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During the 19th Century, coal mining expanded rapidly and over 200 pits were sunk in County Durham alone. The coal ports of Tyne, Wear and Tees grew and new industries demanded more coal. Mines got deeper and deeper, and safety increasingly became an issue as miners lost their lives in horrific colliery disasters. The growing workforce in the mines formed into unions which fought for better pay and conditions.

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The Northern Coalfield 1800AD - 1900AD: Coal Staithes / Sunderland Coal / Hartlepool Coal /

Middlesbrough Coal / Unions and Strikes / Miners' Gala / Coal Owners and Candymen /

Deep Coal / Colliery Disasters and Safety / Major Colliery Disasters (List)

SEE ALSO Coal and Industry 1500AD-1800AD

Other Industrial Ages: Locomotive Age 1800AD - 1828AD /

A Town is Born 1828AD - 1839AD / Northern Coalfield 1800AD - 1900AD /

Rural Industries 1100-1900 / The Age of Iron 1840-1896 / Shipbuilding 1790-1899 /

Chemicals and Glass 1800-1900 / Electric Light Years 1878-1899

Other dates: The Georgian North 1714AD - 1838AD / Victorian Age 1837-1901

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COAL STAITHES
Tyneside coal ports continued to grow with new docks opening in the 1850s like the NER Tyne Dock at Jarrow. Iron and engineering developments increased demand for coal and the ever-growing network of colliery railways brought coal to Tyneside staithes. Foremost were the massive Dunston staithes, built by the NER from 1890 to 1893 and still in existence today.

SUNDERLAND COAL
Sunderland was an important coal-port and shipbuilding town in the 19th Century. Coal was brought by rail to Wearside staithes from mines near Washington, Chester-le-Street, Durham and Hetton.
A number of docks were built between 1837-1868 and from 1831 a rival coal port was developed nearby at Seaham Harbour. Seaham would never develop the vast range of industries present at Sunderland.

HARTLEPOOL COAL
Hartlepool was not really involved in coal export until the 1830s when railways brought coal from Cornforth, Garmondsway, Cassop and Trimdon. Hartlepool was developed by Christopher Tennant of Yarm whose Stockton and Hartlepool Railway boosted trade from 1831. Tennant died before completion of the railway in 1839 and it was taken over by Ralph Ward Jackson. In 1841 Jackson opened Victoria Dock, linked it to the railway and Hartlepool soon shipped more coal than any other northern port. Jackson was frustrated by restrictions on business at Victoria Dock and obtained an Act in 1844 for the formation of Hartlepool West Harbour Dock Company. This was the first stage in the growth of West Hartlepool. By 1862 the two Hartlepools shipped merchandise worth more than three times that of all North-East ports put together, beating Newcastle, North and South Shields, Sunderland, Stockton and Middlesbrough. Hartlepool was the fourth busiest port in the country behind Liverpool, London and Hull and overtook Hull for a time in the 1890s. By 1881, Old Hartlepool’s population was 12,361 and newly-born West Hartlepool had a population of 28,000.

MIDDLESBROUGH COAL
Middlesbrough Dock opened on May 12, 1842, to export coal but was a small dock of five acres. Until then coal was shipped from Middlesbrough via staithes on the riverside. The dock was built in response to competition from Hartlepool’s deep dock, which t hreatened Middlesbrough’s early coal trade. As the decade progressed iron-making replaced coal export as Middlesbrough’s main industry.

UNIONS AND STRIKES
In 1830, North-East miners established a union under Thomas Hepburn and the following year negotiated a ten per cent increase in wages and reduction in working hours for boys. A mass meeting of Durham and Northumberland miners was held on Newcastle Town Moor and the following year the miners went on strike. In the 1840s, the miners established the Miners Association of Great Britain and Ireland with headquarters at Newcastle from 1843. In 1848 depression in the coal industry weakened the union but it recovered in the later part of the century.

MINERS’ GALA
Durham Miners’ Union was formed on November 20, 1869, after a meeting of mine leaders at the Market Hotel in Durham’s Market Place. The first annual Gala was held in Durham’s Wharton Park on August 12, 1871, but moved to the racecourse in 1873. Enormous crowds attended and on July 3, 1875, the LNER Railway Company withdrew all trains from Bishop Auckland, Lanchester and Newcastle to Durham. It claimed railways could not cope with the huge quantity of passengers travelling to the gala. The real reason may have been political.

