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The Duke Of Wellington Arrived At Rainton By Rail In 1827
Memories of the Londonderry family loom large in the Seaham area and not without reason. Churches, chapels, hospitals, schools, aged miners’ homes, institutes, inns, and much more besides, as
we have seen, bear witness to the foresight and generosity of those who bore the names of Castlereagh, Vane Tempest, and Londonderry. The mainspring of it all was, perhaps, Frances Anne, the only child of Sir Henry Vane Tempest, Baronet, and Anne Catherine, Countess of Antrim, in her own right.
Lady Frances Anne in 1819, at the age of 18, married Charles William Stewart, aged 41, who eventually became the Third Marquess of Londonderry. In spite of the difference in their ages, this was a love match from the start and, when the Marquess died in 1854, Frances Anne set aside a memorial
room near the chapel at Wynyard in which she exhibited the medals, trophies and all the records of her beloved husband’s career.
One is led to the conclusion that their lives were a record of faith, enterprise and devotion to every good cause. Even in the days of the great miners’ strike of
1844, when the Marquess felt compelled to adopt harsh measures to secure a quick return to work, his belief in the mining community and the good of the industry as a whole (as he saw it) remained uppermost in his mind.
Rainton Outcrop
In spite of his tyrannical edicts in days
when coal owners believed that the Miners’ Association, or any form of union meant the ruin of masters and men alike. Coal was being mined in Rainton area in the 13th century and in the Parsonage Book of Houghton-le-Spring, dated 1531, we find accounts relating to coal tithes due from the
Rainton outcrop and from “Spence, the Renton Collier.”
Still later in 1604, we find a letter referring to a dispute between Rector Hutton of Houghton-le-Spring and Richard and Robert Wright regarding coals formerly delivered to Bernard Gilpin at the Rectory from “Ye Cole Pitts in Renton
fields.” But it was not until the 18th Century that coal production at Rainton became important to the export trade. In 1758 when the great Tempest family operated the Rainton coalfield, 20866 chaldrons of coal were shipped abroad (a chaldron weighed two tons 13 hundredweight).
Coal
Tramways
In those days Rainton coal was conveyed along the tramways (as they were called) from the pits, via Colliery Row, Junction Row and Shiney Row to Penshaw staiths, where flat-bottomed keels carried their loads to the waiting ships. Horses were kept at Penshaw stables to pull the
wagons along the wooden trams for the Londonderry mineral line to Seaham did not then exist.
Years passed and the John Tempest collieries descended to Lady Frances Anne Vane Tempest, of Wynyard, who married into the Londonderry family as described above. Lord Londonderry had been adjutant to
the Duke of Wellington in the Pensinsular War and in 1827 the “Iron Duke” paid a visit to the Rainton collieries. He travelled along the Rainton - Seaham line, which the Marquess had already built to facilitate the shipping of coal from the area as well as to avoid the heavy dues payable at
Sunderland. By the end of 1818, Frances Anne was described as the second largest exporter of coal on the wear - her pits produced more than a quarter of a million tons a year and all from the area of Rainton, Pittington and Penshaw.
Old Pits
With the laying of the mineral line
and the building of Seaham Harbour, the Marquess gave a new impetus to the coal trade, in fact, as Mr H. L. Robson wrote in his”description of Seaham church,” Lord Londonderry revolutionized economic life in the district. “He had built a sea-port at Daldon which was given the name of Seaham
Harbour and laid down a wagon-way for the transport of his coals. Thus was started the commercial and industrial development of the area (Seaham), leading to a large influx of population, to roads, railways and modern life in general and, incidentally, to the virtual disappearance of the ancient
village of Seaham. There are now three coal mines in the area, one in Daldon and two in the ancient parish of Seaham.”
Rainton is dotted with old pit workings, shafts, and heaps, which now bear silent witness to the prosperity of other days. Many of the names are long since forgotten but a
dozen or so are still household words at Rainton - though not all are Londonderry pits; Dunwell, Hazard, Nicholson’s, Plains, Pontop, North Hetton, Adventure, Meadows, Annabella, Letch, Alexandrina, Hunter’s House and, more remote, Knott, Lady Seaham, Woodside, Old Engine, Aimwell, and Quarry.
The Meadows closed recently; the Adventure has outlasted all. Serious explosions in several, especially at the Plains, took a heavy toll of life of which the churchyards at the Raintons and Houghton bear witness.
As we made our way down the long slope to Rainton Bridge we walked amid the old
shafts replete with the memories of long ago. At the crossroads, where once the old railway bridge stood, and before 1907 the crossing gates by the former Plough Inn, we took pictures of the Londonderry line, used by no less than 11 collieries in its heyday.
In addition on Saturdays it
became a passenger line from 1831, when people were conveyed to Seaham Harbour in a specially-constructed coach - not, of course as ornate as the £200 carriage in which the Duke of Wellington travelled when he visited this coalfield. Saturday travel was allowed to those who wished to visit their
Menfolk and friends employed at the newly-constructed Harbour as well as to do an afternoon’s shopping. For them the line was a great boon, though the journey, once the novelty had worn off, became very tedious.
The line ran via Copt Hill - many still remember the line crossing the Houghton
Road near the Rescue Station and the old Crosshouse-Warden Law, and Seaton and the long incline was worked by a beam engine in the bank head. Where the line became more level the main and tail-rope system operated in two stages with an intermediate hauling engine at Warden Law farm.
Faint Echoes
Stationary engines at Copt Hill and Warden Law worked the Flat and then the long run to Seaton was the business of the Warden Law and Seaton Bank Top engines. After Seaton the line crossed the Durham and Sunderland railway area; then down Seaton Bank, up Londonderry Bank and
down the two miles stretch to Seaham Harbour; all the way being operated by stationary engines and self-acting inclines. The line remained open for this purpose until about 1896 and provided, in addition to its ordinary mineral functions, a convenient ride for visitors to the Harbour in days
when such a journey would for many have been well nigh impossible.
Several pictures show the scenes today from Rainton Bridge to Seaham and the entrance itself. As we stand by the old shafts in that grassy plain or follow the tracks cut by the Londonderry line, faint echoes of other days
seem to fall on ears, faint echoes of days now almost lost amid the noise and bustle of this modern world.
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