1. The Londonderrys Arrive
On April 3 1819 a marriage took place
in London which was to have a profound effect on the ancient
Saxon settlement of Seaham. An Ulsterman, Lord Charles
Stewart, a widower of 41 with a 14 year old son, took as his
second wife Lady Frances Anne Vane Tempest, a 19 year old
coal heiress whose pits were in the Penshaw and Rainton
districts of her native County Durham. The bride was given
away by the Duke of Wellington, a Napoleonic War comrade of
the bridegroom. She was the second largest coal exporter on
the River Wear behind Lord Lambton and had an annual income
of £60,000, a collosal sum in those days. Lord Stewart
himself was far from penniless and though he currently
ranked only as a humble baron he expected one day to inherit
a much higher title, a marquessate, from first his father
and then his childless half-brother Viscount Castlereagh,
the Foreign Secretary and Leader of the House of Commons and
Prime Minister in all but name, the man actually in charge
of the British Empire. On his marriage Lord Stewart adopted
the surname Vane and henceforth would sign himself as Vane
Londonderry. Before the marriage Lord Charles Stewart had
never visited County Durham and knew nothing whatsoever
about his young bride's business, coal. It was explained to
him that the produce from her Rainton and Penshaw collieries
had to be taken on a primitive horse-drawn wagonway to
Frances Anne's own staiths on the Wear not far from Penshaw.
There it was loaded on to very small vessels called keels
and taken downriver to be reloaded on to much larger,
ocean-going vessels, for onward shipment to London and the
Low Countries. Wages to the keelmen and other incidentals
were costing his new wife some £10,000 a year but there
seemed no way round this overhead. A few miles to the east
of Rainton Colliery lay a possible solution to the problem —
Dalden Ness, near Seaham.
Electioneering over two decades and the building of
Seaham Hall had virtually bankrupted Sir Ralph Milbanke,
owner of the sister manors of Seaham and Dalden. The final
straw came when he had to raise an additional £20,000 as a
dowry for his only child Anne Isabella on her marriage to
the poet Lord Byron at Seaham in January 1815. It was
intended that the Byrons should take over Seaham Hall and
live happily ever after while Sir Ralph and his wife moved
to his ancestral home at Halnaby in North Yorkshire. The
inheritance, via his wife, of her brother's Wentworth money
and property in April 1815 saved Sir Ralph Milbanke's
financial bacon and the ending of his daughter's marriage
the following year rendered the Seaham and Dalden estates as
surplus to requirements. What was to be done about them ?
The exposed Durham coalfield at Rainton was only four miles
away and Sir Ralph conceived the absurd idea of constructing
a port at Seaham out of the living rock of Dalden Ness to
export coal from inland pits such as Rainton and the
projected Hetton Colliery. In 1820 he even went so far as to
commission a well-known engineer, William Chapman, to draw
up a plan for 'Port Milbanke', but the amount of money
involved in such a high-risk project discouraged him. He
could not have guessed that vast mineral wealth lay far
beneath his own estates and that very soon the technology to
extract it would be available. He was too impatient even to
wait for the results of the experimental digging into the
East Durham limestone escarpment going on at that very
moment at Hetton and decided to sell Seaham and Dalden to
the highest bidder and retire to the Wentworth headquarters
in Leicestershire. His plan for a harbour at Seaham and a
railway inland now came to Lord Stewart's knowledge and he
determined to buy the estates when he heard that they were
to be sold at a public auction.
This took place on October 13 1821 and his bid of £63,000
was successful. He raised part of the money by charging it
on his half-brother's Irish property. The Milbankes then
left Seaham for their other estates in Yorkshire and
Leicestershire and made way for the new lords of the manors
of Seaham and Dalden. Lord Stewart's father, Robert Stewart,
1st. Marquess of Londonderry, died in 1821 and was succeeded
in his titles and possessions by his childless eldest son
Castlereagh who became the 2nd. Marquess of Londonderry. A
year later his mind became unhinged and he cut his own
throat at his house at Cray in Kent. His titles and
possessions passed to his half-brother Charles who thus
became the 3rd. Marquess of Londonderry, the title history
remembers him by.
2. The Concealed Durham Coalfield
The eastern half of the Durham
coalfield, upon which Seaham and all of Easington District
is situated, is concealed by many hundreds of feet of
Permian magnesian limestone. The powerful steam engines
required to drain deep mines did not exist until the 1820s.
As the third decade of the nineteenth century dawned
technological advances had been made which at last made it
possible to investigate just what lay under the rolling
limestone hills of East Durham. At Rainton, four miles west
of Seaham, coal is just below the ground. A few hundred
yards away at Hetton, at the start of the limestone
escarpment, the coal is several hundred feet below the
surface. It was there on December 19 1820 that the new
machinery was put to the test. Deep mining was an entirely
new, dangerous and expensive business, far beyond the
financial means of most coal owners, and necessitated the
creation of a large company for the purpose. Whilst digging
proceeded the famous engineer and pioneer of steam engines,
George Stephenson began construction of a railway from the
pithead at Hetton to Sunderland in March 1821. The new line,
the first in the world to be designed to use locomotives,
was some 8 miles in length and ran to the Hetton Company's
own staiths on the river Wear, where coal could be loaded
directly on to large vessels, thus missing out a number of
middlemen at Penshaw and on the river. The excellent
publicity received launched the Stephensons on to even
greater things, as the world knows. More importantly for the
history of County Durham, coal was found at the Hetton Lyons
Blossom Pit sinking, at 650 and 900 feet, in seams six and a
half feet thick! By 1832 Hetton Lyons and its two sister
pits Eppleton and Elemore were annually producing 318,000
tons of coal worth £174,000, and the combine was the largest
mine in England. Hetton Colliery and its railway proved that
650 feet of limestone, water and quicksand and a large hill
(Warden Law) blocking the way to Sunderland were not
insurmountable obstacles to the exploitation of the rich
reserves of coal and that achievement did not go unnoticed.
Before long others, such as Lord Londonderry, Lord Lambton
(1st. Earl of Durham) and Colonel Thomas Braddyll of Haswell,
would enter the arena and the tapping of the deeply
concealed Durham coalfield began in earnest.
In 1801 the total population of all County Durham was a
mere 150,000. Half of these people lived in the ancient
towns of Gateshead, Stockton, Hartlepool, Sunderland, Durham
and Darlington and the rest of the county, not just the
highground, was as empty as some parts of western Ireland
are today. In 1820 Seaham, Silksworth, Ryhope, Murton,
Hetton, South Hetton, Haswell and Shotton were tiny
communities in an East Durham landscape which had been
agricultural and unchanging for countless centuries. Over
the course of the next century however the population of
County Durham increased by more than twelve-fold to 1.88
million in 1901 as the coalfield expanded both eastward to
exploit the concealed seams and southward towards Yorkshire.
Most of the newcomers arrived from the other counties of the
Great Northern Coalfield (Cumberland and Northumberland) but
some came from established mining areas far afield. Murton
and Seaham collieries for instance received a large number
of Cornish lead and tin miners when they opened in the 1840s
and 50s. Another wave came in the 1860s. The effects of the
potato famine on the Irish, with starvation and typhoid from
1846-51, brought many of them too. Seaham Harbour certainly
took its share of these as is evidenced by the Irish Back
Street but strangely few of them reached Seaham/Seaton
Colliery, even at this lowest of low-points in Irish
affairs. Seaham Colliery and Seaham Harbour also absorbed at
least two waves of unemployed agricultural labourers from
Norfolk and Suffolk in the 1860s and 70s.
