Sandygate Farm and Cottages / Sandy Gate

These are the oldest buildings in Marley Hill and form a much altered agricultural group of stone and slate. They are shown on the Ordnance Survey first edition map of 1850 as two ranges of buildings arranged in an approximate T-shape and labelled 'Sandy Gate'. They are not labelled as a farm on this or on subsequent editions, but the small cultivated areas shown to the west and south indicate some agricultural activity.
There is supporting documentary evidence that Sandy Gate was a farmstead in the early 19th century. Thomas Burnip is listed in the Durham North Pollbook 1832 for a Parliamentary Election as resident at Sandy Gate in Whickham, his qualification to vote being 'Farm'. Sandy Gate is also shown on the tithe map for Whickham township (ref. DDR/EA/TTH/1/251), dated 1842.
The 1841 census lists the occupants of Sandy Gate in the sub district of Whickham as Thomas Hutchinson, a farmer, his wife Hannah, eight children, and three others including an agricultural labourer. By the time of the 1851 census the Hutchinsons had left, and Sandy Gate was being used to house the Greener, Thompson and Forster families, who worked in the colliery.