Etherley
Etherley Literary Institute
Last Updated:
23 Sept 2024
Etherley
This is a
Institute, Library, Reading Room
54.652248, -1.743674
Founded in
Current status is
Extant
Designer (if known):
Now used by the National Bible College
Combine a traditional stone village vernacular with pit village infrastructure and you get this absolutely beautiful building - Etherley’s own literary institute.
These were fairly commonplace in mining settlements, where pitmen honed their intellectual pursuits and caught up with the current affairs of the time. They were often linked with clubs or general working institutes where there’d be billiards rooms or halls for concerts etc.
Colonel Henry Stobart, the chairman of the Stockton & Darlington Railway and the Etherley Collieries, funded much of Etherley’s development for the “moral and intellectual improvement of the inhabitants”, including the church discussed. Basically, if he could uplift the standard of their living conditions it would benefit his own pursuits and interests - inducing a healthy and productive workforce through faith and literacy. This is probably why there’s no club attached!
By public subscription the members of the community did attempt to fund a memorial, though I’m not too sure what happened with this. It may have ended up just a portrait inside.
The Institute itself was opened in 1864 at a cost of £500, fairly cheap given the labour and materials were already laid in front of them I’m assuming. It featured a library, reading room and bathroom improve the sanitary conditions for those living here. From thereon, lecture series’ and readings were held here as well as concerts. The field next door held its picnics and fairs, also doubling as the village cricket ground from the 1850s.
Though the building remains and adorned with the original signage, it’s now the National Bible College - a slightly illusive faith basic academic institution.
Listing Description (if available)
Both maps above illustrate Etherley from the 1890s to the 1910s, interestingly annotating the Institute as the local primary school on the former. I suspect before its own building was utilised, the institute was used to educate younger children before they graduated up to the school which is opposite St Cuthberts Church at High Etherley.
Despite the village growing modestly over the years, High and Low Etherley retain a traditional village feel along its main lane. Its pre-colliery roots mingle with the pit rows and social infrastructure for a growing mining settlement, and the institute is one amalgamation of the two with its traditional stone vernacular. The Dog & Gun is shown just north which closed in around 2013, along with the village smithy which is still extant. Many of the mining terraces were down at Toft Hill but developed around Low Etherley also near the Stockton & Darlington Railway.
Turning back the clock to the first Ordnance Survey - an uncommon 25 inch surveyed in the 1850s but published in the 1880s. The site of the institute in these days was actually the location of a line of much older rows with a public house and the village well. I don't think the row is that which remains today, but instead could be rudimentary farmers cottages which were perhaps made of coarsed rubble and were single storey (this is speculation however).
The Etherley Literary Institute in July 2024
The institute with the infant school to the right at the turn of the 20th century. In the foreground is the cricket ground, with grazing cows perhaps in the off-season. Source: Etherley Parish Council
Undated photograph of the institute in its heyday. It's almost ecclesiastical with its gothic arch doorway. Unknown original source.