Page:History and characteristics of Bishop Auckland.djvu/71

 50 HISTORY OF BISHOP AUCKLAND. in thus recording such trifles, which to some readers may appear beneath the notice of the historian; but " I cannot but remember that sacb things were, And that they were most precious to me;" and we feel that the pages of local histories are often too exclusively engrossed with dry topographical surveys, genealogical tables, and other statistics; whilst those records which constitute and reflect the provincial manners and customs of our forefathers are allowed to glide away unnoticed and unknown; or are only to be found in the humble and uncouth strains of some viQage bard, or in the antique strains of our old baUad lore ; or live for a while in the recollection of a few old inhabitants, and are handed down orally till they are lost in the stream of time, or buried in the sea of forgetfulness ? And do they not constitute, and help to make up the great streams of history, as each insignificant little atom tends to make up the sum total of the universe ? When the times began to alter, Hedley, Borrowdale, and Waller were foimd so unequal to the duties of their office that the authorities brought down a London policeman, named Derbyshire, to assist them ; but he, too, seemed to be of little more use than any of the old trio, and many practical jokes were played upon him by the young wags of the town, one of which deserves recording. A sham-fight was got up at the lower end of Newgate-street, and a messenger at once despatched into High Bondgate, where Derbyshire resided, to bring him to quell the disturbance. Whilst he was away, they stole his barrow, and other garden tools (for he was fond of gardemng), which were all found the next morning suspended from a tree in a field situate in Etherley Lane. Soon after this. Peel's Act for the establishment of a county constabulary came into operation, and the old parish constable, and his engines of punishment — ^the stocks and the truant clog — ^became things of the past. Bishop Auckland, about this time, began to loose much of its antique and primitive appearance, and many of its older inhabitants were cut off' by death. The powdered head, pig tail, and short Spencer worn by the gentry, together with their Sedan chairs, were seldom seen in its streets. The peculiar and eccentric traits of character, which are invariably found in old and isolated toMrns, such as Auckland then was, began to disappear, or become merged in the gradual influx of its " stranger population." The whistle of the steam engine, and the sight of the burning coal heaps and coke ovens, drove them away (along with the swallows that were wont to be so numerous in its antiquated streets) to some more congenial clime ; and the town began to send out its ramifications into the meadows and gardens of its old suburbs. Brougham-place, South-terrace, Blue-row, and Fliutoff'-street were erected ; Tenters- street and Corn-close were projected and built ; shop fronts were inserted here and there in the old streets ; time-worn buildings were pulled down and rebuilt, without any regard to public convenience or architectural beauty ; thatched roofs gradually gave place to tUes and slates ; and the town began to assume the patch-work character, which forms such a prominent feature in its present appearance, and which so forcibly strikes the stranger on first entering its streets. A few years after the opening of the coal-field, by the sinking of the Black Boy and Deanery Collieries, a carpet manufactory was established in some old premises, formerly used as a tan- yard, and situate at the top of High Bondgate, the spinning and dyeing being done in the old factory at West Mill , Step by step the town thus began to rise into a place of some commercial importance, and its population which, in 1800, only numbered 1,961 persons, had risen to 5,112 in the year 1851, and it is now upwards of 10,000, At the passing of the Reform Bill, in 1832, the inhabitants, following the example set them by other towns in the country, resolved to express their satisfaction at the glorious event A committee, consisting of the gentry and principal tradesmen of the town and neighbourhood, was accordingly formed, and arrangements made for Digitized by Google