School, now workshops. Dated 1818. Coursed squared sandstone with large
quoins and ashlar dressings; low-pitched Welsh slate roof with
flat stone gable copings. One storey, 8 bays. Recessed 4-panelled door
under stone lintel in bay 8. Round-section mullioned and transomed windows
in all bays, those in bays 2, 4 and 6 under gabled dormers breaking eaves;
all with flat stone sills, irregular-block jambs and wood lintels. Long windows
in right return under inscription ERECTED BY SUBSCRIPTION, ANNO DOMINI,
1818. THE HON. AND REV. EDWARD GREY, RECTOR. Historical note: subscribers
included the Bishop of Durham and the trustees of Lord Crewe. Source: W. Bourn,
Annals of the Parish of Whickham, Consett 1892, 101.

House. Mid C18. Coursed squared sandstone with large quoins; pantiled roof with flat stone gable coping and 2 corniced end brick chimneys. 2 storeys, 3 windows. C20 porch to boarded door inserted between bays 2 and 3. Central round-headed stair window under stone arch; wooden cross windows at left gound floor, first and third bays first floor have flat stone lintels; left return shows boarded door at right under wood lintel. C19 sash on first floor of left return has flat stone lintel and projecting stone sill. Interior: 2-panelled doors; wainscoted wall one side of entrance passage.

Tomb. 1871. Henry Clasper, famous rowing champion, oarsman and boat-builder of Derwenthaugh, died 1870. Sandstone. Statue by G. Burn MSA of Henry Clasper on square pedestal, with plinth, string and cornice, bearing inscribed panels; 4 pillars, with bands and carved capitals, to tall octagonal canopy with cusped arches and crocketed gablets. Clasper is depicted holding what appear to be the plans of a boat.

The inscription reads 'BENEATH THIS MONUMENT RAISED TO HIS MEMORY, BY ARDENT AFFECTION OF FRIENDS AND ADMIRERS FROM EVERY CLASS AND FROM ALL PARTS OF THE KINGDOM, AND IN THIS SACRED SPOT COMMANDING A FULL VIEW OF THAT NOBLE RIVER, THE WELL LOVED SCENE OF FORMER TRIUMPHS, REST THE MORTAL REMAINS OF HENRY (HARRY) CLASPER, THE ACCOMPLISHED OARSMAN AND BOAT BUILDER OF DERWENTHAUGH, WHO DIED 12TH JULY 1870 AGED 58 YEARS. KNOW YE NOT THAT THEY WHICH RUN IN A RACE RUN ALL, BUT ONE RECEIVETH THE PRIZE. SO RUN THAT YE MAY OBTAIN. 1 Cor, IX, 24'.

Henry (Harry) Clasper was born in Dunston in 1812. He was one of fourteen children of Robert Clasper and Jane Hawks. When Harry was two years old, the family moved to Jarrow. From the age of 15, he worked at Jarrow Colliery. He trained as a ships carpenter in South Shields then Jarrow, before joining his father at Hetton Colliery. In the 1830s the family moved back to Dunston. Harry worked as a coke burner at Derwenthaugh, then Hawks Ironworks in Gateshead. He married his cousin Susannah Hawks in 1836.

Harry and his brothers put together a rowing crew. Their first boat race, which they won, was in a boat called 'Swalwell' around 1837.

Harry became a wherryman at Garesfield Coke Company at Derwenthaugh. Soon after he became the publican of the Skiff Inn at Derwenthaugh. He had a boat building yard next to a large pond in front of the inn. In 1840 he built a boat named 'Hawk' and his crew won the Durham Regatta in 1842.

His crew (Harry Clasper, William Clasper, John Thompson, Robert Dinning and Robert Clasper, coxswain) won many more local regattas in a boat named 'St. Agnes' built in 1840 by John Dobson of Hillgate, Gateshead.

On 16th July 1842 they lost a race between Newcastle and Lemington to the Thames Men from London. Harry thought this was because the St. Agnes was heavier than the London boat and because the Londoners used a scoop oar rather than a straight one.

On 22nd June 1844 Harry's crew won the Royal Thames Regatta in a boat called 'The Five Brothers', which Harry had designed and built after the defeat to the London crew. The boat was said to be shaped like half a gun barrel. It was the first keel-less boat ever built and the first time that outriggers (made of iron and fitted to the side of the skiff with the oars lying across them) had been used on a boat on the Thames. Previous outriggers were wooden. Harry also made his own scoop oars.

In 1845 Harry built the 'Lord Ravensworth' for the Thames Regatta, which they won and became Champions of the World.

On 21st July 1845 Harry's crew won the Great North of England Regatta. On 29th September Harry rowed against, and beat, Thomas Carrol, Champion of the Mersey. On 25th November 1845 he raced against and beat William Pocock of London, from the Tyne Bridge to Lemington. A spectator's grandstand was built on King's Meadows.

