Cockfield is a village on the edge of Teesdale, County Durham

County Durham

County Durham is a ceremonial county and unitary district in north east England. The county town is Durham. The largest settlement in the ceremonial county is the town of Darlington...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It is situated 8 miles to the south-west of Bishop Auckland

Bishop Auckland

Bishop Auckland is a market town and civil parish in County Durham in north east England. It is located about northwest of Darlington and southwest of Durham at the confluence of the River Wear with its tributary the River Gaunless...

, 15 miles north-west of Darlington

Darlington

Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, part of the ceremonial county of County Durham, England. It lies on the small River Skerne, a tributary of the River Tees, not far from the main river. It is the main population centre in the borough, with a population of 97,838 as of 2001...

 and 40 miles south-east of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Remains found on Cockfield Fell suggest there was a settlement in the area during the Iron Age

Iron Age

The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...

. The parish church, dedicated to St Mary the Virgin, probably dates from the late 12th century.

Coal mining began in the area in the medieval period. When the South West Durham coalfield was opened in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the population of the village grew significantly. The last Coal Mine closed in 1962.

Notable residents

One of the more illustrious families to hail from Cockfield was the Dixon family. George Dixon

George Dixon (Cockfield Canal)

George Dixon , was a chemist, mathematician, engraver, china-painter, engineer, geologist and coalmine operator, who helped pioneer the use of coal gas in heating and gas lighting - one of his gas experiments leading to the destruction of his own house...

 (1731–1785) owned coal mines and was a keen inventor, and was probably the first to use coal gas

Coal gas

Coal gas is a flammable gaseous fuel made by the destructive distillation of coal containing a variety of calorific gases including hydrogen, carbon monoxide, methane and volatile hydrocarbons together with small quantities of non-calorific gases such as carbon dioxide and nitrogen...

 for illumination

Gas lighting

Gas lighting is production of artificial light from combustion of a gaseous fuel, including hydrogen, methane, carbon monoxide, propane, butane, acetylene, ethylene, or natural gas. Before electricity became sufficiently widespread and economical to allow for general public use, gas was the most...

. His brother Jeremiah Dixon

Jeremiah Dixon

Jeremiah Dixon was an English surveyor and astronomer who is perhaps best known for his work with Charles Mason, from 1763 to 1767, in determining what was later called the Mason-Dixon line....

 (1733–1779), an astronomer, went to America with Charles Mason

Charles Mason

Charles Mason was an English astronomer who made significant contributions to 18th-century science and American history, particularly through his involvement with the survey of the Mason-Dixon line, which came to mark the division between the northern and southern United States...

 in 1763 to survey the boundaries of Maryland and Pennsylvania thereby creating the 'Mason-Dixon Line

Mason-Dixon line

The Mason–Dixon Line was surveyed between 1763 and 1767 by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon in the resolution of a border dispute between British colonies in Colonial America. It forms a demarcation line among four U.S. states, forming part of the borders of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and...

'.

Cockfield is a small village, in between Evenwood and Butterknowle

Public houses

There are three public houses in the village, the Queen's Head, the King's Head, and the Cockfield Working Men's Club.

Churches

The two churches that can be found in Cockfield are the CofE Church of Saint Mary the Virgin and the Cockfield Methodist Church.

External links