiscences may help to revive some nostalgic memories in the minds of the other sons and daughters of "canny Byermoor".

Byermoor consisted of a few rows of pit cottages - the Top Row, the Bottom Row (Church Street), the two short rows and the pit row, which ran down to the pit yard. Above the top row was the football field, now belonging I believe to the Catholic School, which is at the topside of the field next to the Church of the Sacred Heart (built 1882). At the opposite end of the field to the main road was a disused pit heap, partly overgrown with grass, where we used to play, then a large ventilation fan was built beside the heap.

Going along the top street you had the football field on your left, then you came to the pit pond in the manager's garden on your right and then the pit row leading down to the pit. Straight ahead was the bottom short row but if you turned left you went up to the "coggley" or "cobbley" way past the top short row and West Farne, (where Mrs Brown had a little shop), and turned right to "Dolly Town" being the nickname for the Council Houses - still standing - and Marley Hill School. There was a small sweetshop in one of the council houses I remember, otherwise shopping was done down the bank at Crookgate, at Woodcock's sweet shop or Kyles, a fairly large general store at the bottom of the Mile Bank or further on into Burnopfield itself.

The pit railway ran parallel to the road at Crookgate and under the railway was an arch and road leading to the Old Pit and some old loading bays where coal was loaded into carts for leading coal to the miners' cottages. At the corner of Crookgate and Byermoor Road was another row of pit cottages, back to back, and a path ran behind the houses up to the Quarry Chains and the Green.

Another path branched off at the cottages and followed the railway line towards the pit where several paths led off through the three quarries to the allotments at the bottom of Church Street Gardens or to the Galloway's field behind the manager's house where the pit ponies were kept when they were brought to the surface. I spent many happy hours playing down the quarries but kept away on Sunday mornings when there were tossing schools. These were groups of men who played an illegal gambling game tossing pennies. Hundreds of pounds changed hands and there was always a lookout for the village "polis" stationed on the top of the quarry where he had a wide view and could give warning in good time for the school to split up and scatter if the police were sighted. There was a permanent bald patch at the bottom of the quarry where the grass had been worn away by the tossing school.

Across the railway line was a stretch of boggy land - The Bogs - used by the council as a tip - always burning and smelling foul and beyond that, the black road leading from Crookgate to the Old Pit where there was the entrance to a drift mine and a few old cottages, probably belonging to a worked out mine - paths leading from there to Joe's Well and Barkus Close and through Beckley Woods to Andrew's House, Bob Gins and the Causey Arch.

Along the railway line from Byermoor Pit were the remains of the "German Ovens" - about a dozen beehive shaped coke ovens and a tall chimney. They derived their name from a team of German workers who constructed them. They were disused by the time I was a child - in the twenties- and most of them had fallen in. However two or three were still intact and made ideal "houses" for children to play in, especially as there were stacks of bricks nearby which we used to lay floors, build fireplaces and play "shoe-shops". Across the railway line was Beckley Wood, later completely covered in by the pit heap but in the 1920's, a happy place to play with grassy dells for picnics and trees to climb.

The houses at Byermoor were stone built and similar to those at the Beamish Museum although somewhat roomier. There was one large room downstairs with a scullery or "backend" from which the stairs went up to the landing - big enough to take a spare bed if necessary, otherwise used for storage, items of furniture, tin trunks etc. At the end of this landing was a "Ducket" (derived from Dovecote?) a small room with a dormer window built on, I believe, just before the 1914-18 war.

Two steps up from the landing were two long bedrooms, large enough to take two double beds, large chests of drawers, chairs and occasional tables - the beds usually iron with brass knobs but later replaced with "modern" bedroom suites.

Downstairs in the big room was the double bed in the corner in which the parents slept, in my time an iron or brass bedstead but often, previously a four-poster. Next to the bed was a large sideboard with lots of carving, shelves and mirrors and a press at the bottom which opened up to disclose a spare bed for visitors. There was also a chest of drawers, sometimes the large high Victorian ones about 6ft by 4ft, with china dogs, photographs, ornaments and clocks. On the top the capacious drawers ideal for storing household linen, extra blankets etc., and frequently used as cradles for visiting babies!

A long wooden settle stood under the window, a square whitewood table in the centre of the floor, often with stockings on the legs to prevent scratches. A knife drawer in the table contained cutlery, wooden handled knives and forks, gully (carving knife) and steel, often with fancy handles made at the pit. At one side of the table was a wooden form where the children sat and wooden chairs and wheel back armchair for the father on the other three sides. The table was covered with oilcloth and meals were usually eaten off that, but if visitors arrived or on Sundays the table was set with a white damask tablecloth. In the evenings, and again on Saturdays and Sundays, when the table was not in use it was covered with a plush or a chenille cloth and a plant or a vase of flowers set in the centre.

In the corner between the window and the fireplace was a built-in cupboard - crockery in the top and firewood (pit prop ends) and cleaning materials in the bottom. The iron fireplace was very large - at the window end was a huge square oven, then the fire itself with deep bars, a large fireback capable of holding five or six pailfuls of coal at a time, this being pulled down with a rake as it was required and which enabled the fire to stay on all night - some of the fires had never been out for years! A large set pot was on the right of the fire covered with a round iron lid on which stood the "tin pot" for ladling the water out. An iron tidy, a steel fender and iron or steel fire irons stood in front of the fire on weekdays and an iron kettle stand with a heavy iron kettle and leaning on the wall the "bleezer" for blazing up the fire. On Sunday however, the brass fender, the copper kettle stand, copper kettle and brass fire irons came out. "Proggy" mats lay in front of the fire and "Hooky" mats were scattered over the floor - old ones during the week but new ones on Sundays. There always seemed to be a mat of one kind or another in the process of being made, the frame being brought out on the evenings when everyone, including the men folk took a hand. Some cutting the clips from old clothes, the others, including neighbours or visitors as they dropped in, putting the clips into the hessian with hooks or proggers.

