When Coal Was King:

 Reproduced here with kind permission of the author, Tony Whitehead

Copyright Tony Whitehead.
Visit his pay-per-view website of parish register entries and census returns for the entire county at www.durhamrecordsonline.com Your ancestors may well be there.

 

The Collieries, Railways, Waggonways and Communities of Easington District

Contents

Chapter 1, Easington District before Coal was King
Chapter 2, The Collieries
Chapter 3, The Railways
Chapter 4, The Waggonways
Chapter 5, The Communities
Chapter 6, An Essay on Miners’ Lives: The Miners’ Bond

 

Other Links that may be of interest

History of new Seaham
Haswell colliery disaster 1844
An Essay on Miners lives
The Collieries
Murton
Shotton
Horden

 

Chapter 1, Easington District before Coal was King

 There are signs of ancient times all around us in and around Easington District. At Warden Law, alongside the Seaton to Houghton road, there are two tumuli or prehistoric burial mounds, each surmounted with a crown of trees, an eerie sight in the moonlight. Between them runs Salter’s Lane, an ancient highway, the A19 of its day, which carries on to Haswell, Wingate and Teesside. There are other tumuli in Easington district and the Castle Eden Vase and other prehistoric artefacts confirm that man has been here for many thousands of years. Fertile soil and the ready availability of fish and shellfish must have made this land an attractive proposition to early humans.

 Much later Easington district was incorporated in the Roman Empire along with the rest of England but there are no visible signs in the district of this long lost civilisation. As the Romans departed in the 5th. Century AD new invaders took their place and the whole of the county of Durham eventually became part of the Saxon kingdom of Northumbria, whose capital was York. Many of the place names in Easington District are of Saxon origin - Seaton (‘township-by-the-sea’), Seaham (‘hamlet-by-the-sea’), Murton (‘moor-town’), Cold Hesledon and Hesleden (‘hazel-dene’), Easington (Essyngtana, place of Essa’s people) and Haswell (‘hazel-well’).

 Eventually the monarch of the southern Saxon kingdom of Wessex, Athelstan (grandson of Alfred the Great), established himself as the King of All England in the early part of the 10th. Century. By then there was a new and extremely dangerous external enemy with a habit of turning up in some numbers anywhere along the coast to cause mischief and destruction. These were the Northmen and Easington district was in the frontline of the defence against them. The oldest structure in Easington District today is St. Mary the Virgin church at Old Seaham, which may date back to as early as AD 800. If this date is even more or less correct then the church and village were sited in a very dangerous and vulnerable position for those troubled times. The later siting of Easington parish church high on a hill overlooking the German Ocean may well have been a precaution against a surprise attack by Vikings.

 Sheer distance from London meant that the far north of England, frontline against the Scandinavians and later the Scots, was usually remote and detatched from the affairs, personalities and events which shaped the nation’s history. Few of our sovereigns came this way or knew much about the North, preferring to delegate authority to the Prince-Bishops of Durham. One definite exception was the Conqueror himself, who rampaged through the county in his infamous ‘Northern Expedition’ to avenge a Saxon rebellion against him. He laid waste the northern shires to such an extent that there was no point in including them in his later Domesday Book. The population of County Durham took generations to recover from this genocide. The Conqueror’s grandson King Stephen (1135-54) was a usurper who dragged the country into a dynastic civil war over the throne. The Scots took advantage of the 20 year anarchy in England to seize the whole of the north of the country. They were soon driven off by Stephen’s energetic and undisputed successor Henry II (1154-89). Henry’s son of infamous memory, King John (1199-1216), passed through our county in his seemingly endless wars with the baronage.

 Seventy years and more passed before the next royal visitor to the county, King Edward I (1272-1307), grandson of John, a man with a mission to unite all of the island of Great Britain. He simply passed through on his way to massacring the population of Berwick and temporarily imposing his will on the south of Scotland. His inept son Edward II (1307-27) was defeated by the Bruce at Bannockburn in 1314 and obliged to flee south for his life. For the next decade Scots armies terrorised the northern counties. On at least two occasions they penetrated as far south as Hartlepool, ruining the village of Dalton-le-Dale and many others in their passage. The son of the Bruce, David II, took advantage of Edward III’s war with France to try to repeat the performance in 1337. Once more East Durham was ruined but the King of Scots was eventually brought to book in the battle of Neville’s Cross and became a prisoner of the English Crown. There was to be no further serious trouble from rampaging Scots for 300 years and East Durham once more reverted to the role of backwater in the affairs of the nation.

