Coal and Mining
Derwenthaugh Staiths
Workers on Derwenthaugh Staiths
Opened in the early eighteenth century as the Garesfield staith, they were owned by the Garesfield Colliery and Railway Company and rebuilt in 1899 by new owners the Consett Iron Company who had taken over in 1889. Coal originally came along wagonways from local pits at Whickham, Pontop, Thornley and Spen and coke from two nearby cokeworks on the riverside. Further enlarged in 1912-1913 they also shipped coke from the new Winlaton Mill (or Derwenthaugh) Cokeworks from 1929. A major fire closed the staiths from June 1951 to January 1953 following which parts of the staiths were no longer in use and were dismantled. There were 4 tanks for the storage of liquid tar and creosote alongside. In the twentieth century coal came from the north west Durham pits and mostly went to power stations or gas works on the Thames. The staiths finally closed on 23 March 1960.
There were some old staiths on the other (east side) of the Derwent in the 18th century, possibly supplied with coal via the wagonway leading from Whickham down what is now Coalway Lane to Swalwell and the river.
Derwenthaugh Staiths in 1960
Swalwell Industries in the Fifties
Opencast Coal Disposal Point
After World War II a plant was built in Swalwell for the transfer of coal from opencast mines from road to rail. A steady stream of lorries brought the coal to the plant at the junction of Millers Lane and Long Rigg where it was screened and poured into railway wagons which would then be shunted into sidings until there were enough to make up a train which would then be coupled up to a locomotive and taken away down the short branch to join the freight line at Derwenthaugh.
Coal came from opencast sites at Cut Thorn off Fellside Road near Whickham, Horsemouth near Ravensworth, Lumley Castle, Plawsworth, Maiden Law near Lanchester and Horsley in Northumberland. When the Metro centre was extended west the facility was closed and IKEA now occupy part of the site.
J W Ellis
Near the opencast coal depot was the firm of J W Ellis which also had railway sidings, with a crane loading girders onto the railway wagons that were also taken away via Derwenthaugh. The works are still in use by other firms. Formerly called Hannington's Works and engaged in engineering and scrap handling, Ellis had offices nearby and after the firm closed they were used by Metro Radio for many years.
General Concrete Products
This firm made concrete kerbs, paving stones and many other concrete products. They were situated near the Keelman's Bridge in the heart of the village and Mr C Patterson was the manager. A large moving crane moved heavy materials around the site.
Dunston Staiths
West Staiths
Dunston basin
Dunston Staiths were opened by the North Eastern Railway Company in 1893 to meet the growing output of export coal and to save the rail journey to the docks at the mouth of the river. A second set of staiths was built adjoining the first in 1903 and a tidal basin dug out, providing six berths in all, at which ships could be loaded at all states of the tide. Each berth was provided with two gravity spouts and there were three conveyor belts. The staiths also occasionally loaded fluorospar and pitch.
The two staiths were separate in construction and pitch pine was the wood used white-leaded as a preservative, beams of 12 by 12 being used with mortise and tenon joints. Railway fitters did any repairs, the staiths being railway owned. The spouts were numbered from 1 to 12 starting at the west end of the River Staith (on the Tyne) with spout numbers 1 to 6, then moving from east to west along the Basin Staith, numbers 7 to 12. The electrically-driven conveyor belts were used when the tide made loading by the spouts impractical. The railway wagons were shunted into position by a locomotive known as the 'pup', and the staiths were built with a gradient of 1 in 96, rising from west to east so that wagons could be allowed to run downhill into position over the spout hoppers and the wheels chocked. Men known as teemers were responsible for this and for opening the wagon bottoms to allow the teeming of the coal or coke down the chutes or spouts into the ships hold. The counter-balanced spouts could be easily raised or lowered by the teemers according both to the state of the tide and the height of the ship as it sank lower in the water as it filled up, and they also moved from side to side. When the coal jammed or was frozen in the wagons the trimmers would have to free it. Because some customers preferred their coal and coke in larger lumps and unbroken, a device called an anti-coal breaker could be used to prevent breakage. This was electrically operated, the coal coming down the spout and onto a continuous belt at an angle, and thence into the ships hold.
