Pegswood

The prevailing theory as to the origin of the name Pegswood is that it means being a personal name. Another theory is that the element Peg- derives from the Anglo-Saxon word meaning pig. Pegswood started as a small farming settlement, yet with the discovery of coal and the opening of Pegswood colliery, the village expanded to accommodate miners in 1872. The colliery shut in 1969, however the village is still classed as a pit village. All that is left today are the Pit Heap, now a park, and the entrance to the mine shaft, now in the Bothal Court estate. Coinciding with the coal industry, there was also a brickworks in Pegswood, which has since closed down. Though the original colliery…

Some typical colliery-style houses from the late nineteenth century still exist in Pegswood however half of these have now been demolished to make way for new luxury housing near the local pit heap or Colliers Hill as it has now been dubbed.. Three noteworthy eighteenth-century houses remain, as well as a few remains from a fifteenth-century chapel. There is also a bridge over the East Coast Main Line. In 2010, a sculpture funded by Welbeck Estates was erected on the Bothal Roundabout. Officially called 'Fire', but dubbed Robin of Pegswood, a bronze figure stands near the top of a stainless steel girder. The girder juts from the ground at an angle and its tip is curved into the shape of a…