Elsdon : The 20th Century

The population of the locality resumed its steady decline after the first decade of the 20th century. Despite this a significant number of new buildings were added to the fabric of the village during this century. Between the two world wars as many as fourteen new buildings were erected (Conzen 1969, 79), filling gaps in the periphery of the green or located on the outskirts of the village.

These included a fine group of early council houses built c. 1920 in the late Arts and Crafts style on the south east side of the green and new bungalows erected next to the coal pit to house the miners. A little more housing was built in the second half of the century, mainly concentrated off the south east side of the green around Crawford Close. A village hall was also erected in the late 1950s at the north end of the village beside the lane leading to the Mote Farm. Built in a ‘prefab’ style of temporary materials this structure has probably served its allotted timespan and is now in need of replacement.

Picture: Elsdon Village Hall

The school steadily expanded up until the end or World War II (Taylor n.d., 50). By 1900 there were 70 pupils on the rolls and attendance was compulsory between the ages of 5 and 13.  The original building was enlarged by the addition of a second classroom and a kitchen, but flush lavatories were not installed until 1939. An influx of evacuees increased the roll to 75 in 1940 and lessons were partly conducted in the rector’s tower! After the war, however the number of pupils fell to 36 and continued to decline thereafter, falling to 25 by 1962, a level which was maintained up until final closure in the 1970s.

When Conzen revised his detailed survey of Elsdon in 1975 there were 104 adults living in the village. Many were retired, but those gainfully employed worked in a wide range of occupations. Despite this he concluded that Elsdon’s functional status as a rural service centre was by that stage very low, this role having been almost completely usurped by Otterburn (Conzen 1969, 80). Typifying this is the history of the Church of St Cuthbert, the building which perhaps more than any other symbolises Elsdon.

In 1921 Otterburn was hived off as a separate parish centred on the Church of St John, but by the second half of the century the process was reversed with parishes being amalgamated rather than divided (cf. Taylor n.d., 36, 42). In 1952 the parishes of Horsley and Byrness were integrated with that of Otterburn which was now the most important parish in the valley. Elsdon was combined with this in 1961 to form a new parish - labelled Otterburn with Elsdon, Horsley with Byrness - embracing most of Redesdale.

This had the same extent as the old pre 1884 parish of Elsdon, but the vicarage of the new parish lay at Otterburn. Ten years later, in 1971, further consolidation and enlargement occurred with the formation of the Otterburn Group Ministry, which also embraced Kirkwhelpington, Kirkheaton and Corsenside to the east and south. Services still take place in St Cuthbert’s Church, but the ancient tower house, the residence of such a long series of distinguished rectors, including Charles Dodgson, Lewis Dutens and Thomas Singleton, is now a private dwelling. Presbyterian services in the village have ceased altogether.

Elsdon’s decline as a service centre for the rural locality has continued in the 30 years since Conzen wrote. The school finally closed in July 1975, although for sometime after it functioned as an outdoor centre, and there is no longer a petrol station next to the site of the coal mine. Nevertheless there are still a number of businesses in the village. The Bird in the Bush still provides a convivial focus for the community.

The café towards the north end of the green is very popular with the cyclists for whom it provides much needed sustenance after slogging around the narrow lanes of the National Park, whilst the opening of a pottery and art gallery underlines the just how radically the British rural economy has changed over the last few decades. Ironically, despite all the changes, farming is still a relatively important feature of the local economy, as it has been throughout the centuries.

Picture: Impromptu Tea Room Elsdon

A definitive history of Elsdon in the 20th century remains to be written, perhaps most appropriately by members of the local community. Through the use of oral history recordings as well as a range of photographic, cartographic and documentary media such a project might not only chart the development of the village throughout the century, but, perhaps more importantly, capture the personalities who enriched the life of Elsdon in this period of dramatic change.