3. Seaham Harbour & the Rainton Railway
The favourable views of William
Chapman regarding the new harbour at Seaham and a railway
connection to the Rainton pits were reinforced by the
opinions of other leading engineers of the day — Rennie,
Telford and Logan, whom Stewart consulted before finally
deciding to proceed. Lack of cash caused the postponement of
the project several times. Though he was still short of
money Lord Londonderry decided in 1828 that a start must be
made to the new harbour and railway. The Rainton & Seaham
railway was initially only 5 miles long, from Seaham Harbour
to the main Londonderry pit at Rainton Meadows, but later
additions created a network of over 16 miles of railway
track. Fixed steam engines and early locomotives hauled the
coal from the numerous Rainton pits to the top of the Copt
Hill. At a site just opposite to the public house the new
line passed under the Seaham to Houghton road in a short
tunnel. The Hetton Colliery Railway at this very same point
traversed the road by means of a level crossing. Thereafter
the going to Seaham was comparatively easy and more fixed
engines took over to haul the loads across the fields of
Warden Law and Slingley, skirting to the south of Seaton
village. From Seaton Bank Top a gravity incline and then a
final fixed engine (the Londonderry Engine) brought the coal
to the top of the Mill Inn Bank, where one day Seaham
Colliery would be sited. Two habitations, the Londonderry
Engine Cottages, were erected to accomodate the men who
operated the engine and their families. These were the first
dwellings of what became Seaham Colliery Pit Village. They
stood just behind what became Walter Willson's store. The
last leg of the Rainton & Seaham railway, from there to the
new harbour, was downhill and utilized a self-acting incline
system. The 1830's saw further exploitation of the concealed
coalfield. South Hetton, Haswell, Thornley, Kelloe,
Wearmouth (Pemberton Main), Wingate and Murton collieries
were sunk. The known coalfield advanced to the edge of
Londonderry's land at Seaham and Dalton. The next decade saw
Castle Eden, Shotton, South Wingate, Trimdon, Trimdon Grange
and Seaton/Seaham collieries appear.
4. The Great Strike of 1844
In April 1844 all of the Durham and
Northumberland collieries came out on strike, including
Londonderry's. The miners' demands included a half-yearly
contract and at least 4 days work or wages every week. There
were as yet no producing pits in Seaham, just the digging by
the North Hetton Colliery Company going on at the projected
Seaton Colliery, but in the infamous 'Seaham Letter' Lord
Londonderry warned all traders there not to give credit to
the Rainton and Penshaw strikers, or else they would become
'marked' men and would henceforth be denied any business. If
the tradesmen in Seaham Harbour persisted he threatened to
remove all of his own custom to Newcastle. He even suggested
that he was prepared to ruin 'his' town if he did not get
his own way. He evicted those ringleaders at Rainton and
Penshaw who were his tenants. He also imported a number of
workers from his estates in the north of Ireland to act as
strike-breakers, and more evictions followed to make way for
them. The other owners also despatched agents all over the
kingdom to recruit replacements for the strikers and they
too carried out mass evictions. Large numbers of blacklegs
and their families were brought from Wales on the promise of
excellent wages and free housing. They were not told that
they were intended as strike-breakers. When they arrived in
the northeast of England they discovered their true function
but had no money to return home. They had no choice but to
work to raise funds. Thanks to their efforts after four
months the strike was broken.
Once again the 'Masters' were triumphant and could take
their pick of those returning to work. The lot of the
blacklegs now became a hard one. The special wages they had
received during the strike came to an abrupt end and they
were afforded no special protection from the former
strikers. At Seaton Delavel in Northumberland the Welsh
blacklegs were repeatedly thrashed by the native people and
eventually all but one was driven back to the Land of Song.
He remained in the village for 20 years, an outcast denied
communication with anyone, before at last even he got the
message and departed. The union was now extremely weak and
many collieries gave it up altogether. It was effectively
finished by 1852 and dead and buried by the following year.
Unionism would not recover its strength for another
generation. Thirty five years would pass before the next
major confrontation and in that time Seaham Colliery
appeared and became one of the most important mining
villages in the county and thus at the forefront of the
battle for miner's rights. One good thing was achieved in
this interlude. The Mines' Regulation Bill passed into law
in the Parliamentary session of 1850, despite the fierce and
completely unprincipled opposition of the 3rd. Marquess of
Londonderry, making the appointment of inspectors of mines
necessary.
5. Seaham before the Londonderrys
In her later years Lady Frances Anne
would boast to her visitors at Seaham Hall that before the
Londonderrys arrived there had been not a habitation or even
a path in what became the boom town of Seaham Harbour. This
was not strictly true. East Durham had been agricultural for
countless centuries and the few residents had to live
somewhere near to the fields they tended. In 1828 at least
two farmsteads existed in the future Seaham Harbour, Dene
House Farm (now demolished) and Dawdon Hill Farm which still
survives. The latter thus has an outstanding claim to being
the oldest continuously inhabited structure in 'Seaham
Harbour' though it may have rivals in terms of 'Greater
Seaham' for some of the other outlying farms are clearly far
older than Seaham Hall (1792). Apart from these two fixed
habitations there is evidence of transients living on the
beaches and sometimes occupying the numerous caves along the
rugged coastline. The Portsmouth Telegraph of October 14
1799 reported thus:
Woman from the Seashore — 'On
Thursday night a woman was brought to the
Lunatic Hospital near Newcastle who has lived upwards of
three years among the rocks on the sea-shore near
Seaham. From whence, or in what manner she first came
there is unknown, but she speaks in the Scottish dialect
and talks of Loch Stewart and AberGordon in a rambling
manner. She is about thirty-five years of age,
inoffensive and cheerful, and during her residence among
the rocks was fantastically dressed in the rags which
chance or the wrecks threw in her way; she always kept a
good fire of wood or coal, which the sea threw up, and
it is supposed lived upon shellfish & c. What is
remarkable, a beard has grown upon the lower part of her
chin, nearly an inch long, and bushy like the whiskers
of a man.'
The parish of Dalton-le-Dale contained
just 211 inabitants in 1821. 35 of these lived in the
'township' of Dawdon, where the future Seaham Harbour would
be located.
6. Events 1828-41
By 1831, three years after the
foundation of the town and port of Seaham Harbour, Dalton
parish contained 1,305 people, 1,022 of them in Dawdon. The
population of Seaham (Old Seaham and Seaton-with-Slingley)
in 1831 was 264, barely up from 1821. The first list of
Greater Seaham residents that I have been able to find is
contained in Pigot's Trade Directory for County Durham for
1834, six years into Seaham Harbour's history. This mentions
only the names of tradesmen wealthy enough to pay to have
their names included and even then simply descibes their
addresses as 'Seaham Harbour' but it gives us some clues as
to which buildings and structures were erected first.
Pigot's Directory mentions several public houses (The Golden
Lion, King's Arms, Londonderry Arms, Lord Seaham Inn, Lynn
Arms, Noah's Ark, The Wellington, the Wheatsheaf and the
Windmill, which later may have become the Braddyll Arms) and
so we know that at least part of North and South Railway
Streets, South Crescent, North Terrace and Adolphus Place
were constructed by 1834. Not until seven years later was a
full list made of all the residents, the census of June
1841, the first to include personal details in the returns.
In June 1841 after thirteen years of existence and a
decade fully operational the new port was already
functioning to capacity and would be greatly expanded over
the next decade. According to the census Seaham Harbour
already had a Harbour Master, Coast Guards, Customs
Officers, Pilots, Seamen, Ropemakers, Ship Builders, Ship
Chandlers, Sailmakers, Bellmen and Keelmen. The census also
mentioned all of those trades necessary for the construction
of a new town - Joiners, Carpenters, Builders, Labourers,
Blacksmiths, Stonemasons and Painters. Pit Sinkers, Coal
Trimmers and Brakesmen were also mentioned. Trimmers worked
at the docks but the nearest pit being sunk was Murton
(which finally came on stream in 1843). Seaton-Seaham
Colliery was still in the future and the nearest producing
pits were South Hetton, Haswell and Eppleton. The Pit
Sinkers must have commuted to work, possibly by getting
rides on the wagons on the Braddyll Railway. There were also
Engineers, Enginemen, Enginewrights, Wagonmen and
Wagonwrights resident in Seaham Harbour to operate the two
vital mineral lines.
