Consett Hotels and Guest Houses

The Pennines are a range of mountains that are often called the "backbone of England" because of the way their ridges run north and south and separate the country in a particularly astonishing way. The loveliness of this area and its unique geography amid the rest of the continent make it a stunning example of the natural beauty of England and it is in this storied region that we find the equally lovely town of Consett. This bustling town of nearly thirty thousand residents sits boldly amid this fantastic range and thus each waking day in Consett delivers a truly mind blowing view of the landscape. Not surprisingly, many tourists come to the town each year as well to share in the revelry. The River Derwent runs right up alongside Consett and this too makes the view a spectacular one. Curiously, though, Consent was a small, secluded mountain town for much of its life. Even as recently as the mid 1800s Consent had a sparse population of less than two hundred people. It was essentially a hamlet and this fact makes it all the more befuddling that its population could explode so exponentially so quickly.

The answers lie in the main income of the town: Mining and Steel. Just like many of the most famous and storied towns in history, Consett was something of a "boom town". The Industrial Revolution started to shape and change the world right around the time that Consent had a population of about one hundred and sixty people and this happened to coincide with the startling discovery of all kinds of precious metals and minerals in the soil of Consett. Coking coal was discovered in the earth, an incredibly useful material for making steel. Within no time Consett began to grow as miners starved for work began to flood into the area in the same way and at the same time that gold rush towns in America were exploding in growth on the other side of the world. While the coal was being unearthed, another discovery occurred in Consett: Blackband iron ore.

These two commodities together were just what was needed for steel to be made and the limestone discovered not far away created the perfect storm of convenience: All the ingredients for smelting were located right next to one another. Instead of having to transport the minerals back and forth to different locations with blast furnaces one could simply have all the material on hand just waiting in the Earth; an organic warehouse of sorts. Consett's population began to swell from then on and quickly became the town it is today. Once again, this growth was aided by chance and serendipity: The iron ore that was the most plentiful in Britain was previously unworkable was rendered useful thanks to the invention of a special mining tool. This made more expensive and inferior mines outside of Consett's range to become unpopular and all the extra mining operations spread out to Consett and other lucky towns with the newly available ore. These days, however, the mining that once carried on in Consett is largely gone and the town is more attuned to the service industry and other modern-day affairs. A visitor to the town can still learn quite a bit about the history of steel and mining, though, and anybody interested in this fascinating subject would do well to take a trip to this historic wonderland.

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