When the ship's holds were filled gangs of men called trimmers moved onto the pile of coal and levelled it to ensure the ships' stability. Triangular shovels were used, four or five men to a hold. This was a time consuming job and a dirty and uncomfortable one, done in all weathers, in daylight or darkness (though the staiths were lit), and the trimmers were accordingly better paid than the teemers.
Ships were also supplied with bunkers (coal for the boilers) and the hatch or bunker hole for this being small, a temporary wooden 'funnel' would be built by the teemers to guide the coal into the bunker hole as it was teemed down the spout. Fresh water was also supplied to ships, this was a private business owned by a man who lived in the white house in Dunston Road near the present filling station.
The statihs were 526 metres long (1725 feet) and 20 metres (66 feet) high above high water. They handled on average 140,000 tons of coal a week in the 1920s but only 3000 a week in the 1970s. Dunston staiths closed on 4 March 1980 and the Basin staiths were dismantled in 1985, leaving the River statihs which survive today.
In 1923 West Dunston Staiths were opened by the LNER (London and North Eastern Railway) to meet the greatly increased demand for facilities at Dunston and by the following year the two Dunston Staiths handled a third of all coal and coke shipments from the Tyne. West Dunston staiths had three loading berths but with the decline of coal shipments they closed in 1934. An embankment carried the railway feeding the staiths over a bridge across the main railway line between Gateshead and Blaydon and there were numerous sidings. This land was reclaimed in the 1990s and is now a car and coach park together with a new road running parallel to the railway.
Embankment on line to
West Dunston staiths
looking west.
Sidings near staiths embankment
with Dunston Power Station.
Trackbed of West Dunston
Staiths line, looking east
with main line at right.
East Dunston Staiths handled coal from Marley Hill, Watergate, Ouston and Kibblesworth. It was solely concerned with the shipment of coal and coke from the Norwood Coke Ovens. Some of the coal was exported to countries such as Sweden and Germany and many foriegn shops loaded coal there. West Dunston Staiths received coal from the collieries in the Derwent Valley, competing with Derwenthaugh staiths. Also it handled oil and tar from Consett Coke Works and shipped coal to the Ford Motor Company at Dagenham. About one million tons of coal and coke were shipped per annum.
Staiths had existed from the 1630s and possibly earlier but these were built on a much smaller scale than those shown above. Fordyce's map of 1846 shows 43 Staiths on the Tyne and a list made in 1792 shows nearly forty thousand individuals employed and dependent on the coal trade of the river. The keelboats were used to carry coals from the staiths to the colliers (larger vessels) which then took the coal downriver and on to its destination.
The Staiths built in the early 1800s extended further into the river and coal could be dropped directly into the holds of the colliers thus cutting out the need for the keel man or middleman.
Don't think that strikes and new technology are peculiar to the present day. Although it is difficult to think of Staiths as new technology, they posed a threat to the keel men which led to the great strike of 1822.
During the 1822 strike involving riot and disorder, soldiers were billeted at public houses and Bute Hall in Dunston. A bill dated November 23rd, 1822, states that:
"Peaceable inhabitants should keep within their houses during the times the keels are passing from the Staiths, as the marines have orders to fire on the first man to throw a stone at them."
So much for the miners' strike of 1984. Dunston had seen it all before.
The Staiths, no longer in use, is now a Grade II listed building and reputedly the largest wooden structure in Europe. At the National Garden Festival held in Gateshead in 1990 it was open to tne public and it was possible to walk along the top of the staiths and view the chutes and other machinery used in loading the ships.
Staiths Gallery
Various views of Dunston Staiths from the 1960's.
Swalwell Station
Swalwell railway station
Coal was sent down a tunnel (or drift) from the mine at the top of Whicham Bank to the station at the bottom where it was transported away by train or keel boat.
Iron goods such as anchors and chains for the Navy from the Crowley Millington Works, which had their own sidings, were transported away by goods trains.
Parcel trains were stopping to be loaded and unloaded.