Also mentioned in the 1841 census were cotton weavers,
tinners and brazers, dressmakers, tailors, drapers,
shoemakers, potters, hairdressers, paper makers, straw hat
makers and bookbinders. Seaham Harbour in 1841 also had
clerks, agents, lawyers and schoolteachers. These middle
classes were employers of housekeepers, a governess in one
case, servants and gardeners. Supplying entertainment to the
community we find brewers, coopers (barrel makers) and
publicans. Only a few of the pubs were named in the census -
many smaller establishments ('beer shops', often simply
somebody's front room) were not. Provisions were supplied by
butchers, grocers, breadbakers, shopkeepers, pedlars and
druggists. Producing the food for the growing town were the
farmers, agricultural/farm labourers, husbandmen, millers
and millwrights in the surrounding fields. Transport in
this, the twilight of the Age of the Horse, was provided by
carriers, cartwrights, waggon drivers and coach drivers.
Seaham Harbour also had a postman (The Penny Post was
introduced the year before the census).
It is said that the first two things that any new
settlement needs are a cemetery and a prison. The new church
of St. John's (completed 1840) provided the former and the
'Kitty' in Back North Railway Street supplied the latter.
Two unknown males were resident in the lock-up on the night
of the census. Keeping law and order were two policemen and
a prison officer. Reinforcements could be sent for from
Sunderland or Durham and there was a large garrison of
troops permanently based in Sunderland to deal with any
situation in the coalfield. Like all ports Seaham Harbour
would have been a den of vice, drinking, gambling and
prostitution. The pimps and ladies of the night would have
disguised their presence in the census by declaring to the
enumerator that their profession was something very
different, a dressmaker perhaps, or a labourer. Until the
coming of gas lighting in the next decade Seaham Harbour may
well have been a very dark, threatening and frightening
place when the sun went down. Some people would say it still
is.
The 3rd. Marquess of Londonderry originally envisaged a
magnificent town designed by the famous Newcastle architect
Dobson to back the port of Seaham, but shortage of cash
prevented this and in fact compelled him to lease land to
anyone. Only on the North Terrace and at Bath Terrace were
better quality houses built. Much of the rest was ramshackle
and degenerated into slums well before the end of the
century. What emerged by the time of the 1841 census was a
grid-pattern development on both sides (but primarily the
north) of the unfenced Rainton and Seaham Railway. We know
that the Londonderry Arms was the first building to begin
construction and that the Golden Lion was probably the first
to be completed.
South of the Rainton line there was very little
development of housing by 1841. South Crescent, South
Railway Street, Back South Railway Street and Pilot Terrace
were complete and a recent start had been made on Adolphus
Street, Frances Street, South Crescent and Church Street.
Beyond those embryonic avenues the fields began which led to
Dawdon Field House farm. Before very long though those same
fields would be earmarked for further industrial
development. A pottery already existed but this would vanish
before the enumerator visited again. Examples of its produce
can be seen at Sunderland Library.
North of the mineral railway line was the real town - a
hollow rectangle whose sides were North Terrace, (what would
become) Tempest Road, Henry Street and North Railway Street.
Inside the 'Rectangle' was still virtually empty but a start
had been made on John Street. Outside the rectangle was
still countryside broken up by the occasional new structures
like the Baths, the Garden House (later called Adam & Eve's
Gardens), Wood Cottages on Terrace Green and New Lodge and
by that solitary old building, Dene House Farm. Already the
farmer was hemmed in by the Rainton line and a bridge had to
be thrown across the waggonway to allow him access to his
fields to the south. The day would come when he would have
to wend his way through acres of humanity to reach his
diminishing workplace. In the census of 1841 the population
of Dalton-le-Dale parish was 2,709 (which included Dalton
village, East Murton, Cold Hesledon and the new Seaham
Harbour, regarded as part of Dawdon township).
7. Events 1841-65
On August 23 1843 the township of
Dawdon was severed from the parish of Dalton-le-Dale, and
made into a separate chapelry, and in 1845 was created into
a separate incumbency, whose patronage was vested in the
3rd. Marquess of Londonderry. That old tyrant appointed a
like-minded Scot, the Reverend Angus Bethune of South
Shields, as the first Vicar. He became personal chaplain to
Lady Frances Anne and baptised three generations of the
Londonderry family (in London not Seaham). Bethune, who
lived into his nineties and who has a street at Deneside
named after him, also became the town's chief magistrate. He
could always be relied upon by the Londonderrys to rule in
their favour and he played an important and sinister role in
the suppression of the disorder which followed the Seaham
Colliery Disaster of September 1880. He is buried at St.
Mary the Virgin.
In the 1851 census therefore the figures for Seaham
Harbour were separated from Dalton-le-Dale. By then the
population of the infant town had reached 4,042 (including
the absent mariners), double the size of a decade earlier.
Dalton-le-Dale's population actually fell slightly in that
period. Seaton-with-Slingley increased by 25 people. The
population of 'Seaham' itself (formerly just Old Seaham and
outlying farms) radically increased for it encompassed the
new Seaham and Seaton collieries. At the time of the 1851
census neither pit was yet producing and the population of
Seaton/Seaham collieries was still quite small. By 1865
nearly 1000 colliers would live and work there. The sinking
of Seaton Colliery (the High Pit, owned by the North Hetton
& Grange Colliery Company) began in 1844 but coal was not
drawn until 1852. Seaham Colliery (the Low Pit, owned by
Lord Londonderry) began sinking in 1849 and production
started after Seaton but the precise date is unknown. Seaham
Harbour accomodated the overspill from the new concerns.
In 1843 Lord Londonderry's eldest daughter Fanny was
married to the Marquess of Blandford, eldest son and heir of
the Duke of Marlborough. The union was celebrated in Seaham
Harbour by the naming of the new Blandford Place and later
of Marlborough Street. The south docks at Seaham Harbour
were finally completed in 1845. Between them Lord (the
driving force) and Lady (the money) Londonderry had created
a port and town where none had existed twenty years before.
In the decade 1841-51 most of the existing streets expanded
in size to absorb the waves of immigrants coming from all
directions. New streets were built - Bath Terrace, Blandford
Place and Adelaide Row.
Within the 'Rectangle' of North Terrace – (what would
become) Tempest Road – Henry Street – North Railway Street
there was further development. John Street trebled in size
and William Street appeared. North of the Rainton railway
was still the most important residential and business sector
of the growing town. A Gasworks was constructed in the dene
and the town was at last illuminated at night. South of the
Rainton line there had been few changes. Blandford Place and
Adelaide Row were erected, South Terrace expanded from 1 to
9 households and Church Street, destined for greater things,
now had 45 families but the development was mostly on the
north side of the street and even that had a large gap in
the middle of it. It was still possible to see Kin(g)ley
Hill from Back South Railway Street. Frances Street went up
from 1 to 12 households but Adolphus Street barely grew at
all.
In about 1855 Greater Seaham was surveyed in preparation
for the first national Ordnance Survey. The resultant map
was printed in 1857. The original can be examined at the
Durham Record Office at County Hall. Surveyed at the time it
was, half-way between the censuses of 1851 and 1861, the map
gives us priceless clues about the development of our town
of Seaham Harbour. Several places are shown (e.g. some of
the streets inside of the 'Rectangle' which were not
mentioned in the 1851 census and we can thus deduce that
they were built between 1851 and 1855. Likewise several
places (e.g. Seaham Cottages, Marlborough Street) are
mentioned in the 1861 census but are not on the map -
therefore we know that they were built between 1855 and
1861. We have one other priceless clue about these early
days in the history of our town in the form of the
remarkable and exquisite wooden model of Seaham Harbour made
in c. 1861 which hangs at the back of Seaham Library and was
apparently made by an employee of Lady Frances Anne, a Mr.
Cummins, for show at the Paris Exhibition. It is not known
whether or not it reached the show. For years it gathered
dust in the attic of the Londonderry Offices and was
discovered only in the 1960s when the Londonderry family
finally abandoned the building to the Police. It was
restored and now hangs proudly in the intellectual centre of
the town.
