Category: Throckley

Stephensons of Throckley

10/6/2016

W Stephenson & Sons, Throckley. Poster for Thos. Pope of New York (c.1870).

William Stephenson & Sons, Throckley. The poster is in Italian to publicise the firm at the International Glass Exhibition, London 1862. Beamish People's Collection NEG5733.

Stephenson brick, Close Lea, Heddon on the Wall. Photo A Curtis (2011).

Mr William Stephenson had established a brick and tileworks near the Maria coal pit by 1849, making firebricks, common bricks, quarls, field drainage tiles and soles. Early handmade firebricks were marked “W.S.& Sons, Throckley”, or “Stephenson, Newcastle”. In the 1920s a new grinding plant was installed and two new brick machine presses. The brickyard eventually had 34 Newcastle-type kilns.

In 1951, these kilns were replaced by a 20-chamber Staffordshire transverse-arch kiln, and produced six million bricks per year. A tunnel kiln was built in 1965 and the works modernised by the Northern Brick Company.

The Throckley yard is the only survivor of a group of 26 brickworks that were owned by the National Coal Board in 1947. In 1973, Gibbons (Dudley) Ltd took over the remaining nine brickworks and by 1977 only Throckley and Cramlington were still working.

A brickworks at Newburn was in existence from the 1850s to 1965. The buildings were demolished in 1979 and is now occupied by a recycling plant on the Newburn to Walbottle Road.

The Throckley brickworks is now owned by Ibstock plc, registered in Ibstock Leicestershire.
http://www.penmorfa.com/bricks/england20a.html

Isabella Coke Ovens made with Stephenson bricks. Photo A Curtis (2016).

Locally made bricks on pedistal for information board, Isabella Coke Ovens. Photo A Curtis (2016).

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A Throckley Waggonway

24/3/2015

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My friend, Les Turnbull, is conducting research at the Mining Institute on the work of the notable Colliery Engineer, William Brown who was based for time in Throckley. Every now and then he sends me interesting nuggets of information about our local waggonways that keep my spark of interest in that subject alive.

This time his message was:

Recently, I was asked to comment upon a manuscript that was sent into the MI from a former pitman who was born in Throckley and I quote below an extract for your interest and comments.

‘A northern branch of the way was built to the Meadow Pit and ran through the old Throckley School location and the Hill Pit. The last section of the way was elevated probably to bridge the road at Meadow Pit. A fairly large embankment was constructed which is still in existence north of the Hill Pit site’.

The ww was excavated in the grounds of Throckley School but only soil marks indicating the sleepers and rails were found. This is the first I’ve heard about an embankment and I wondered whether you have come across it during your first work.

The waggonway in question is shown on the plans of Throckley shown below.

A Plan of Throckley 'dated back 150 years from 1863' (NRO 536.1)

A Plan of Throckley 1769 (NRO 536.2)

OS six-inch map (1865)

The earlier plan (left), although unlikely to be anywhere as early as 1713 as suggested, shows a waggonway crossing the Military Road (which was only completed in the 1750s) from south-east to north-west, west of the Newburn Road junction. In a big single field north of the road, named as 'West Leagure', it served two pits, Honey Pit and Meadow Pit, the latter situated just west of a group of buildings annotated as 'Browns House'.

Several pits are also shown in 'Maddies Pasture' west of Drove Road and in 'Quarry Field' to its north, but no waggonways are shown serving them. On an plan from Alnwick Castle dated 1755, a waggonway is shown, parallel to and on the south side of the Military Road, branches heading north-west and south-west from a point close to the Drove Road junction.

On the 1769 plan, 'Leagure' has been subdived into four fields, 'Ligger'. A waggonway crosses the Military Road as above but on the north side, in 'South Ligger', it branches. One branch heads west past New Engine Pit in 'South West Ligger', then north-west, crossing the Drove Road, to Duke Pit, situated then just beyond the enclosed land on what was Throckley Common. The other branch runs to the north between 'North West Ligger' and 'North Ligger', where Hill Pit is shown, to Meadow Pit, then located in another enclosure named as 'Fell Bulls Close'.

