25 March 2026 7.30pm NO NEED TO BOOK
Knowledge of the Durham Derwent Valley’s significance in industrial and social history had been lost to all but a few academics and local historians. The Land of Oak & Iron Landscape Partnership project has transformed that. Val Scully, a local historian who has been involved with the project since its inception, will give us an illustrated overview of an area astonishingly packed with rich, varied and significant people and stories: from the Romans to the German Swordmakers, from Ambrose Crowley’s mysterious links with the Bowes family, through Chartist insurrection to Joseph Cowen.
Our Speaker
Val Scully is a retired teacher of English and History. She leads the Gibside Research Group and has produced books on the wider area of the Durham Derwent Valley for the Land of Oak Iron Landscape Partnership: ‘Men of Iron‘, ‘Crowley’s’, ‘Releasing the Genie of Coal‘, ‘A Legend Evermore’, ‘Addison’, ‘Clara Vale’, ‘Tales of Derwentdale’, ‘Brickworks of the North East’ and ‘The Wheel of Time: A People’s History of Stella, Path Head and Blaydon Burn’. She is also the author of three historical novels, ‘A People’s History of Gibside’, ‘Path Head Water Mill’, and a biography of J W Fawcett.
Venue
This event will take place at St George’s United Reformed Church on Newton Road, High Heaton NE7 7HP. It is on the corner with Boundary Gardens, the same block as Heaton Stannington’s football ground, Willow (formerly Grounsell) Park.
There are excellent public transport links including bus numbers 18, 38, 52 and 553, which stop right by the church.
There is car parking on the surrounding streets.
Booking
The event is free to Heaton History Group members and costs £2.50 for non-members. There’s no need to book. Just turn up on the night.
Image: The Statue of British Liberty, Gibside – courtesy of Peter Smith