Over the years trade fell away and Blaydon became more important. Passenger traffic ceased in November 1953, although excursion trains including Swalwell Social Club's annual trip to the coast, continued and the station continued to accept parcels until 1955 when this facility too was withdrawn, leaving only goods traffic. As this too declined as local collieries closed the station and the whole line finally closed on 7 March 1960.
A substantial station, with living accommodation and passenger facilities was built. A Station Hotel (now known as The Poacher) was built on the other side of the road. Passengers from the surrounding districts of Whickham and Sunniside as well as Swalwell were using steam trains to take them to Newcastle, Consett, and Carlisle and even down to the coast.
1901 Railway traffic from Swalwell to Newcastle reached its peak with a totalof 98,000 passengers and fluctuated between 70,000 and 90,000 for the next twenty years.
1908 The work of enlarging Swalwell Station and putting in an extra line was completed.
By 1953 passenger trains no longer stopped at Swalwell and in 1960 the station finally closed.
Before 1920 the only other way to travel from Swalwell to Newcastle was to walk across Scotswood Bridge and catch a tram.
Mining Accidents
Nicholas Marr
In 1911 Nicholas Marr, aged 15, a pony driver at Andrew's House pit, was killed while riding on top of a set of wagons laden with coal going down Baker's Bank. His head hit Swan's Bridge and he fell onto the railway line. He normally travelled to work from his parent's home in Whitehall Road, Gateshead, by pushbike and had no authority to be riding on the trucks. The bank riders at this period were John Eltringham and Joe Harrison and they warned people not to ride on trucks but it went on just the same.
Jane Courtley
Another fatality occurred on May 7th 1909, when Mrs. Jane Courtley, aged 23, of the Teams, was killed by a coal wagon at the bottom of the bank near Watergate. She had ridden down on a set of wagons and was crushed as she got off. It was most unusual for a woman to risk life and limb in this way.
Explosion in Watergate Mine
On Thursday afternoon July 3rd 1947,an explosion of gas killed Henry Morgan, coal hewer, at the coal face in the North District, 3rd West, in the Stone Coal seam, about a mile from the shaft, 60 fathoms below ground. The under manager, Mr H.W. Storey, and some of the officials decided to go inbye at once to see if they could help, instead of waiting as was normal practise for the Fire and Rescue brigade. The outcome was that they got into difficulties and were overcome by gas.
The rescue teams from Elswick, Houghton and Crook duly arrived under superintendent F.Mills and rescued them but not before William Hopper, one of the fore-overmen collapsed and died.
Doctor Edward Smith, the colliery doctor, went below to give assistance while his brother doctor Wilkie stayed at the First Aid station on the bank. Seven men were sent to Newcastle Infirmary for treatment - deputy overmen R.Meek, G.Armstrong, R.Walters and S.G.Sinclair; Fore overman A.French, bargain man J.W.Thorpe; and H.Storey the under manager. They all recovered. Will Winter, stoneman and Bob Birkett, deputy were allowed home after treatment at the pit head.
Roof fall at Blaydon Burn Pit, December 1954
Swalwell resident, Patrick (Paddy) King, a Deputy at Blaydon Burn Pit and a Councillor for Whickham Urban District, was killed whilst trying to help another miner who had been killed by a roof fall. There was no compensation in those days but his widow did continue to get the regular coal allowance.
Mining Memories
Mr. Tommy Wharton, Whickham. Coalminer.
Tommy Wharton
Tommy went to Whickham Front Street School until he was 14 years of age then after working for a short time on a farm he obtained a job in Axwell Park colliery. He worked there until it closed in 1954 then transferred to Blackburn Fell Drift mine where he stayed for 20 years. He then went to Marley Hill colliery where he did development work until 1982. Tommy and other miners were then moved to Monkwearmouth colliery at Sunderland, where he worked 15 miles out under the North Sea. In 1984-1985 the miners went on strike to prevent the wholesale closure of the mining industry. In September 1986 Tommy retired after working for 40 years "down the pit".
George Wallace
Taken from 21 Eleanor terrace,
looking up Whickham Banktowards the pit head
and pit yard, about 1940
During the strikes in the mid 1920s, my Grandfather, who had trained as a saddler in the first world war, was employed by the pit management as clerk and company weighman. My father and uncle were on strike and worked in the cobbler's shed to make a little money. This photograph was taken from his garden.