The decade 1851-61 saw another great expansion of the
population of Greater Seaham, from five to nine thousand
people. The main reason for this next phase of development
was the stimulus of the new Seaton and Seaham Collieries but
additional demand for housing was created by the new
Londonderry Wagonworks and two new bottleworks. The
immigrants came from all directions but especially from the
Emerald Isle.
Seaton Colliery began production in 1852. Seaham Colliery
began producing later but the exact date is not known. By
the end of the decade nearly a thousand colliers and their
families were employed at the two pits. Seaham/Seaton
Colliery pit village was erected to accomodate them but the
building could not keep pace with demand. Seaham Harbour,
Seaton and Dalton-le-Dale tried to absorb the overflow but
those tiny communities could not cope with the influx of
newcomers. Four rows of houses were built at Dawdon which
were initially called Seaham New Cottages but which
eventually became known as Swinebank Cottages. It is not
known if these 83 dwellings were owned by Seaton Colliery or
Seaham Colliery or both. In the census of 1861 several more
new structures were described as 'New Cottages' - these
would eventually become Ropery Walk, Candlish Street,
Gallery Row and Fenwick's Row. The future Ropery Walk was
inhabited by the workers of the Londonderry Wagonworks. The
future Candlish Street, Gallery Row and Fenwick's Row were
occupied by the employees of the two bottleworks which
opened in Seaham in about 1853. Before the decade was out
Fenwick's was bought out by Candlish and the two bottleworks
became one. Fenwick himself was remembered in the name of
the street.
Despite the erection of 'New Cottages' the demand for
more and more housing was far from exhausted. Several new
streets or habitations were constucted in Seaham Harbour -
Sebastopol Terrace (for the well-heeled), Green Street, Back
Adelaide Row, Back Church Street. Inside the 'Rectangle' the
available space was filled up - North John Street, Back John
Street, Back William Street, Back Henry Street and Back
Tempest Place all appeared. The gap between the 'Rectangle'
and Dene House Farm also began to fill up — Vane Terrace was
built. A start was also made in filling the space between
Blandford Place and the new railway station — work began on
Marlborough Street. It contained 45 families in the 1861
census but would soon have far more.
The Dowager Marchioness built her imposing Londonderry
Offices in 1857 next to Terrace Green. This impressive
structure still stands and is currently Seaham's Police
Station. Its predecessor as Police HQ was erected on the
corner of Tempest Road and Vane Terrace at about the same
time as the Londonderry Offices. It served the town and the
force for over a century. In the same era Rock House was
built just across the road. The decade 1851-61 also saw the
appearance of several ramshackle structures which would soon
degenerate into slums and which contributed greatly to the
very high death-rate in Seaham Harbour — the worst in the
county by 1900. Amongst these were Pattison's, Hunter's,
Nicholson's and Todd's Buildings. By 1850 the docks at
Seaham Harbour were seriously overloaded by coal from a
dozen inland pits and something had to be done to ease the
pressure before Seaton and Seaham came on stream. The
solution was to create a railway from Seaham Harbour to the
much larger port facilities at Sunderland. On a bitterly
cold day, February 8 1853, the 3rd. Marquess, now aged 75,
dug the first turf of the Londonderry Seaham and Sunderland
Railway. He was fated not to see the completion of this
project. Passenger traffic began on the line on July 1 1855
with stations at Seaham Harbour, Seaham Colliery, Seaham
Hall (for the private use of the Londonderrys and their
guests), Ryhope East and Hendon Burn. The new line was
connected to the Rainton and Braddyll railways. Seaham
Harbour Station was a short walk from the edge of town at
Blandford Place. By 1861 the space in between was developed
as the 'Marlborough' area and the edge of town advanced to
the new railway line.
Already in poor health the 3rd. Marquess caught influenza
at the end of February 1854 and this developed into
pneumonia. He died at his London mansion, Holdernesse House,
on March 6. He was succeeded in all of the titles he had
inherited from his father and brother by his eldest son
(from his first marriage) Frederick Stewart who thus became
the 4th. Marquess of Londonderry. All of the titles the 3rd.
Marquess had gained since 1821 however passed to his eldest
son from his second marriage, Henry Stewart (Lord Seaham),
who thus became Earl Vane. Henry simultaneously became heir
to his half-brother Frederick who was childless and looked
like remaining so and also to his mother Frances Anne. On
her husband's death she regained all of her possessions
including the Durham pits, Wynyard and Seaham Hall. For 35
years the Marchioness had deferred to her husband and
contented herself with the roles of mother, wife and society
hostess but now she grasped the opportunity to come out of
his shadow. From then on Seaham Hall was her headquarters
and the collieries and the harbour her business. She
developed the habit of spending the summer and early autumn
at Garron Tower in Ulster, Christmas at Wynyard and the rest
of the year at Seaham Hall, with the exception of a short
visit to London for 'the season'. In December 1859 she laid
the foundation for another new enterprise, the Seaham
Harbour Blast Furnace, in Dawdon Field Dene, next door to
the ancient farmhouse.
The last major famine in peacetime in Western Europe
occurred in Ireland at the end of the 1840s. Blight
destroyed the staple crop of potatoes in several successive
years and the population, never prosperous, was reduced to
starvation. Millions emigrated to Australia and North
America to escape the horror that engulfed those left
behind. Many could afford only to reach England and Scotland
and those two countries found themselves overwhelmed by the
sheer numbers of illiterate, penniless and starving Irish
who turned up in every town and village looking for work.
Far from being sympathetic the British public were openly
hostile to the newcomers who were prepared to work for far
smaller wages than the average Briton and were thus
perceived as a threat. Seaham took more than its fair share
of the Irish and you will find hundreds of them in the
census of 1861, especially in the 'Irish Back Street ' (Back
South Railway Street). Many Seaham people (the author
included) descend from this Catholic Irish influx in the
1850s — it is the explanation for the high proportion of
Catholics in the town compared to the rest of England.
Immigration to our 'boom' town was not limited to the
Irish in the decade 1851-61. The first of several waves of
refugees from the dying lead and tin mining industries of
Devon and Cornwall began arriving in the 1850s. A street was
named after them at Seaham Colliery and an entire district
of Murton but you will also find lots of Cornishmen and
Devonians in Seaham Harbour in the 1861 census. A swarm of
unemployed agricultural labourers also came from Norfolk —
lured north by the prospect of higher wages and more
consistent work by the agents of Lord Londonderry and
others.
In 1859 the Government, alarmed by the apparent
belligerency of France under Napoleon III, formed the
Volunteer movement and invited towns and cities, especially
those on the south and east coasts, to look to their own
defence. The Marchioness responded by creating the Seaham
Volunteer Artillery Brigade in 1860. In 1862 she built
Seaham's first Drill Hall on Castlereagh Bridge. Seaham
Harbour and Seaham Colliery men flocked to the colours.
Drill Halls were also constructed by Frances Anne or her
heir at Silksworth, Rainton, Durham and Seaham Colliery.
Eventually 12 batteries (over 1,000 men) were created, out
of a total County strength of 16 batteries. An indication of
how seriously the Londonderry family took their private army
can be found throughout the 1861 and later censuses — the
number of professional soldiers they were prepared to employ
and house in order to keep 'their' Volunteers in tip-top
condition. All Londonderry agents were expected, indeed
required, to train as officers. The 6th. Marquess, grandson
of Frances Anne, built a huge new Drill Hall in 1888 and
donated the Drill Field, now the site of Princess Road
school playing field. He used to delight in leading the
annual inspection and parade from the Drill Hall to the
Drill Field in full ceremonial dress. One of the Volunteer
uniforms is retained at Durham Records Office at County
Hall. In 1908 the Volunteers were absorbed into the
Territorial Army. There is a still a pub in Seaham called
The Volunteers, last remnant of Frances Street.
In 1863 a Local Board of Health was created to conduct
Greater Seaham's affairs. It was led from 1873-94 by J. B.
Eminson, chief financial agent for the Londonderrys in
Seaham from 1869-96. The Board became Seaham Harbour Urban
District Council by the Local Government Act of 1894.