 Salter’s Lane and the Great North Road at Durham were the slender threads which connected Easington district with the commerce, ideas  and technology of the outside world but the highways also regularly brought pestilence to counterbalance those advantages. At the end of the 1340s Britain was decimated by  an epidemic of bubonic plague which originated in the Far East. Perhaps as many as a third of the population of Europe may have died in this and later outbreaks of what was called ‘The Black Death’. Easington district was particularly badly affected and the survivors had to trek west to buy food from the dalesfolk whose isolation from other humans had saved them. Food and money were left on special ‘Plague Stones’, some of which still survive in Weardale and elsewhere.

 The ‘Rising of the North’ in 1569 was intended to remove the Protestant Elizabeth Tudor from the throne and replace her with her imprisoned heir the Catholic Mary Stewart, former Queen of Scots. It was crushed and its principals fled into permanent exile, leaving the commoners to their fate. Elizabeth demanded a quota of executions from each participating district and for this reason two Easington men were selected and publicly hanged on the village green. At some later point in the reign of Elizabeth all of the churches and clergymen of Easington district became Protestant. Eventually most of the population, wanting only a quiet life, also saw sense and transferred their religious allegiance from Rome to London.

 The childless Elizabeth was succeeded by her distant Protestant cousin James VI of Scotland (only child of the Queen of Scots) in 1603 and the two countries were united in a personal union. This seemed to have brought a sensible end to the perpetual Scottish threat to the northern counties of England but it was to prove an illusion. James’s successor Charles I soon involved himself in a conflict with both Parliament and Presbyterian Scots which led to a three-way civil war. As so many times had happened before the Scots took advantage of English disunity to occupy Northumberland and Durham. Royalist, Scottish and Parliamentary armies chased each other round and round the northeast of England for several years and Easington district was ruined once more. Even in the 1650s, long after the execution of Charles I and the establishment of the Commonwealth, Dalton-le-Dale was without a parish priest and there is a huge gap in the parish registers. He had either died and not been replaced in the turmoil or he had simply fled. Charles II was restored in 1660 and normality soon resumed at Dalton-le-Dale and elsewhere. The northeast was not directly involved either in the Glorious Revolution of 1688-89 or the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745 for Charles Edward Stuart chose to invade England from Scotland via the north-west route through Carlisle and Lancaster. He retreated the same way to meet disaster at Culloden in 1746.

 Down the centuries after the Conquest the various manors, estates and labouring serfs within Easington district changed hands many times, sometimes by outright purchase, other times by inheritance or marriage. As the countless generations of labourers tended the fields they cannot have guessed that the greatest harvest of all lay far beneath their feet. Other than the churches none of the mediaeval structures in the district have survived to the present day, though there are ruins at Dalden Towers (near Dalton-le-Dale) and at Ludworth which lies just outside the modern boundaries of the district. Ancient churches stand at Old Seaham (c. AD 800 ?), Dalton-le-Dale (c. AD 1150 ?) and Easington (c. AD 1100 ?). Another (c. AD 1134 ??) stood derelict at Monk Hesleden but was mysteriously and inexplicably demolished by the Council one day in 1968. At Castle Eden there is an 18th. Century church constructed by the local landowners, the Burdon family. No new churches or chapels were erected until the first coalminers arrived to transform and populate the empty district in the early 1830s.  

 In 1801 the total population of County Durham was just 150,000. Over a third of these people lived in the ancient towns of Hartlepool (1,047), Barnard Castle (2,966), Stockton (4,009), Darlington (4,670), Durham (about 7,500), Gateshead (8,597), South Shields (with Westoe about 11,000) and Sunderland (about 18,000). Even that great metropolis of the far North, Newcastle, just across the Tyne in Northumberland, had only 30,000 inhabitants at the beginning of the 19th. century, little more than Greater Seaham has today.