The Miners Strike 1926
We endured hard times in the village of Whickham in the depression years especially during the miners strike in 1926 as 60% of people were connected with Whickham, Whaggs, and Watergate pits. The strike was a very testing 26 weeks.
A soup kitchen was formed and run successfully in the grounds of Whickham Social Club. Boilers, which were coal fired gave a satisfying smell throughout the village.
The produce to supply these boilers was all given by local trades-people. Coal came from the colliery, bags of spuds plus turnips from the farmers, leeks, carrots, parsnips, etc., and from the market gardeners. The butcher would supply a barrowful of bones, often with a bit of meat on them, the grocer would provide a tin of bully beef or something similar and all labour was voluntary.
Basins, bowls, jugs and cans were prominent in the queue on soup days, in fact it was more of broth. If there was still a queue when the soup was running out, in went a bucket of hot water and every person received a ladle full. On special days uncooked fish was given out.
The Soup Kitchen Committee arranged comic football matches, including ladies, and various games and parades. These events raised money to purchase equipment and utensils such as ladles, scrubbing brushes, dishcloths, tea towels etc.
When the miner's strike was about two weeks old, games, chores, pastimes and pleasures almost ceased one afternoon when word was passed around that the Pit Galloways were being brought to Bank. Lads and men who had handled these ponies in the past collected at Whickham Pit gates to welcome their favourites.
They came up in the cage two at a time in care of the horse keeper and his assistant. Stepping out of the cage into daylight each pony was soon recognised by the lads who shouted out their names. There were Tip and Darky, Doctor and Dragon, Bullar and Freddie, Saxon and Sweep and so on. Lads were invited by the horse keeper to hold a pony in the pit yard until all (approximately 25) had been brought up.
Now some of these ponies had been underground for months, some even years. They were hard working, docile and very friendly. Now in the bright sunshine after two weeks rest they took some handling, there was plenty of hoof flying, (fortunately the shoes had been removed), prancing, neighing, squealing and kicking all round quite exciting.
All assembled they left the pit yard still prancing, neighing and kicking. Each handler had his work cut out to keep control.
As the strike was in the summer months, men and lads spent most of their time, after a few home chores, playing football and cricket on Cooks Field or taking a few favourite walks around the area. Fellside, Meadows, Sandy Lane, Washingwell Woods, Back Lonnon etc. were all popular places to walk.
Political meetings were often held off Front Street opposite the Hermitage, or on the ground behind Spoor P.M. Chapel . The speaker would often stand on a soapbox. Mr W. Whitely M.P. for the Blaydon division and Mr E. Shinwell from Seaham addressed and gave speeches to large gatherings of men.
Soup Kitchen in Dunston
In 1926 during the General Strike a soup kitchen was set up to help the needy during those hard times.
Hundreds of breakfasts and dinners were served in Christ Church, Church Hall, commonly known as "The Tin Mission".
Swalwell Collieries
Axwell Pit
Swalwell was where coal was taken out of the Axwell colliery although the winding gear and pit head buildings were located at Whickham, up the hill from Swalwell. There were railway sidings here too, where coal was loaded and taken away by rail to its destination. The pit was sometimes called Hannington's Drift.
Axwell Pit
Henry Pit
Swalwell had another colliery, called the Henry Pit, and sometimes known as 'The Low' and situated at the bottom of Milers Lane and now the site of the scrapyard. It opened about 1830 and closed in August of 1940 and was operated by Garesfield Collieries.
Henry Pit miners; 2nd from left, Gilbert Gray
who won the Military Medal.
Gilbert (Gillie) Gray won the Military Medal while serving in Northern Italy.."BRAVERY IN THE FIELD OF BATTLE" Bolzano - Northern Italy ( Alps ). On his return he was presented with a clock from the people of Swalwell. He was the only person from Swalwell ever to be awarded the MM (Military Medal).
(A third pit, Bagnall's Axwell Pit, situated near the river Derwent close to where the cokeworks were, operated only from 1878 to 1887).