Eminson also led the new body from 1895-96. During his 27
years service he filled the leading position in the town. He
was also Chairman of Seaham Magistrates and a member of the
Easington Guardians (Work House). Despite the semblance of a
kind of democracy after 1863 Seaham was still a family
fiefdom.
When an Act of Parliament prohibited the working of
coal-mines without two outlets from each seam Lady Frances
Anne decided that the simplest way to comply with this
legislation in the case of Seaham Colliery was to buy Seaton
Colliery from the North Hetton and Grange Colliery Company
and amalgamate it with Seaham. This was done in November
1864, and was virtually the last business deal she
completed. The health of the Dowager Marchioness declined
rapidly after 1862. The news of the death of her second and
favourite son Adolphus in June 1864 broke her heart. Within
weeks she suffered a major heart attack at Garron Tower in
Ulster and returned to Seaham in September seriously ill. By
Christmas she seemed to have recovered but this was to prove
an illusion. In the New Year she had a relapse and died at
the Hall on January 20 1865, three days after her 65th.
birthday. She was buried with her husband and her Vane
ancestors at Long Newton in the south of County Durham. Her
remains were escorted there from Seaham, the town she had
founded, by the Volunteers she had created. Her possessions,
apart from Garron Tower in Ulster, passed to her eldest son
Henry, Earl Vane. The Founders of Seaham Harbour and Seaham
Colliery had certainly been characters. Their immediate and
much less colourful descendants took little interest in
their homes and businesses in the Northeast of England.
Their visits were rare and usually confined to shooting
parties at Wynyard, their mansion near Stockton. By and
large they were content to leave everything in the hands of
agents, hard men who were paid by results. Nineteen years
would pass before the next generation of the Londonderry
family were again regular visitors to the town their
ancestors had created. For months and years at a time Seaham
Hall remained empty, maintained by a skeleton staff. With
the death of Frederick Stewart, 4th. Marquess of
Londonderry, in a nursing home at Hastings on November 25
1872, the connection between the marquessate and Seaham was
restored. His titles and possessions passed to his
half-brother Henry, Earl Vane, who became the 5th Marquess
of Londonderry at the age of 51.
8. Events 1865-81
Seaham's most famous resident, Lady
Frances Anne, died on January 20 1865. She missed the
arrival of Seaham's most infamous resident by only a matter
of days. Five days before her death, on January 15, a
38-year-old stoker called William Mowbray died of typhus and
diarrhoea at his humble home in Henry Street East at Hendon
in Sunderland, leaving a widow and two small daughters. The
widow, Mary Ann Mowbray, soon received £35 from the British
Prudential Assurance Company and promptly moved to Bolton's
Buildings (19 North Terrace) on Seaham's seafront. Her room
may have been on the ground floor looking out to sea though
the current owner says that it was in a cottage at the back
of the house. Before long Mary Ann began an affair with a
married man, Joseph Nattress, but her two little girls were
in the way of a serious relationship. When the younger girl
died of 'typhus' in April 1865 Mary Ann farmed out the
remaining child to her mother who lived at Seaham Colliery.
Unfortunately Nattress's wife then found out and insisted
that her husband move away from Seaham. Mary Ann had to
accept the fait accomplis and she moved back to Sunderland
before the summer was out. Her stay in our town was brief (a
maximum of six months in a 40 year life) and the bulk of her
career was spent elsewhere in the Northeast. She is known in
history as Mary Ann Cotton (her fourth, bigamous, husband
was Frederick Cotton) who is suspected of being Great
Britain's most prolific murderer. Most authorities credit
her with 14 or 15 victims but she may have been responsible
for as many as 21, a figure which includes her own mother.
Mary Ann returned to Seaham (Colliery) very briefly in March
1867 to nurse her mother who was already dying of hepatitis.
She may have speeded her unfortunate parent on the way but
this is unlikely for it would not have benefited her in any
way - quite the reverse in fact for her mother's demise
meant that Mary Ann had to take back her remaining daughter.
By the time of the 1871 census the population of Dawdon
township (which included Seaham Harbour) had reached 7,132.
The population of Seaham (which included Old Seaham,
outlying farms and the new Seaton/Seaham colliery village)
was 2,802. Dalton-le-Dale still had only 128 residents.
Seaton-with-Slingley had just 228.
There was little further development in Seaham Harbour in
the decade 1861-71. A start was made on Emily Street,
Caroline Street and Cornelia Terrace. The 'Marlborough' area
was now beginning to take shape. In the 'Rectangle' space
was somehow found for Little John Street. Sea View Villas
and the North Battery appeared on the seafront. The
Blastfurnaces closed in 1865 but were soon replaced by the
Chemical Works. Watson Town was erected for the employees of
the new concern. The Vicar of St. John's got a magnificent
new house and the Roman Catholic priest got a parsonage next
to the Police Station and the new RC church and school.
The decade from 1871 to 1881 was one of almost continuous
disaster for the ordinary people of Greater Seaham. It seems
that no sooner was one tragedy over than another began. The
Seaham Colliery explosion of Wednesday October 25 1871
occurred at 11.30 pm, otherwise the death-toll of 26 would
have been much higher — by now the pit was employing 1100
men and boys. The shock was felt at Seaham Harbour. John
Clark, aged 9, sitting on the surface in a cabin near the
pit shaft, was blown 10 yards by the explosion. The force of
the blast was such that many ponies were killed in their
underground stables 1.5 miles away from the epicentre. Two
men named Hutchinson, father and son, working as 'marrows' (marras),
fired the shot which triggered the blast. The father, Thomas
senior, survived the explosion but was badly injured. For
days he hovered between life and death (in his house) and
medical opinion concluded that he could not survive. But
survive he did - for he was destined to be killed in the
1880 explosion. Thomas Hutchinson junior left a pregnant
widow and two children.
Manager Dakers and Head Viewer Vincent Corbett went down
the pit to assess the situation and made a decision which to
some seemed harsh and to others seemed like murder. The 'stoppings'
were rushed up to starve the fire of oxygen and save the
mine irrespective of the men thereby entombed. The explosion
occurred on Wednesday - by Sunday the furnace was re-lighted
at the shaft bottom for ventilation. The men were somehow
persuaded to return to work while the bodies of their
colleagues lay entombed for several weeks in nearby
workings. Religious decency then laid much greater emphasis
on proper burial of a body in consecrated ground. Four of
the bodies were brought out immediately after the explosion
but the remaining 22 were not recovered until December 20.
The appeal fund produced just over £2,000. The inquest was
held at the New Seaham Inn (now called the Kestrel). Verdict
— accidental death. Just as the village began to recover
from the tragedy it was struck another mortal blow with an
outbreak of smallpox.
A terrible storm occurred on December 17 1872. Newspapers
of the time reported that six Seaham-based ships were lost
with all hands but unfortunately they gave no names. It may
be that dozens of Seaham men went to a watery grave but
there is no record of who they were. The sea had not
finished yet. On Tuesday June 26 1873 a dreadful boat
accident took the lives of five men within hailing distance
of the end of the pier.
Having finished work and wishing for an adventure on that
long summer evening of long ago seven bottlemakers (John
Jefferson, Ralph Hush, James Coyle, Robert Miller, Joseph
Hall, Benjamin Turns and Andrew Davison) engaged a coble and
placed themselves under the charge of Morley Scott junior,
an experienced junior pilot. The boat was brand new, the
skipper an accomplished seaman, the seven passengers were
mature and sober men and the weather was very calm so there
should have been little possibility of a mishap. Morley
Scott rowed the coble out of the harbour and then raised the
mast to catch what little breeze there was.
When they were about three hundred yards out from the
(old) north pier an event occurred which was to precipitate
a tragedy — Morley Scott's brace button snapped and he was
in danger of his trousers falling down ! Being equipped with
a needle and thread and a reserve button he handed charge of
the sail to James Coyle, who he believed was an experienced
sailor, whilst he effected an instant repair. A slight wind
then hit the sail, Coyle lost his grip and the sail fell
into the water. The situation was still not a dangerous one
and Morley Scott, seeing the slight problem, forgot his
trousers and moved towards the side of the boat to pull the
mast back upright again. Unfortunately the other men in the
boat, being inexperienced, all moved instinctively to help
him, the boat overbalanced and tipped over throwing all
eight into the water. Benjamin Turns, Andrew Davison and
Morley Scott survived and were able to walk home unassisted.
