The Mill Inn around 1890. This building was demolished and rebuilt in brick in 1892. The owner of the pub from the 1870's through to the 1900's was John Barrett Wells, while the licensee at the the time of this photograph was Alfred Reynolds. The only Alfred Reynolds living in Seaham Colliery ( also the only person with the surname Reynolds ) between 1841 and 1891 was a colliery labourer aged 19 living at 43 Seaham St in 1881. in 1891 he was listed as a barman living at 20 Henry st Seaham Harbour.
The Windmill was the original name of the Mill Inn at New Seaham. Tommy Chilton is known to have run this pub also in the years before and after the foundation of Seaham Harbour. His nickname was ‘Nicky Nack’ which eventually transmitted itself to the new colliery sunk nearby by the Marquess of Londonderry. Tommy Chilton is also on the list of Seaham millers in 1834. Tommy Chilton’s gravestone is at St.Mary the Virgin.