Whickham
Axwell Colliery
Whickham Pit Head
Axwell Colliery was located at the top of Whickham Bank with a drift at the foot of Whickham Bank in Swalwell. It was sunk in 1835 and electrified and modernised 1898 to 1906, when the head gear was placed high above the shaft in an enclosed brick building.
This mine was sunk to a depth of 70 fathoms to win coal from very deep seams, all shallow seams having been exploited many centuries earlier by a collection of bell pits. It was closed in 1954.
The enclosure of the winding gear in a building was very unusual and an unsuccessful attempt was made to preserve it as a listed building. The building was demolished 3rd of May 1975
Priestman Collieries Ltd took over the leases of Axwell Park, Bagnall's and Whickham Bank collieries in 1902 and as part of their expansionist policy sank Watergate Pit in 1926.
Streetgate
Streetgate
Priestman Collieries Ltd took over the leases of Axwell Park, Bagnall's and Whickham Bank collieries in 1902 and as part of their expansionist policy sank Watergate Pit in 1924.
Watergate Colliery
Watergate Colliery
Stephen Varty came from Billy Row, Crook, to help sink the shafts during which time he lodged at the "Bridle Path" public house. Later he brought his family to live on the Watergate estate.
The Haswell shaft (upcast) was mainly for man riding and the Garth shaft (downcast) was for bringing up coal. The shafts were 13 feet in diameter and the double decker cages were drawn up by electricity supplied by Durham County Electrical Power Distribution Company. Electric powered rope haulers brought the sets of steel tubs, each tub containing 12 cwt of coal, to the shaft bottom. Ponies were used for a while in the early years. Number One fan ventilated the seams connected to the shafts while Number Two fan was for the drift working the Brass Thill beneath Ravensworth Hill Head.
Underground at watergate colliery
The mine was placed beside the Tanfield Railway and there were two saddle tank locos for shunting wagons from the screens (built by Shields Brother of Swalwell) to the railway, one of which was kept as a spare.
Priestmans the colliery owners also bought farmland in the area. In 1917 they bought 46 acres at Whickham Grange from Cuthbert and Alice Hunter; 47 acres at High Glebe, Whickham; 192 acres at Marshall Lands, 33acres at Washingwell Wood, 5 acres at Bucks Hill plantation, the orchard at Fuger, and 58 acres at Green's farm from Lord Ravensworth in 1924; 90 acres at Washingwell Farm from A.W.Reichwald and Alfred Graden in 1924; 113 acres at Ravensworth Park Farm and 100 acres at Banesley lane from Harriet Gray in1938; and 108 acres at Old Ravensworth from William Wilson in 1938.
Watergate Colliery was vested in the National Coal Board in 1947 and it closed on August 20th 1964.
Marley Hill
Marley Hill
At the start of the Twentieth Century there was a thriving industrial community in Marley Hill, with two collieries and a coke works with chemical works.
Marley Hill Colliery
Marley Hill Colliery
Coal had been mined in the area as early as the fifteenth century. Marley Hill Pit was in production by 1760. There was a break in production from about 1814 when it was abandoned as unproductive then reopened in1840.
Marley Hill Banner
The original shafts at Marley Hill were sunk to a depth of 550 feet to win coal from the Brockwell seam. Eventually these were extended more than two miles from the shaft. After geological difficulties in the Brockwell seam, two mechanised faces were established. The 7 feet thick Hutton seam and the 5 feet Busty seam were worked by pneumatic picks. The 2 feet 3 inch Tilly seam was developed and mechanised output began in 1970. Marley Hill Colliery employed 850 men, 700 worked underground.
From the end of 1981 there had been a run down in production leading to two thirds of the men being transferred to other mines.
It finally ceased production in 1983. In March that year, almost half of the staff were either moved to other areas or made redundant. A skeleton staff (of 160) was left to salvage materials for use in other mines. Of the thirteen pit ponies, ten were sent to rest homes or "adopted" by families while the remainder continued their working life at Sacriston Colliery
The colliery was situated to the south of the main road now running through Marley Hill and was Gateshead's last working colliery.