At this time, Throckley village was located south of the Military Road at Bank Top, connected to its Common by the Drove Road.

The waggonway to Meadow Pit is also shown on 'A Plan of the Inclosed lands of Throckley' of 1781 (NRO ZAN M17/197/A/37). The waggonway is not shown on the 1st edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858 so was presumably out of use by this date.

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Wylam Waggonway

9/6/2013

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To focus my mind on the Wylam Waggonway for the Puffing Billy Festival I decided to create a map of the waggonway so that I could discuss some things that interest me along its route. As always I am particularly interested in finding clues to the past which can still be seen today.

This will be an ongoing blog and I will add to it as I feel inspired.

View Wylam Waggonway in a larger map

Key to map above:
Red: North Wylam, Newburn & Scotswood Railway where it diverges from the route of the former Waggonway.
Blue: approximate route of Wylam Waggonway (1859 Map)
Green: Mineral line (single track) closely parallel to railway line (double track) - possibly on the original waggonway line.
Purple: Early Throckley Waggonway (1859 map)
Pink: Later Throckley Waggonway (1897 map)
Yellow: Throckley Isabella Mineral Railway (1897 map)
Light Blue: North Walbottle Waggonway (1859 Map)
Yellow Pin: Named feature

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Class, Culture & Community

4/6/2011

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This is a brief discussion of a book I came across a few months ago: Class, Culture & Community: A Biographical Study of Social Change in Mining by Bill Williamson (1982) Routledge & Kegan Paul, London.

The author is Emeritus Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Durham and the book is an academic combination of sociology and history but mostly easily readable. It is of interest here because it is all about the life of his maternal grandfather, James Brown, who was born in Heddon in 1872. He moved to Throckley when he married in 1900 and died there in 1965 at age 93.

He was a coal miner and spent his working life in three local pits: Heddon Margaret, Throckley Isabella and Throckley Maria, all owned by the Throckley Coal Company. He retired in 1935. Most of his family life was spent in a colliery house, 177 Mount Pleasant, Throckley (in the area of the Sainsbury, formerly Co-op, store) and he had seven children.

He describes how his great grand-parents came to Heddon from Norfolk in 1872 seeking a better life. The village was dominated by its main land-owners and major employers: John Clayton who held over 11,000 acres in 1883, Calverly Bewicke (Close House 2,500 acres) and the Bates family (colliery owners). The large family of 19 children lived in Quarry Cottage backing on to Heddon Common on the Hexham Road (now demolished).

The early chapters deal with James Browns childhood in Heddon, how they lived, their recreation, school and starting as a trapper boy at age 11 in Heddon Margaret pit.

Brick marked 'Stephenson', owners of the Throckley Coal Company. A Curtis (2011)

Much of the book deals with his later life and that of his wife in a colliery house in Throckley, a working life influenced by great events of the 20th century, World War 1, the General Strike, Miner's lock out, the 1930s Depression and World War 2. Despite the many times of great hardship what really shines through is that he was a man greatly contented with his lot. He always maintained the view that the Throckley Pit owners were good to work for and saw his life as one of progress for both him and his family.

A fair proportion of the book involves the role of wife in maintaining the family and household, bringing up several generations of children often under difficult financial conditions and worries of pit disaster. It was a world of continuous striving for self sufficiency and maintenance of independence through their gardens, animal rearing and seasonal work on local farms.

Interactions with their community was through the village institutions: Pubs, Co-operative store, Working Men's Club, Chapels and Union.

Heddon was never a typical colliery village but Throckley village was wholly constructed around its pits. That these communities were on the periphery of the Northumberland coalfield kept them independent of the politics of the main mining areas but never isolated from the social and economic changes that swept and eventually destroyed the industry.

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Stephensons of Throckley

A Throckley Waggonway

Wylam Waggonway

Class, Culture & Community

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