Railways and Coal in South West Durham

Transcription

1 Railways and Coal in South West Durham by Philip Smith Introduction I was motivated to write this piece by my discovery, when researching my family tree, how many of my ancestors had been coal miners. One of my great grandfathers was born in Sedgefield, the son of a farmer; this led to my particular interest in the South West Durham coalfield. I will try to establish how, although coalmining has a very long history in South West Durham, it was with the arrival of the Stockton and Darlington Railway and it's successors that production expanded to rival that of North Durham. I will also look at how this affected in particular Crook, partly because of family connections and partly because of the small size of the population of the area before the arrival of the S. & D.R. Early Days Mining has been carried on in Durham from very early days and R. L. Galloway in his Annals of Mining states' mines of coal and iron ore under the coal are in Raby, Caldehirst, Hertkeld, Heatherclough otherwise Tollawe and Woolawe in the barony of Evenwood first granted to Rolf de Eure, and renewed in 1424 at a rent of s 4d from this account it is clear that the mines of Whickham in the North and the mines of Raby, Heatherclough and Caldehirst in the South were immensely more valuable than any others' (1) However the easier access to river transport on the Tyne and Wear together with the development of wagonways to those rivers meant that the "sea coal" trade was concentrated on these two rivers. A table of seasale collieries in 1810 and of landsale

2 collieries for the same period (2) shows the seasale collieries to be only in the North, many employing hundreds of men; of the landsale collieries only Bishop Auckland employed more than 100, many having a single figure workforce. By this time such was the demand for coal that considerable capital sums were being invested in the North Durham coalfield, in sinking new collieries through the Magnesium Limestone strata in the East to the deeper seams of this part of the county, ( 50,000 for Hetton colliery) (3). It is not surprising then that consideration was being given to means of exploiting the virtually untapped reserves in the South West, particularly since the quality, thickness and shallow depth of the seams would be known from the existing operations. Railways Inclined planes of various types, some using weight of full wagons to pull the empties back and some using stationary steam engines to assist this, preceded locomotives, but by the beginning of the 19th century a number of collieries were using locomotives on their private lines. George Stephenson had developed this further in his Hetton railway opened in 1822 and perhaps the news of the plans for this, plus the considerations stated in the previous paragraph, confirmed to the promoters of the S.D.& R. that they should go ahead with their plans. However the S. D. & R. did go ahead and opened in1825 with locomotives running to Shildon not Darlington; inclines at Etherley and Brusselton completed the line to Witton Park colliery. An extension known as the Black Boy branch followed shortly to the colliery of that name at South Church. Prior to the opening of the S.D. & R. the cost of transport was such that Joseph Pease, one of the main promoters, estimated that the railway would reduce the price of coal at Darlington by one half and by that at Stockton by more than half (4). It is not surprising that sales rose although slowly at first. The extension of the line to Middlesbrough by 1828 made a further

3 impact, as did the competing line to Hartlepool in approved in The S. D. & R. made further extensions and by 1843 had reached Crook. Growth in South West Durham The effect of these railways can be indicated by reference to a Parliamentary report of 1843 (5), in contrast to the statistics quoted above for 1810 there were now six seasale collieries listed as "on the Tees", although all were in fact in the Bishop Auckland area. These collieries employed between them 1300 men and boys. Another indicator is the population growth of the parish of Auckland St. Andrew, which more than doubled between the census of 1821 and that of Coundon Whickham pit was opened in 1828, Eldon Northern pit sinking commenced in 1829 (6) and Black Boy colliery opened in 1830 (7). A further insight into the period is given by a contemporary report on Greenfield colliery "Since the colliery has experienced the Advantage of the Stockton & Darlington Railway ~ in the Conveyance of its Produce, not only to Darlington & Stockton & other adjoining Towns, but to London & other coasting Markets, in consequence the annual Vend from the Copyholds & Freeholds I find has increased since then, compared with former Vends in a ratio as 3 to 5 and still may be supposed to improve through the contemplated Branch to Croft." (8) A similar population growth occurred at Crook when the Wear Valley extension reached there from 200 in the 1831 census to nearly 3000 by that of 1851.Crook had been in the words of a local historian " not significant enough to appear on any map of County Durham. Strictly speaking, it was not a village, but an area which consisted largely of a few scattered farmsteads." (9), he goes on to say that in about the year 1800 mention is made of Woodifield and Bitchburn collieries each employing six men. By the 1841 census Crook had already begun to grow (538) almost certainly in anticipation of the arrival of the railway. In fact the Victoria History records for 1836 "borings were begun at Coalyfield, near Thornley and Hedleyhope and were in progress in the Roddymoor