The other five drowned. Today there may be thousands of
descendants of the eight men in Seaham and elsewhere, most
of them probably oblivious of the events of that tragic day
long ago.
There were ugly scenes and near-tragedies at both Seaham
Harbour and Seaham Colliery when the Parliamentary Election
came round in February 1874 — directed against Tories in
general who were rightly blamed for the fact that none of
the Seaham miners and other workers had the vote. The Riot
Act was read at Seaham Harbour and extra police were brought
in and some soldiers from the barracks at Sunderland. The
crowd was dispersed at Seaham Harbour but a section of it
then headed for the Mill Inn for unknown reasons. The pub
was attacked and the landlord, John Barret Wells, was put
under siege for over two hours. He fired several shots from
his revolver but in the end was only saved from a beating or
worse by the arrival of more police. Quite why he was picked
on is far from clear at this distance in time. It may be
that Wells had made the same mistake as those traders in
Seaham Harbour who had their places of business wrecked - he
might have placed a Vote Conservative poster in his pub
window. Nationally the Conservatives had a comfortable
victory in the election but in County Durham they lost to
Liberals in all 13 seats. Because of the unrest in Seaham
and elsewhere the Conservatives demanded and received a
second election in the Northern Division of County Durham of
which Seaham was a part. This duly took place and the Tories
recaptured one of the two seats for the division.
In the baking hot August of 1880 the Seaham Volunteer
Artillery Brigade distinguished itself in the big gun
shooting of the National Artillery Competition at
Shoeburyness, picking up a beautiful trophy and over £200 in
prize money, a very handsome sum in those days. The team
members were welcomed back to Seaham as heroes and their
crackshot Corporal Hindson was carried shoulder-high through
the town. The next big event in the town's social calendar
was Seaham's Annual Flower Show, to be held in the grounds
of Seaham Hall from Thursday September 9 to Sunday the 11th.
The 5th. Marquess himself, a rather shy and unassuming man,
was to make one of his rare visits in order to present the
prizes. Indeed he was to honour the town his parents had
founded with his presence for an entire week. As it turned
out he was to stay for a good deal longer than he
anticipated. Many of the miners at Seaham Colliery had
entries in the show and some of these men swapped shifts
with those disinterested in horticultural affairs in order
that they might attend. It was to prove a fateful decision
for those who should have been working on the
Tuesday/Wednesday night and for those who ended up working
when ordinarily they would have been at home sound asleep.
At Seaham Colliery there were three shifts per day for
hewers (everyone else worked much longer hours) of 7 hours
each, covering the period from 4 a.m. to 11.30 p.m. The
shifts were: 1) Fore Shift, from 4 a.m. to 11.30 am; 2) Back
Shift, 10a.m. to 5.30 p.m.; 3) Night Shift, 4p.m. to 11.30
p.m. Each shift involved some 500 men and boys and at the
overlap of the shifts there could be over 1,000 men in the
pit. From 10p.m. to 6.a.m., when the colliery was
comparatively quiet, was the maintenance shift, which
employed far fewer workers. Fortuitously the 1880 explosion
took place at 2.20 a.m. during one such maintenance shift,
100 minutes before the start of the Fore shift, which is why
only 231 men and boys were below ground. The tragedy, the
second worst in the long mining history of County Durham and
the third worst in the history of the Great Northern
Coalfield, could have been much much worse, dwarfing the
great disasters at Hartley and West Stanley.
On the fateful evening of Tuesday September 7 1880 Joseph
Birkbeck (or Birbeck), choirmaster and organist at Christ
Church, slept through his 'knocker' at his home at 19 Post
Office Street and thereby missed his shift and of course
forfeited his pay. The decision, conscious or otherwise, was
to save his life and enable him to live until his nineties.
His father and namesake (17 Mount Pleasant) was not so
fortunate. Corporal Hindson (22 John Street, Seaham
Harbour), the crackshot, had a premonition of his own death.
Three times he started out for work on that dreadful night
and twice he returned home. The third time he did not
return. One man's good luck story stands head and shoulders
above the rest. John Hutchinson (15 Post Office Street) went
to work even though he was poorly because he knew the
financial result of any failure to attend. His condition
deteriorated however and he felt obliged to return home
before the end of his shift. He abandoned his place of work
in the Maudlin seam minutes before the explosion, leaving
his marrow Pat Carroll (Cooke Street) alone, but had to sit
down for a rest on his way back to the pit shaft. He
actually fell asleep and was roughly awoken by the prodding
of a stick by the overman Walter Murray, on the look out for
shirkers probably, who told him to go home if he was unwell.
At the shaft bottom Hutchinson talked for a while with
Laverick the onsetter whilst waiting for the cage to
descend. He had barely stepped from the cage at the surface
when the pit blew. The ground shook, waking up people in the
neighbourhood. The sound of the explosion was heard on ships
in Seaham Harbour and as far away as Murton Colliery and the
outskirts of Sunderland. Some men saw a great cloud of dust
blown skywards out of the shafts. The Marquess heard the
noise at Seaham Hall and was among the first on the scene.
The explosion of Wednesday September 8 1880 took place at
2.20 a.m. in the Hutton and Maudlin seams, the middle of the
three levels at the pit. The highest level was the Main Coal
Seam, the lowest was the Harvey. Both shafts were blocked
with debris and it was twelve hours before a descent could
be made. Even then the rescuers had to use the emergency
kibble (an iron bucket) for the cages were of course out of
action. The cage remained out of action at the Low Pit for
nine days. In the pit the engine house and stables had
caught fire and many of the ponies were found to have
suffocated. The hooves of some of them (complete with shoes)
were preserved as souvenirs, polished, inscribed and adapted
to various uses, such as stands for ink-wells, snuff-boxes
and pin-cushions. Fifty four ponies and a cat survived.
Further on the rescuers found debris and mutilated human
corpses. Body after body was then located in the dark
tunnels. Nineteen survivors from the Main Coal seam were
brought up the Low Pit shaft which was not blocked at the
level of that seam. The main rescue work was done from the
High Pit shaft where it was also possible to use a kibble.
48 more survivors were brought out this way. Of the 231
workers only 68 had thus been rescued by midnight of the
first day, leaving 164 unaccounted for. None of these
survived. 169 men had been working in the affected seam -
only 5 of these survived and were rescued.
The roads into Seaham were completely blocked by people
in the next few days. Most of these were simply morbid
sight-seers who obstructed the way for the rescue teams
despatched from other collieries near and far. Special
trains from Sunderland to Seaham for the Flower Show (now
cancelled) were instead packed with these 'spectators'. The
families of those dead or missing were unable to get
anywhere near the colliery. The crowd round the pit reached
an estimated 14,000 on the Wednesday night (the day of the
explosion). By Sunday there were an estimated 40,000 people
in the vicinity to see the first mass funerals. After that
the interest wore off and the mob gradually drifted away to
other entertainment. The bereaved were left alone waiting
for news, any news, of their loved ones. For a fuller report
on the Seaham Colliery Disaster and its aftermath see the
chapter/essay on Seaham Colliery (New Seaham).
In February 1881 a special 'court' was held at Seaham
Harbour Police Station to deal with charges in connection
with the strike and disturbances at Seaham Colliery. The
Reverend Angus Bethune was the presiding magistrate. The
other magistrates were Colonel Allison and Captain Ord.
Colonel White, Chief Constable of the County, also occupied
a seat on the bench. Bethune made all the decisions, primed
no doubt by his 'associates'. I leave it to my readers to
decide whether or not this was a kangaroo court. Watching
the entire proceedings (and taking copious notes for future
reference no doubt) were the new manager of Seaham Colliery,
Barret, and his boss the Head Viewer of all the Londonderry
coal concerns Vincent Corbett. Over 50 men were summonsed.
