Tudhoe
Tudhoe is a village in
County Durham, in
England. It is situated approximately 8 km (5 miles) south of the City of
Durham. It lies just outside
Spennymoor, a short distance to the west of the
Great North Road. The village is now a quiet backwater, its
green a
cul-de-sac that runs down from the main road towards the
River Wear. In former times, however, Tudhoe lay at the centre of a network of roads: one ran to Durham by way of
Sunderland Bridge and
Croxdale, another to
Kirk Merrington, a third to
Bishop Auckland, a fourth to
Whitworth and
Byers Green, and a fifth across a ford to
Brancepeth Castle and village on the far side of the river. All except the Brancepeth road are shown, somewhat schematically, on Thomas Jeffrey's map of County Durham of 1758.
Tudhoe is now dwarfed by
Spennymoor, an industrial town that grew up around the Tudhoe iron works in the 19th century. Historically, Spenny Moor was a vast common of scrub land that lay between and was shared by the villagers of Tudhoe, Kirk Merrington, Sunderland Bridge and
Hett. The modern town of Spennymoor lies only a few fields from Tudhoe, but the contours are such that it cannot be seen from most of the village, and Tudhoe today gives the impression that it is still an isolated country village.
For most of its history, Tudhoe has been in the parish of Brancepeth. The parish church of St Brandon's, dating from the 16th century, was one of the finest village churches in County Durham until its destruction by fire in 1998. Brancepeth lies across the River Wear from Tudhoe; there has never been a bridge, and the ford was not an easy one. In winter, it was often impassable, and Tudhoe baptisms, weddings and burials then took place at Whitworth. Because of this, Tudhoe was always seen (from Brancepeth) as an isolated outpost. Tudhoe's own
Anglican churches, Holy Innocents and St David's, were not built until 1866 and 1880, respectively, though there is a large
Catholic church, dedicated to St Charles Borromeo, which was founded in 1858.
Tudhoe was renowned as a mining village up until the end of the 20th Century, the Colliery Masters always held residence in The Loggins, a large manor house, up until the mines were closed.
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Village history*
Picture Spennymoor (including Tudhoe)*
Tudhoe Cricket Club