Clockburn Drift
The drift opened in 1952 between Winlaton Mill and Marley Hill Colliery, and coal was brought out near Winlaton Mill from where it was taken by rail to nearby Derwenthaugh coke works. It closed with Marley Hill pit in 1983.
Andrew's Houses Pit
Like Marley Hill Colliery there is evidence of early mining. This was within half a mile south of Marley Hill. Coal mining on a large scale stopped in the late 1770's, but was renewed in 1839. The colliery had many owners until its closure in 1921. It was dismantled in the late 1920's but it was not until the 1980's that the shaft was finally filled in.
Marley Hill Coke Works
These were situated to the west of Marley Hill Pit. In 1848 there were 330 bee hive ovens but by 1902 only 210 were in production. In 1907 sixty Hussener by - product ovens were built. These were known as the "German Ovens". In 1929 the coke was sold as Marley Hill Wytot graded nuts and exported to Canada, USA, Argentine, Australia, China and Europe. The Coke works ceased production in 1937.
Marley Hill Chemical Company
These were opened to process the by-products of the Coke Works and were situated immediately to the north. They produced benzole, sulphate of ammonia, coal tar and creosote. They closed in 1937 with the loss of 250 jobs.
Blackburn Fell Drift
Blackburn Fell Drift, located south of Sunniside, was opened in 1937 and closed in 1979.
Blackburn Fell Drift
This drift mine on the open fell south of Sunniside had an incline of 1 in 12 and the Black Fell seam was worked 150 feet down by means of pneumatic picks. 250 men were employed and they produced 70,000 tons of coal per year. There were also many pit ponies working, some stabled underground and some on the surface. The underground workings reached almost as far as the Ravensworth Estate to the east and Beamish to the south.
Dunston Colliery
Dunston Colliery
Dunston Colliery
This colliery was located very near to the River Tyne and the Staiths. It was sunk in 1874 but closed after 12 months and remained idle for 15 years until reopened in 1890. The mine employed 400 men and boys to work the Beaumont seam at 45 fathoms and the Brockwell seam at 74 fathoms. All of the shallower seams had been exhausted in previous centuries. Dunston Pit closed finally in 1947.
In 1958 the site was taken over by Taylor-Pallister & Company (Engineering).
Dunston Miners 1920
Pit Screens at Dunston Colliery
James Fitspatrick and his brother Bob worked at Dunston Pit from 1938 to 1942, they worked on the screens sorting the stones from the coal.
They were in a big, cold building with a corrugated roof, which was broken in places so the weather - wind rain and snow - came blowing through. At night the whole place was lit by a ghostly green light.
At the top of the building was the tipler, a machine which emptied the coal tubs onto a steel belt. Their job was to take out the stones and help the two men in charge to weigh and bag the coal. The iron belt pushed the coal towards the waggons which were under the screens. The machinery screeched and the noise was deafening. The young people who worked there hated the place, they likened it to Dante's Inferno. As they became used to the noise it had a hypnotic effect and lulled them into a trance-like stupor. This would be shattered by one of the bag-men throwing a stone or lump of coal at their frozen hands.
During the time the pit was waiting on, which meant no coal was coming up the cage, they would go downstairs to the bait cabin where a big open fire was blazing. The cabin was in a dreadful state, full of old coal sacks, bits of bait and some big, sprightly mice. They put their bottles of cold tea on the hob to warm up, if they forgot to loosen the cork, the bottle burst with the heat. An old man called Cloughie looked after this cabin.
During the winter months, they would get so sleepy in the warm cabin that Jack Lowes, the keeker, a slang name for a gaffer, would bang a lump of iron on a girder to wake them up and get them back to work. If this failed, he would appeal to their patriotism, "Come on lads, don't you know there's a war on?" Feeling ashamed they would go back to work.
One the lads working on the screens at that time was a local artist and would draw pictures of horror - Dracula and Frankenstein - all over the place. Another twist to his macabre humour was to hang bits of wire with faces on them in dark places. It was a frightening experience to feel these horrid figures touching their faces as they passed them in the dark. Another lad, nicknamed Tarzan, would swing on the topmost girder and drop into a moving coal truck below. To show his flexibility, he would, on occasion, drop 20 ft and at the last moment catch another girder to break his fall.