Five men were charged with assaulting an alleged blackleg
William Scott of 41 California Street. For this offence one
Simeon Vickers (8 Cornish Street, Seaham Colliery) got two
months hard labour, the others (Thomas Morgan, William
Aspden, Robert Dunn and Thomas Lannigan) got 1 month hard
labour. Vickers was further convicted of an additional three
assaults on the alleged blacklegs William Shipley, William
Harrald (sic) and an individual called Roxby. He got another
three months hard labour for these incidents. Jonathan Wylde
was given 14 days hard labour for assault. A great mob of
supporters outside the closed court were held back by
police. The constabulary were also needed in force to enable
the convicted to be escorted to Durham Gaol the following
day.
Of the 164 men and boys killed in the 1880 disaster 32
were not resident at Seaham Colliery Pit Village. 28 of
these lived at Seaham Harbour. Two (the brothers John and
David Knox) lived at Seaton Village. One (John Watson) lived
at Murton. One (Robert Wharton) lived at Sunderland. The
badly-faded gravestones of at least two of the victims of
the Seaham Colliery disaster can be found leaning against
the walls of the disused St. John's graveyard in Seaham
Harbour. The heroic George Dixon's stone leans against the
west wall and Walter Murray's leans against the south wall.
Rest in Peace. Surely there is space inside St. Johns to
give sanctuary to these two reminders of a grim but glorious
past before time, the elements and vandals completely
destroy them?
The population of Greater Seaham (including Seaham
Colliery Pit Village) in 1871 was 10,370. It rose slightly
to 11,017 by 1881. Consequently there was very little new
development in Seaham Harbour in that decade. Only one new
street (Sophia) was constructed. Summerson's Buildings
appeared though it may have been there earlier under a
different name. Author Tony Whitehead's maternal grandmother
Elizabeth Robinson (nee Kelly) was born there in 1897.
Cornelia Street and Emily Street were finished off and only
the tiny George Street and York Place were yet to appear to
complete the 'Marlborough' area.
9. Events 1881-1998
The 5th Marquess of Londonderry died
in 1884 and was succeeded in his possessions and titles by
his eldest son Charles who thus became the 6th. Marquess of
Londonderry and 3rd. Viscount Seaham. On July 27 1886 he
became Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (Viceroy) for an agreed
three year term of office and he and his family moved into
residences at Dublin Castle and Phoenix Park. He was the
first member of an Irish family to hold the position. In
truth he was chosen because he was the only candidate who
could afford the office, which carried a small wage and a
large expenditure for hospitality. In 1888 he was awarded
the Garter for his services in that troubled island. His
term ended on August 30 1889. A new row, Viceroy Street, was
constructed at Seaham Colliery to honour the office. A
Viceroy Street was also erected in Seaham Harbour and
appeared in the 1891 census.
The population of Greater Seaham (including Seaham
Colliery Pit Village) expanded from 11,017 in 1881 to 14,204
in 1891. There was no obvious reason for this large
increase. The surges in the past had been caused by the
opening and expansion of Seaham Harbour and the coming on
stream of Seaton/Seaham collieries but no such major event
took place anywhere in Greater Seaham in the decade 1881-91.
There was therefore much further housing development in
Seaham Harbour during that period — George Street, Adolphus
Street West, Maria Street, Lord Street, Viceroy Street and
Herbert Terrace — all of them bearing Londonderry names -
appeared to fill in the few remaining gaps in the town. The
decade also saw the erection of Cliff House, the new Drill
Hall, York Place and Castlereagh Road. Only Frederick Street
and the area between Ropery Walk and Candlish Terrace were
still to be built to complete old Seaham Harbour. They would
be developed in the following years.
The four remaining Rainton pits (Rainton Meadows,
Nicholson's, Alexandrina and Lady Seaham) were closed down
in November 1896. With the loss of much of his income from
central Durham in 1896 the 6th. Marquess decided to
construct a second pit at Seaham as a replacement. In August
1899 the first sods were cut by Theresa, Marchioness of
Londonderry, and her elder son Viscount Castlereagh, who
gave their names to the two shafts. The first coal was drawn
in 1907. By 1911 the population of Seaham was 20,000 — an
increase of 33% over the previous ten years. By 1920 the new
colliery, Dawdon, employed 3,300 workers and produced over 1
million tons per year. It became the premier colliery in
Greater Seaham, relegating the old 'Nack' to a poor second
place.
The 6th.Marquess of Londonderry died in 1915 and was
succeeded by his only surviving son Charles, the
7th.Marquess.His inheritance however was decimated by the
newly-introduced death duties and so the new lord of the
manors of Dalden and Seaham was immmediately in financial
difficulty.The family would never truly recover from this
blow and have been in economic decline ever since.
The year 1918 saw both the end of the Great War and the
fourth and most dramatic of the Reform Acts. For the first
time all men over 21 and all women over 30 were
enfranchised.Younger women did not get the vote until 1928.
Constituency boundaries were also changed and a new seat
called 'Seaham' came into existence, but the town itself was
only a small part of a largely rural constituency which
bordered with the seats of Houghton-le-Spring, Durham and
Sedgefield. At the General Election in December 1918 the
Liberal Hayward defeated the Labour candidate Lawson by
13,574 to 8,988. The election nationally was a resounding
success for the Coalition Government. 339 Coalition
Unionists and 136 Coalition Liberals were returned. Labour
went up from 39 to 59 seats.The (Non-Coalition) Liberals got
26.In 1919 Labour gained control of Durham County Council
for the first time, under the chairmanship of Peter Lee.
Though he was back in the driving seat at Dawdon and
Seaham collieries once more the 7th.Marquess actually had
more pressing problems elsewhere for there was still the
small matter of his own solvency. Because of the death
duties payable on the estate of his late father he was now
suffering acute financial problems which needed urgent
remedies. From 1917-30 he sold off scores of minor
properties in Seaham, the rest of the county and elsewhere.
In 1920 he sold Silksworth Colliery to Sir James Joicey. It
was decided that a new, third, pit should be sunk at Seaham
and that the contents of Seaham Hall should be disposed of
preparatory to its sale.The auction took place in May 1922
and the Hall then remained empty, but there were no takers
to buy it. In 1923 Londonderry offered it to Durham County
Council for use as a hospital. It was officially opened in
February 1928 as a tuberculosis sanatorium.
In 1925 the 7th.Marquess gave 18.5 acres of land to
create Dawdon Welfare Grounds.In 1934 he gave Dawdon Dene
Park to Seaham Urban District Council. In the late twenties
he sold off farmland to the Council for the proposed Carr
House Estate. The Londonderrys still owned the collieries
and most of the land and buildings in the town but otherwise
their connection with Seaham had come to an end after a
century and four generations. The family still visited
Seaham on important occasions but they had become remote
figures by the 1930s. They were still at the pinnacle of
society however despite their economic difficulties.
Ironically in view of what was to come James Ramsay
MacDonald was proposed as leader of the Labour party in 1922
by one Emmanuel Shinwell and was duly elected.The new leader
attended the Miner's Gala in 1923 at a time when industrial
relations were on a downward slope.On November 19 1923 the
first sod was cut at the new colliery which was called Vane
Tempest after Frances Anne and her ancestors. In that same
month there was another General Election which produced a
combined Labour (191) & Liberal (159) majority of 92 over
the Conservatives who got 258, down 87. On 22 January 1924
James Ramsay MacDonald became the first Labour Prime
Minister of a Lib-Labourer government. Sidney Webb, Labour
MP for Seaham, became President of the Board of Trade. The
administration did not last long and Labour could achieve
little without a solid working majority. On October 8 1924
the Conservatives joined with the Liberals to defeat Labour
by 364 to 198. In the General Election at the end of the
month the Conservatives gained a majority over the other two
parties of 215.They secured 419 seats, up 161. Labour got
151, down 40. The Liberal strategy backfired horribly - with
just 40 seats (lost 119), they were virtually wiped out and
would never again even hope to be the sole party in power.
