Stillington Village

Stillington is a village that is located 5 miles south of Sedgefield. The village is currently made up of 431 households and has a total population of 1,118 people, of which: -

227 people (20%) are children aged 0-15
709 people (63%) are of working age
182 people (16%) are retired

Located within the village there is a public house called The Royal, a Working Men’s Club, a post office, a local shop and William Cassidi Primary School. The notable business in Stillington is Darchem Engineering, which employs a number of local people across several buildings and sites in the village. It manufactures metal products.

Stillington History

In the 13th century the hamlet of Stillington was part of the extensive estates held by the Amurdiville family, whose head was one of the powerful barons controlling the country throughout this period.

In about 1250, the Amurdiville’s gave the manor at Stillington to Walter de Merton who, in 1274 founded Merton College, Oxford (the first University College). Merton transferred ownership of the manor to the college in order to provide it with finance from the rents and leases etc.

Carlton Iron Works at Stillington

In 1865 Samuel Barstow erected blast furnaces in Stillington for the smelting of Iron ore and the production of pig iron. But why on earth would somebody want to build an iron works in the middle of the countryside?

There were several factors that came into making the decision of where to house an iron works –
The land had to be suitable – bug enough, stable enough to support building etc.
Raw materials – coal, coke, iron ore and limestone needed to be accessible
Transport – need to be able to bring in raw materials easily and transport finished product to buyers
Water – need water to power steam engines, cool blast furnaces, for workers drinking and hygiene

Was Stillington a Good Location for an Iron Works?

Self evidently, Stillington must have been a good choice for locating an iron works – as one was in fact built by Samuel Barstow in 1865.

The land chosen for the Carlton Iron Works at Stillington was Moor Closes and it was a relatively flat and extensive plot of land that was ideal for constructing buildings on it
There was abundant coal in the hills around Stillington – for example at Whitton Park colliery near Bishop Auckland
The Clarence Railway was built in 1833 and came very close to the site of the Iron works. Thus it could be used for transport of raw materials and finished product
Bishopton beck (which Thorpe Thewles Railway viaduct used to cross) supplied an abundance of water for the various needs discussed above

Schooling in Stillington

The first school in the village was established at Cassidi Hall in 1875 with Thomas Fernton as headmaster teaching 90 children. By 1878 there were three teachers at the school teaching approximately 170 children. It would appear that the school had some problems with some contemporary historians calling the reports of the school from 1904 “appalling”.

In 1911 a new school was built and in 1985 this was amalgamated with Wynyard Church school. The new school still stands and is called William Cassidi CoE Primary School.

Stillington today

Stillington today is a thriving place, and a report in 2008 from Stockton Borough Council regards it as practically the only sustainable little village throughout the whole of Cleveland. Indeed, the village has taken to new developments painlessly and has a working men’s club, a pub, a doctors surgery, a youth club, a church, a local convenience store, a post office and much more.

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