The floors were flagged, usually covered with lino and mats but some of the poorer families, before my time, had no mats and scoured the floor with donkey stone. My mother remembered some of them beating the floor with gorse or broom to make a green pattern.

The mats were taken out into the yard and shaken every day. The fireplace was blackleaded every Friday, along with the fire irons, kettle and large iron pans. On the mantelpiece stood the clock, candlesticks, a tea caddy and maybe a pipe rack or a couple of china dogs. The mantelpiece had a frill or valance of chenille or velvet with a brass rod underneath, which usually had some pit socks drying on it. In the recess beside the fireplace was a small chest of drawers and a press, or maybe a small table or sewing machine.

The bedsteads were of iron with brass knobs or some completely of brass. Mattresses of flock were laid over a straw palliasse on a spring mattress. The flock mattress was shaken and turned every day. Sheets and pillowcases were of white cotton or linen bordered with handmade lace and valances round the bed were also bordered with deep handmade lace edging. The beds were covered with Durham quilts, a local specialty, handmade, with broad alternate coloured stripes and patterned quilting.

On the walls hung enlarged family photographs or religious pictures - Abide with me, Rock of Ages, Monarch of the Glen or even the Derby winner, Jockeys, Footballers or Royalty. There was a large wall clock with a drawer or shelf where watches were kept when not in use. Long lace curtains (often hand crocheted) hung at the windows, tied back with cords and lace trimmed blinds, white, cream or dark green were pulled down in the evening.

I remember in the 1920s when the room was lit by gas, you pulled a chain and held a lighted match near the mantle. Most people had glass lampshades. In the scullery and bedrooms there were just gas jets with no mantles and for the stairs, landing and pantry, candlesticks and matches were always kept handy.

On the window ledges there were large plant pots - some with pictures on, some with flowers or other patterns. My grandma had a beautiful large white swan plant pot. Most houses had aspidistras but geraniums and Star of Bethlehem were also popular. The ceilings were wooden planks with wooden beams but some people had them boarded in and papered.

The scullery was reached by the "middle door" on one side of which was a set pot to boil the washing, then the pantry door leading into a large pantry with two huge bins on the floor, one filled with flour the other with bread. It was common to have eggcups on the small window ledges - I noticed that at least one of the Beamish pit cottages has followed the custom.

Alongside the outside wall of the scullery was a long narrow whitewood bench with a curtain hung underneath. A deep sink with one cold-water tap was under the window and at the end of the bench, next to the back door, was the gas oven. The stairs ran up four or five steps opposite the back door, then made a right angled turn up to the landing.

Under the stairs was the "Dark Hole" where all the pit clothes were kept; consequently it always smelt of coal dust in spite of the clothes being "dadded" against the wall in the yard before they were put away.

Between the "Dark Hole" and the middle door was an old fashioned washing machine with a handle to turn and a large mangle. Under the bench there were cleaning materials- floor cloths, dusters, scrubbing brushes and long bars of soap, some white flecked with green and some carbolic - washing powder was unheard of, so the soap was shredded to wash clothes. The tin bath was also kept under the bench, although some people hung them on the outside of the house near the back door.

In the yard stood the large wooden "poss - tubs", waist high, which were used for washing the clothes. Every Monday morning there was the sound of the wooden poss-sticks thump- thumping rhythmically all along the street. After the clothes were washed and boiled in the set pot they were hung out down the front garden, which stretched quite a long way down to the hen crees or pig sties at the bottom.

In the yard opposite the back door was the outside toilet. When I was young it was a "muck midden" with an oblong wooden lid, in the centre of which was a round hole with a separate lid. The ashes were emptied down the midden and more than one person fell into the muck through the lid being left up and someone being in a hurry in the dark.

The "toilet paper" was newspaper cut into squares, skewered at the corner and hung on a string on the door, although at one of my Grandma's, where the men folk were all interested in horseracing, it was always the Handicap book as the pages were a convenient size. I've spent quite a lot of time reading up the Dam and Sire and marvelling at the ingenuity of the people who thought up the horses' names!

Next to the lavatory was the coalhouse, usually well stocked up as the coal was free and delivered regularly. It was dumped in the street and shovelled in by one of the men in the house through a little door halfway up the back wall of the coalhouse. The front of the coalhouse was shored up with removable planks to stop the coal falling out, and thrown in on top of the coal were long and short handled shovels, a sweeping brush and a broom. The yards were broomed regularly, especially on Mondays when the washing was finished and nice hot soapy was water available.

At the end of the bottom street was "The Green"-used during the 1926 strike for playing quoits - and on the corner of the main road was the "Tin Church", a corrugated iron edifice - an offshoot of St Cuthbert's at Marley Hill I believe - where I went to Sunday school and which was always used for social functions - one of the last, I would imagine, was the Diamond Wedding of my Grandparents. I don't know when it was built or when it was demolished - sometime between 1955 and 1968 - but I have happy memories of it and if anyone can furnish me with any information about it I should be most grateful.

Now, sadly, the old pit village of Byermoor is no more. Its mining traditions date back before 1740 when Sir Thomas Clavering owned the workings and older workings prior to that time have been found. The village was mentioned in the Boldon Book in 1183 as "Beechermoor" which means "bare moor".

Perhaps my reminiscences will help to keep it alive just a little while longer!