 The rest of the county of Durham, not just the high ground as now, was as empty as some parts of western Ireland are today. The tiny communities which together made up what we now call Easington District had just 2,310 souls in the year 1801, about the same as modern-day Wingate. Almost the smallest of these minute and ancient agricultural communities was the scattered ‘constabulary’ of Dawdon (22 people in two farmhouses) in Dalton-le-Dale parish, destined to become the collosus of the district (as Seaham Harbour) until being itself eclipsed by the new town of Peterlee in the 1960s.

 The eastern half of the Durham coalfield, upon which 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 early 1820s. As the third decade of the nineteenth century dawned technological advances had been made which made it possible at last 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 to the east 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, the Hetton Colliery Company. 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 900 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), Lord Howden and Colonel Thomas Braddyll of Haswell, would enter the arena and the tapping of the deeply concealed Durham coalfield began in earnest. Their target was the tranquil idyll of Easington District.

 Below you will find the population figures for Easington District in the first four censuses of the 19th. century. The large and sudden increase in the population of Dawdon in 1831 was due to the foundation of the town and port of Seaham Harbour three years before. The rise of the population at South Hetton and Haswell in the same census was caused by the sinking of the first two collieries in Easington District. Once these had begun production (1833 & 1835 respectively) and proved they were viable the stampede into East Durham was on. By 1841 Thornley and Wingate collieries were also in production and four other pits were being sunk (Murton, Shotton, Castle Eden and South Wingate). By the time of the 1851 census Seaton and Seaham collieries (later amalgamated as ‘Seaham’ in 1864) were being sunk. All of the then existing 8 collieries in Easington were on the western edge of the district for the technology did not yet exist to contemplate even deeper mines on the coast.

 No new collieries were sunk in the decade 1851-61. In fact the district experienced its first pit closure with the collapse of South Wingate Colliery in 1857. In 1869 the sinking of Wheatley Hill commenced and this was followed a year later by two other new ventures at nearby Deaf Hill and Hutton Henry. Wheatley Hill was severely handicapped by under-capitalisation and went bankrupt at least twice before the turn of the century but eventually proved itself. Shotton Colliery closed in 1877 and became a ghost village for the next 23 years until it was reopened by the new Horden Coal Company in 1900. Castle Eden Colliery folded in 1893, Haswell in 1896 and Hutton Henry in 1897. The 20th. Century saw the opening of the coastal super-pits at Dawdon, Easington, Horden, Blackhall and Vane Tempest and the creation of new mining communities in East Durham.

TOP

Sub-District/Census

1801

1811

1821

1831

Dalton-le-Dale

40

52

49

73

Dawdon (Seah. Harb.)

22

27

35

1022

Seaham (Old & New)

115

121

103

130

Seaton-with-Slingley

96

126

95

134

Cold Hesledon

48

31

55

112

Hawthorn

114

118

140

162

East Morton (Murton)

75

71

72

98

 

 

 

 

 

Easington

487

542

593

693

Haswell & Sth Hetton

93

114

115

263

Shotton

250

286

264

272

Castle Eden

362

257

281

260

Monk Hesleden

150

148

164

176

Nesbitt

5

5

9

10

Sheraton

99

97

116

110

Hulam

7

11

16

15

Hutton Henry

156

155

174

162      

Wingate

135

151

131

115

Thornley

56

58

60

50

 

 

 

 

 

Total

2310

2370

2472

3857

Apart from these fixed habitations there is evidence of transients living on the East Durham 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 se(ven)’nnight 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.’

Until the mid 1840s  County Durham was divided into the following wards:

 

1. (NW and North), Chester (le-Street) Ward, (included Bedlingtonshire, Norhamshire and Islandshire, now parts of Northumberland).

2. (East), Easington Ward

3. (South East), Stockton Ward

4. (South West), Darlington Ward

 Two settlements were considered large enough and important enough to run their own affairs - Durham City and Sunderland Town. For historical reasons connected to the Palatinate (abolished 1836) County Durham included not only three areas of Northumberland but also several other small enclaves in other neighbouring counties, such as Craike, near Easingwold in Yorkshire.