4 royalty near Crook."(IO); Roddymoor colliery was in fact opened in 1844 (7). A look at the 1841 census returns shows the following, living in the hamlets of Roddymoor, White Lee and Billy Row Numbers Employment From County 1 Sinker Y 10 Excavator N 1 Quarryman Y 1 Mason Y 1 Plate layer Y 1 Railway Plate layer N 2 Labourer (as distinct from Ag Lab.) N 25 Coalminer Y all of who could be new to the area, brought in by the anticipated arrival of or working on the railway. The coalminers raise a question since they are all recorded as living at White Lee (White Lea colliery opened 1855) (7). The number of businesses in Crook were few at this time. By the time Pigot s directory was published in 1848 the number and diversity of businesses and services had increased dramatically as is shown by the following summary. 4 Boot and Shoemakers, 4 Butchers, 2 Cartwright/Joiners, 4 Grocers, 2 Grocer/Drapers, 2 Stonemasons, 3 Surgeons, 3 Tailors, 3 Public Houses ( 1 of which Commercial ),1 Straw Bonnet Maker. There was a Railway Station, a Post Office and 5 Carriers. There were collieries at Bitchburn, North and Low Bitchburn, Woodifield and at Roddymoor (Peases West) where there was also a Firebrick Works. A look at the 6 inch to the mile 1st edition of the ordnance survey shows these developments and others that followed; it also shows how the housing was intermingled with the works.

5 Effects of Growth The rapid growth of settlements as described above led to very poor living conditions, a description of a mining community in 1853 states "where a line of houses opens to the fields there is generally a foul ditch or channel full of liquid and solid refuse sufficient to poison the atmosphere as it enters the dwelling rooms. If a catalogue of nuisances were made, it must include every house in the place Privies and cesspools are crowded close to many of the cottages, wells and pumps are in some places close to middens and cesspools. Many cottages have no privy or water supply. Refuse is thrown out in heaps, or over the surface. Children ease themselves in the road in front of the houses, and not infrequently adults also."( 11) A different view is given by the following from Cobbett's Rural Rides dated Sunderland, 4h Oct "You see nothing here that is pretty; but everything seems to be abundant in value; and one great thing is, the working people live well. Theirs is not a life of ease to be sure, but it is not a life of hunger. The pitmen have twenty four shillings a week; they live rent free, their fuel costs them nothing, and their doctor costs them nothing their work is terrible; to be sure; and, perhaps, they do not have what they ought to have; but, at any rate, they live well, their houses are good; and though they live not in a beautiful scene, they are in the scene where they were born, and their lives seem to be as good as that of the working part of mankind can reasonably expect. The new recruits to mining were mainly young men, working in dangerous and arduous conditions, so that it is no wonder that John Wesley noted in his Diary after a visit in 1843 " I had a great desire to visit a small colliery village near Newcastle. It is inhabited by colliers only, and such as had always been in the first rank for savage ignorance, and wickedness of every kind. Their grand assembly used to be on the Lord's Day: on which men, women and children met together to dance, fight, and swear, and play at chuck ball, span farthing, or

6 whatever came next to hand. I felt great compassion for these poor creatures, from the time I heard of them first, and the more because all men seemed to despair of them" (11). I feel this is a harsh assessment, Sunday would be the only free day the men would have, and leisure facilities non existent apart from home made ones. However religion and education did come to the mining villages. The Primitive Methodists had a crusade in County Durham in the 1 830s; (II) at their meetings people experienced religious fervour fainting, shouting. groaning and singing hallelujahs. The results are described as follows " centres of gambling were broken up; confirmed gamblers burnt their dice, cards and books of enchantment; drunkards, hopeless incurable sots, were freed from the dread tyranny of fiery appetite; pugilists, practiced and professional, and cock fighters of terrible experience, turned from their brutalities. The miracle was repeated at Evenwood, West Auckland, and elsewhere, at each place the converts became church workers and several of them local preachers (11). Some employers founded endowed schools, the churches and chapels founded Sunday Schools, and such things as Mechanics Institutes all contributed to education. Conclusions This period of the 19th century was obviously on of great upheaval in South West Durham, so conflicting reports on conditions may be due to different periods in the lifetime of a community being observed; as well as to the bias of the observer. What does seem to be the case is that improvements were made, including safety underground, certainly too slowly in the case of safety, as witnessed by explosions right up to my own lifetime, as well as the less dramatic accidents which still can occur. As I stated in the introduction there is a family connection to my interest, my great grandfather moved to the Crook area sometime before the birth of my grandfather in 1859; at this time he was described as a labourer on the birth certificate. He moved several times

7 as shown by the birthplaces of his children, seen again in the 1881 census as living at Auckland Park and now listed as a coalminer. My great grandfather then lived through this period of upheaval. This mobility raises questions about the effect of the Poor Laws, which had been intended to keep possible liabilities arriving in a Parish. Notes 1 R.L.Galloway quoted in The Victoria History of the Counties of England A History of Durham. Vol./I p323 2 IS.Jeans Notes on Northern Industries Norman McCord North East England. The Region's Development p39 4 Ibid p53 5 Statistical Account of the various collieries on the Rivers Tyne, Wear, and Tees. March 25, 1843 included in the first Report of the Midland Mining Commission. Commissioner Thomas Tancred, Esq. 6 Victoria History 7 Durham Mining Museum, Website 8 Durham Bishopric Estates. Auckland St Helens Parish. Greenfield or West Auckland Coalmines. Reports Palace Green Library 9 David F. Neil The Story of Crook 1996 pi 10 Victoria History p DMM. Website 12 Norman McCord p78 13 Ibid p70 14 Ibid p72 Note: The views that are expressed on the website are the contributors own and not necessarily those of Durham County Council. This is a community website so no guarantee can be given of the historical accuracy of individual contributions

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