In 1846 Harry Clasper built an eight-oared gig in mahogany for Oxford University. On 22nd June 1846 he rowed against Robert Newell of London. Thousands of spectators lined the river. The Newcastle and Carlisle Railway carried spectators in cattle trucks along both sides of the river promising that the train could keep up with the boats in the race. Newall won.

In 1849 the Claspers rarely lost a race. At the Durham Regatta they won the coxed fours and coxed pairs.

In 1850 Harry Clasper left the Skiff Inn for the Queens Head in The Close, Newcastle. He set up his boathouse near Redheugh. The same year his crew won a regatta on Talkin Tarn in Cumbria in The Five Brothers.

In 1854 Harry beat Robert Mewell in a sculls race on the Thames from Putney to Mortlake. In June 1858 his crew won the Championship of Scotland, beating Robert Campbell. He won a second race against Campbell on Loch Lomond in October the same year.

In 1860 Harry Clasper took over the Boat Inn on Pipewellgate, Gateshead.

A testimonial was held for Harry Clasper at Balmbra's Music Hall on 5th June 1862, to celebrate his contribution to rowing. A special song had been written for the event, which was published in the Newcastle Daily Chronicle. £605 was raised by the testimonial committee to buy No. 1 Armstrong Street on Scotswood Road, which was presented to Harry on 27 November 1862 as the Clasper Hotel and his new home.

In 1868 Harry and his wife Susannah moved out of the Clasper Hotel and into the Barley Mow Inn in the Milk Market, then the Tunnel Inn on Tyne Street.

Harry Clasper died on 12th July 1870 aged 58 due to 'congestion of the brain'. His funeral procession from the Tunnel Inn, Ouseburn to Corporation Quay was witnessed by huge crowds. The pallbearers included notable rowing champions and around 200 oarsmen followed the hearse. The coffin crossed the River Tyne on a steam tug called the Robert Chambers. Thousands of people (said to be up to 130,000) watched from the river sides and bridges. The coffin was brought ashore at Derwenthaugh, where the hearse was joined by keelmen on its journey to St. Mary's Church, Whickham.

In 1985 his memorial and that of his family (HER 8171) were listed Grade II. There is a Clasper Way near to the Metrocentre.

War memorial. Statue of World War One soldier in a coat, resting on his rifle. Square pedestal with names of dead of the two World Wars on all 4 sides, surrounded by low curb of white granite with rails of wrought iron, and cast iron posts. Jane Cowan and her brother Col. Joseph Cowan of Stella Hall gave £400 to the fund and made up the deficit at the end. Unveiled by Miss Cowan on 7th April 1923.

House, now 2 separate dwellings. Late C18. Sandstone rubble with quoins;
pantiled roof has flat stone gable coping and 2 end brick chimneys. 2 low
storeys, 5 bays. Doors in bays 3 and 5, the former in C20 porch; horizontal
sliding sash window in bay one, another in gabled dormer breaking eaves; C20
casement in bay 3, horizontally-hung casements above in gabled dormer breaking
eaves; small rectangular window at eaves above door in bay 5. Included partly
for group value.

House. Late C18. Brick; Welsh slate roof. 2 storeys, 4 bays. 6-panelled door
under ornamental fanlight and brick arch in third bay. Splayed stone lintels
and projecting stone sills to sashes with glazing bars. Eaves gutter board.
2 end brick chimneys.

Gas lamp-posts. Early C19. Cast iron. Fluted bases and 3 bands of leaf decoration to posts supporting canopied gas lamps. Included partly for group value with church.

House. Circa 1780. Rendered; roof of Welsh slate with 2 corniced end brick
chimneys. 2 storeys, 3 windows. Central 4-panelled door under fanlight in
raised stone surround; Venetian windows in bays one and 3 and round-headed
window above door,all with intersecting glazing bars, in raised stone surrounds.
Historical note: Charles Thorpe,rector of Ryton 1807-63, founded a savings
bank in this building about 1816. Source: W. Bourn, Ryton Parish, (Carlisle 1896).
Interior not inspected.

Orangery, about 1760. English bond brick, stone plinth, wooden pilasters and
entablature; low-pitched pantiled roof behind stone-coped parapet, one end brick
chimney. One storey, 6 windows by one. 7 wooden flat Tuscan pilasters to wooden
entablature define 6 long sash windows with glazing bars. One similar window
in left return; 6-panelled door under lintel of headers in right return.

Grave slab. Sandstone. Inscription commemorates Robert Moscrop, miller, his wife Katherine and their children, and his gift of 5 pounds to the parish providing 10 shillings a year for the poor. Millers' symbols at foot of slab. Dated 3rd May 1621.