The conditions and existence were so insufferable that all the lads longed for the day when they would be able to go down the pit proper.
Above the screens, but part of the same building, was the coal cleaning plant where the small coal or duff was cleared of stones. This was done by taking the small coal along a series of rubber conveyor belts higher and higher until it was stored and crushed in a hopper at the very top of the building. Bill, the man in charge of the plant, had a wooden leg from an accident down the pit, and he patrolled the stairs up to the hopper. One lad always called him Captain Blythe, and was often heard to say, "I see Captain Blythe is on the bridge again".
The whole machinery of the plant was driven by two big fly-wheels with a shaft running between. One day when attending the plant, James got too near the shaft, his coat coiled around it and he was swung of his feet, his head just missing the floor. He went round and round with the shaft until he coat tightened and started to slow the fly-wheels down. He shouted frantically. Scullion, a screen lad, stopped the plant and untangled his coat. He was laid out on the stinking concrete floor covered in blood, and later dumped in a coal lorry and taken home.
As the country was at war they worked a Saturday shift 2a.m. to 8a.m. some of the youngsters didn't go to bed that day. They sometimes went to the ' Imperial' or 'Albert' cinema and often would fall asleep, paying the admission price just for a good sleep.
Some miners think pits like Dunston should be kept as museums, exactly as they were, so that the children of today could find out what it was like to work down the pits in 'The Good Old Days'!
Mining
Introduction
Coal was mined in the Manor of Whickham prior to the 13th century and as early as 1356 the Bishop of Durham had five mines on lease in the Manor. Originally coal was obtained from near to the surface, pits being merely holes in the ground and the small quantities of coal extracted were largely for domestic use. In the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries coal production in the Manor of Whickham increased. Bell pits were sunk with shafts 3 metres in diameter to a depth of 10 metres at first increasing to over 100 metres. Coal was mined in all directions from the bottom of the shaft. It was possible to have an output of 90 tons per day from the most productive of these bell pits. By the beginning of the 18th century the shallow seams of coal in the area were becoming exhausted but coal continued to be mined from seams such as the Beaumont, Hutton and Busty which occurred at great depths.
Manual Workers Gallery
Norwood coke workerstaking abreak-1940's
Binmen pose fora photograph about 1939
Dunston miners 1920
Trimmers at Dunston
staiths 1940's
Dunston staiths
workers 1960's
Two young pitmen
Tannery workers
Dunston railway station
workers about 1920
Workers at Clayton and
Davies shipbreakers, Dunston
Dunston railway station
workers about 1920
Dunston Power Stationstaff in 1920's
Shield shovel factory
workers, Swalwell
Miners at Axwell Pit
Miners at Henry Pit,
Swalwell
Ridley's steel works,
Swalwell, 1908
Party Down the Pit
April 6th 1900: There was an unusual event of a social gathering down Axwell Park Colliery. The occasion was to raise funds to refurbish the Chancel of the Church of St Mary the Virgin, Whickham. Supper was partaken in the 5/4 seam.
Marley Hill - Pit Rows
Chapel Row, Coke Row, also known as Cinderburn Row, and Middle Row
-were situated nearest to Marley Hill Pit. Chapel Row was originally called Front Row until a Primitive Methodist Chapel was built on the end of it in 1853. In 1901 twenty-seven families lived there with a population of 176. It was demolished in 1936. Coke Row was demolished sometime before 1939, and Middle Row was the last to go in 1960.
Marley Hill - The Hole
Built in 1840's on the Pit Road. Some of these houses were affected by a mud-slide, which occurred when the families were at the Durham Miners' Gala, in 1901. Whether this is true or not it is said that on hearing that any family whose house was wrecked would get one of the new houses being built on Church Street, families started shovelling back inside the mud they had removed!
The Hole, or Valley as it became known, was demolished in 1920 on the recommendation of the Deputy County Medical Officer of Health. They were the first of the old pit rows to be demolished. In 1980 The Hole became a landfill site.