LEADGATE is an extensive parish, containing the village and township of Ivestone and the hamlet of Crook Hall, and was formed July 28, 1863, and includes part of the township of Greencroft and Medomsley, in the parish of Lanchester, in the North Western division of the county, west division of Chester ward, union and petty sessional division of Lanchester, Consett county court district, rural deanery of Ryton and archdeaconry and diocese of Durham; Ivestone is 2 ½ miles from Lanchester, 12 south-west from Gateshead and 12 north-west from Durham. The church of St. Ives, situated at Redwell hills, and erected; in 1867, is a plain edifice of stone, consisting of chancel, nave of five bays, aisles, south porch and a western turret containing one bell: there are sittings for 500 persons. The register dates from the year 1868. The living is a vicarage, yearly value £300, including 11 acres of glebe, with residence, in the gift of the Crown and Bishop of Durham alternately, and held since 1864 by the Rev. Joseph Whyte Mitchell M.A. of King’s College, Aberdeen. There is a Catholic chapel at High Brooms dedicated to Our Lady and St. Joseph, a Wesleyan chapel at Ivestone, and one at Leadgate, where there is also a Primitive Methodist chapel. The coal mines in the township of Ivestone, belong to the proprietors of the Consett ironworks, and there is also an iron and brass foundry there belonging to the same company. Sir Henry A. Clavering bart. of Axwell Hall, near Newcastle, who is lord of the manor of Ivestone, Geo. Taylor-Smith esq. George Nicholson esq. Edmund Balleny esq. and the Consett Iron Company are chief landowners. The soil is clay; the subsoil is clay and stone. The chief crops are wheat, barley, beans, and pasture. The area of the township of Ivestone is 1,784 acres; rateable value, £10,254; the population in 1881 was 4,032. The area of the parish is 2,882 acres; the population in 1881 was 4,601.

Schools

National (mixed), Redwell hills, built in 1865, for 171 children; average attendance, 164.

National (infants), for 250 children; average attendance, 172.

Parochial,Ivestone (mixed), built in 1838, for 150 children; average attendance, 135.

Catholic, Brooms, built in 1863, for 470 children; average attendance, 400; & conducted by Sisters of Charity.

Wesleyan (day), Leadgate, built in 1840, for 240 children; average attendance, 205.