In January 1929 James Ramsay MacDonald was adopted as
prospective Labour candidate for Seaham where Sidney Webb
had decided to retire. MacDonald gave up Aberavon where
there were excessive demands on his time and pocket for
Seaham where he would not be expected to visit more than
once a year and where the costs were met by local people.
Two months later, on May 30 1929, there was a General
Election in which Labour won 288 seats to the Tories 260.
The Liberals again held the balance with 59. James Ramsay
MacDonald returned as Prime Minister of another Lib-Lab
government. He had a majority of 28,794 at Seaham where the
Liberal and Communist candidates lost their deposits.
The enormous economic crisis in 1931 split the Labour
party and led to the formation of a 'National' Government on
August 31. MacDonald, on the verge of a nervous breakdown
and deserted by most of his party, made an offer to the King
to form an ad hoc government to put through the financial
legislation necessary and then dissolve for a General
Election. The offer was endorsed by Baldwin and by Samuel
for the Liberals. MacDonald remained as Prime Minister even
though he could count on only a handful of his party's 287
M.Ps. On his insistence Labour had 4 of the 10 Cabinet
seats. The Conservatives also had 4 and the Liberals 2.
Baldwin, as Lord President of the Council, was one of the
four Tories.
Shortly after MacDonald was expelled from the Labour
Party. The Seaham Labour Party asked him to resign his seat
but he refused and instead put himself forward as a
'National' Labour candidate. The General Election was duly
called for October 27 1931. Each party issued its own
manifesto with a general pronouncement from the Prime
Minister in his name alone. A Conservative landslide saw
them win 473 seats. Together with their 'National' Labour
(13) and 'National' Liberal (35) allies they had 521 seats
in the new Commons. The Liberals got 33. Official Labour got
just 52 and all except one of their front-bench lost their
seats. The party would be impotent for the next 14 years.
Ramsay MacDonald retained Seaham with a majority of nearly
6,000 over Official Labour, thanks mainly to the non-mining
vote in rural parts of the constituency. Had the vote been
restricted to the town of Seaham and other mining villages
he would certainly have suffered the indignity of being the
only Prime Minister in history to lose his own seat. The
official Labour candidate was the local party secretary,
A.Coxon, a Shotton schoolmaster. MacDonald got 28,978 to
Coxon's 23,027. A new National Government was formed a week
later. MacDonald remained as PM but he was now merely a
puppet. Baldwin continued as Lord President and moved into
11 Downing Street from where he could keep an eye on 'his'
PM.
Seaham Colliery was again mothballed from August 1932 to
April 1934 because of it's heavy losses. All of the hewers
and some of the officials working in Dawdon's Maudlin Seam
were dismissed. A total of 2600 men were paid off by
Londonderry Collieries. The whole of Dawdon colliery was
closed for 4 weeks early in 1933 by a fire. In May 1935,
sensing the worst and with an election apparently imminent,
Ramsay MacDonald retired as PM just before the Whitsun
recess and swapped jobs with Baldwin. The General Election
finally took place on November 14 1935. The Conservatives
won 432, a majority of 247. Labour increased from 52 to 154.
The Liberals fell from 33 to 20. Both of the MacDonalds,
father and son, lost their seats to Official Labour. This
time the Seaham Labour Party put in a real political
heavyweight, a street-fighting Jewish socialist, to oust the
icon of the 'National' Government. Ramsay Macdonald lost in
Seaham to Emmanuel Shinwell by 38,380 to 17,882.
The Slum Clearance Act was passed in 1930 and Seaham
Council was quick to take advantage. The Carr House Estate
(later renamed Deneside) had begun even before, in 1928, and
was finally completed in 1937. People from Seaham Harbour
were moved up to it and away from their old appalling
conditions. The old tight-knit community at Seaham Colliery
was also broken up and moved almost en masse to the new
estate at Parkside. Knowing that Westlea and Eastlea estates
were planned a few of the inhabitants stayed put and waited
for their new houses. 404 houses for 2,017 people were
completed at Parkside by September 1940, but there were no
shops and no public house. Those billeted at Ash Crescent
complained bitterly about the continuous noise from the
South Hetton mineral line but eventually they became used to
it and no more was heard about the matter.
The old streets at Seaham Colliery and Seaham Harbour
were not immediately demolished but were kept for those made
homeless by German air raids. The Seaham created by the
Founders was beginning to disappear and this process was
accelerated by the coming of war with Germany. As an
industrial town and significant railway hub Seaham was an
important target during the war.On the night of February
15-16 1941 four died at Seaham Harbour and Seaham Colliery.
Eight months later on October 25 1941 the Seaton Colliery
Inn sustained a direct hit and the landlady and a friend
were killed. One day a new public house, aptly named the
Phoenix, would appear on the site. In 1947 construction of
the Eastlea and Westlea estates began. To make way for them
the old streets of the Seaham Colliery area were demolished
over the next 15 years.
On January 1 1945 a new union, the NUM, was created from
the MFGB. A General Election was held in July 1945.Labour
achieved a landslide with 393 seats to the 213 of the
Conservatives and their allies, the Liberals 12 and
Independents 22. For the first time a Labour government had
an overall majority and could put into effect some of its
ideals. Emmanuel Shinwell, MP for Seaham, became Minister of
Fuel and Power to carry out the pre-war dream of
nationalisation. On July 12 1946, the eve of the first
postwar Gala, the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act received
the Royal Assent. The official handover took place on
'Vesting' Day, Wednesday January 1 1947. Notice boards were
set up outside every pit which read: 'This colliery is now
managed by the National Coal Board on behalf of the people'.
Lord Londonderry was apparently very generously compensated
for the loss of his three Seaham collieries but the precise
amount he received seems to be a secret.
At its peak in 1913 the Durham coalfield produced 41.5
million tons with 165,246 employees at 304 pits. By 1934 the
output had fallen to 30.6 million tons produced by 107,873
employees at 228 pits. By the time of nationalisation in
1947 the number of pits had dropped to 127. The three Seaham
collieries, with their access to the unlimited reserves
under the North Sea, seemed to be safe for another century
and there were no alarm bells ringing yet on the Durham
coast. Between 1951 and 1964 the Conservatives closed 44
pits in the county. From 1964 to 1970 Labour shut down
another 51. By 1970 a mere 34,484 employees worked at just
34 pits. The closures were now coming ominously close to
Seaham and the writing was on the wall. By 1983 7.2 million
tons were being produced by 15,289 employees at 13
collieries.
The Miner's Strike of 1984-85 — the last, longest and
most bitter of them all, was calculated to stop the closure
of the remainder, in Durham and elsewhere. Once again, as
usual, the miners lost and the fate of the rump Durham
coalfield was finally sealed by Conservative victories in
the General Elections of 1987 and 1992. In 1987 British Coal
'amalgamated' Seaham Colliery with Vane Tempest. No more
coal was produced at the old mine and it was relegated to
the role of a third shaft for the newer colliery. Vane
Tempest coal came to the surface at Seaham Colliery and was
transported to the main railway line or the docks from
there. The rail connection from Seaham Colliery to Seaham
Harbour was severed a year later in 1988 following an
accident with a runaway locomotive. Thus was closed the last
section of the Rainton and Seaham line laid between 1828 and
1831 which had brought life to the infant town. 'Benny's
Bank' had been a direct link back to the Industrial
Revolution and the Founders.
In 1991 both Dawdon and Murton collieries were closed and
the sites levelled. In October 1992 British Coal, as part of
a national strategy, announced the closure of the four
remaining pits in the old County of Durham, including the
Seaham-Vane Tempest combine. Seaham and Vane Tempest
collieries were bulldozed in 1994. Now a great open site has
replaced each of the three Seaham pits. Mining in the town
has come to an end after a century and a half.
Since the war a ring of satellite council and private
estates has sprung up to completely surround the original
town of Seaham Harbour. Westlea, Eastlea, Woodlands,
Northlea etc. Parkside received an extension and some shops
at last. None of these new areas have any connection with
the Londonderry family and none have street names with a
Londonderry connection.