 

 Easington Ward was clearly much larger than Easington District is now and included such far-apart places as Bishopwearmouth Panns, Penshaw, South Biddick, Lambton, West Rainton, Pittington, Sherburn, Coxhoe, Kelloe and Trimdon. Virtually a quarter of the county.  The population of the entire old Easington Ward in 1841 was about 24,000. October 1 1844 was the date the new Act of Reorganisation took effect (Act of 7 & 8 Victoria. C.61), rationalising the ancient boundaries of the counties and removing many of the strange and archaic anomalies (such as Bedlingtonshire and Craike) that had existed. Thereafter the new district of Easington assumed more or less its present shape and size (Greater Seaham, Murton, Cold Hesledon, Hawthorn, Easington Village, Thorpe, Castle Eden, Monk Hesleden, Nesbitt, Hulam, Sheraton, Hutton Henry, Wingate, Deaf Hill, Wheatley Hill, Thornley, Shotton, Haswell and South Hetton). The population of the new district in  the census of 1841 was only 15,491. In 1801 the same area had just 2,310 people.

 

Chapter 2, The Collieries

Easington District Collieries in Chronological Order

Colliery

Duration

Known owners before Nationalisation in 1947

Major Disasters

1. South Hetton

1833-1982

South Hetton Coal Company

 

2. Haswell

1831, 1835-96

Haswell & Shotton CC

28/09/1844 (95)

3. Thornley

1835-1970

John Gully & Partners

05/08/1841 (9)

4. Wingate Grange

1837/40-1962

Lord Howden & Partners

1906 (26)

5. Murton (initially known as Dalton New Winning)

1838, 1840-1991

South Hetton  CC

15/08/1848 (14)

21/12/1937 (4)

26/06/1942 (13)

6. South Wingate (also known as Hart Bushes Colliery or Rodridge Colliery)

1840 (?) - 1857

Milbank ??

 

7. Castle Eden (also known as the Maria Pit or Hesleden Pit)

1840-93, 1900- ? (as a pumping station only)

Wilkinson, then

Horden CC

 

8. Shotton

1840-77, 1900-72

Haswell & Shotton CC,

Horden CC

 

9. Seaton/Seaham

(‘The Nack’ pit)

1844/49-1983

Merged as ‘Seaham’ in 1864. ‘Amalgamated’ with Vane Tempest 1983

North Hetton & Grange CC and Londonderry Colls. to 1864, then Londonderry alone

1852 (6) (Seaton)

1864 (2) (Seaton)

1871  (26) (Combine)

1880 (164) (Combine)

10. Wheatley Hill

1869-77, 1878-84, 1890-1968

Hartlepool  CC to 1884, and then Weardale Steel, Coke & Coal Company

 

11. Hutton Henry

1869 (?) - 1897

Milbank ??

 

12. Deaf Hill

1870 (?) -1967

Trimdon Coal Co.

 

13. Seaham Dawdon

1899-1991

Londonderry

 

14. Easington

1899-1993

Easington CC

1951 (81 + 2 rescuers)

15. Horden

1900-87

Horden CC

 

16. Blackhall

1913-81

Horden CC (??)

 

17. Seaham Vane Tempest

1923-93

Londonderry

 

18. Hawthorn Shaft

1959-93

NCB

 

NB: Hawthorn Shaft was not a colliery in the strict sense of the word. Coal was transported there underground from Elemore, Eppleton and Murton collieries and then raised to the surface for onward shipment by rail. The closure of the three feeders meant the end for Hawthorn Shaft too.

 

NB: Castle Eden Colliery closed for good in 1893. The site was reopened in 1900 but only as a pumping station to assist the drainage of the new coastal super-pit at Horden and the newly reopened Shotton Colliery.

Collieries and Censuses

Sub-District

1831

1841

1851

1861

1871

1881

1891

1901

Collieries or connection with

Dalton-le-Dale

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘Dormitory’ for Seaham & Murton collieries

Dawdon (Sea Hr)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

X

Dawdon 1899-1991, Vane Tempest  1923-93

Seaham (Old & New)

 

 

XX

XX

X

X

X

X

Seaton/Seaham 1844/49 - 1983 (merged 1864)

Seaton-with-Slingley

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘Dormitory’ for Seaton/Seaham after 1850

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

East Morton (Murton)

 

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

Murton 1838-1991

Cold Hesledon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘Dormitory’ for Murton Colliery after c.1885

Hawthorn