OWNERS AND CANDYMEN
Businessmen made fortunes from the region’s mines and were often unscrupulous or uncompromising over pay and conditions. Coal owners usually owned the miners’ homes and often evicted those who protested. Notorious ‘Candymen’, or down-and-outs from docksi de areas, often helped with eviction. Many coal owners, like the unpopular Marquess of Londonderry, were aristocrats.

DEEP COAL
East Durham coal lay deep below the magnesian limestone which dominates the east of the county. Coal was first proved to exist here by the sinking of a pit at Haswell in 1811 but the first great deep pit in the region was sunk at Hetton in 1821. It was 147 fathoms (just under 900ft) deep and became one of the most productive pits in the region as well as a focus for some of Stephenson’s important locomotive developments. Monkwearmouth Colliery followed shortly afterwards and was shipping coal from 1835 from a seam 1,590ft below the surface. Harton near South Shields became the deepest Tyne pit in 1841 (1,290 feet). Monkwearmouth reached 1,700ft in 1846 and was the deepest coal mine in the country.

COLLIERY DISASTERS
Around 30 major North-East colliery disasters in the 19th Century claimed the lives of more than 1,500 men and boys. Gas explosions were the major danger, although accidents were also caused by collapsing mines. Pit ponies were also killed in disasters i ncluding 181 at Seaham in 1880. Colliery disasters highlighted needs for safety improvement. As mines got deeper, safety became an issue. The major danger was from gas explosions caused by naked flames on miners’ lamps. In 1815 Humphry Davy and George Stephenson developed the Miners’ S afety lamp. This reduced the danger of explosion and enabled coal owners to explore ever-deeper mines. The cage, for the movement of miners underground, was introduced for safety reasons in 1834 and in 1862 an Act of Parliament made it compulsory for eve ry colliery to have two shafts. In 1867 John Dalglish, general manager of Earl Vane’s Durham collieries, organised a system of voluntary inspection of pits by his workmen. This system was made compulsory by an Act in 1887.

MAJOR NORTH-EAST COLLIERY DISASTERS (1708-1951)

1708 - FATFIELD (69 dead)
1743 - BENSHAM (80 dead)
1767 - FATFIELD (39 dead)
1773 - CHARTERSHAUGH (23 dead)
1794 - PICKTREE (30 dead)
1805 - OXCLOSE, WASHINGTON (38 dead)
1805 - HEBBURN (35 dead)
1812 - FELLING (92 dead)
1813 - FATFIELD HALL PIT (32 dead)
1815 - NEWBOTTLE (57 dead)
1815 - HARRATON, WASHINGTON (38 dead)
1815 - HEATON COLLIERY (70 dead)
1817 - WEST RAINTON (27 dead)
1819 - SHERIFF HILL (35 dead)
1821 - WALLSEND (52 dead)
1823 - PLAIN PIT, RAINTON (59 dead)
1826 - JARROW (34 dead)
1833 - SPRINGFIELD (47 dead)
1835 - WALLSEND (102 dead)
1841 - WILLINGTON (32 dead)
1844 - HASWELL (95 dead)
1845 - JARROW (39 dead)
1849 - HEBBURN (31 dead)
1855 - ELEMORE, NEAR HETTON (28 dead)
1860 - BURRADON (76 dead)
1862 - HARTLEY, NEAR BLYTH (204 dead)
1866 - PELTON (24 dead)
1880 - SEAHAM (164 dead)
1882 - TRIMDON GRANGE (74 dead)
1882 - TUDHOE (35 dead)
1886 - ELEMORE (28 dead)
1896 - BRANCEPETH (20 dead)
1899 - BRANDON (6 dead)
1906 - WINGATE (24 dead)
1908 - WASHINGTON GLEBE (14 dead)
1909 - WEST STANLEY (168 dead)
1942 - MURTON (13 dead)
1947 - LOUISA COLLIERY (21 dead)
1951 - EASINGTON (81 dead)