Coal at Chevington
 

Is this the earliest reference to the potential for coal extraction at Chevington?
Newcastle Courant issues from Nov 1757 to January 1758:
"Lately discovered and now to lett, Several valuable seams of coal, lying under the estates of East and West Chivington, viz:
First or uppermost seam of coal......7ft 4in thick:
Second ditto ......6ft 1in ditto;
Third ditto ......3ft 2in ditto:
The above seams are all of good caking quality, and the deepest does not exceed 50 fathoms where bored, and the borings have been made by John Rawling. The estates contain upwards of 4000 acres of land and lie contiguous to the sea; and in all probabliity the coals may be shipped at a much easier expense than those shipped from the Tyne or Wear rivers."

I think this is early for Chevington. I cant find a reference this early in Earl Grey's papers at Durham University.

http://www.dur.ac.uk/library/asc/col...oad/?collno=52

Slightly off topic but on the page 'Estate records of the Earls Grey and Lords Howick'

there is a reference to a Harbour for the export of Chevington Coal dated 1825;


GRE/X/P215 1825-1899
2 copy letters W. Brunton of London to Mr Taylor concerning Chevington coal and construction of a harbour for its export, 22 July 1825, with plan of the proposed harbour.


Is this reference to early (pre-Radcliffe) works on the Coquet ? .....or something else?

If you have some time to browse through the Early Grey material index for
Durham Uni you'll see it's a little data gold mine (or should I say coal mine :D) for our Chevington / Broomhill area.

I wish you hadn't told me about those estate papers :rolleyes: The advert in 1758 mentions an easier way of shipping the coal than the Tyne, this has to be Amble, or possibly Alnmouth. Pre dates the changing course of the Coquet.

I don't know this local history business!

That 1757 date is in the Grey papers:


GRE/X/P223 1757-1924
Bundle of papers concerning Chevington coal, Broomhill Colliery and Warkworth Harbour including the following items:
Papers concerning borings for coal on Chevington Estate 1757-1850.
Minutes concerning the coal district of Amble and Haxley 1838.
Memorandum by John Taylor, of Gray's Inn Square, on forming a company to exploit Chevington coal, 1 February 1825.
Plan of Warkworth Harbour and roads with soundings 1844, with particulars in French.
Another plan with soundings of the bay adjacent to Chevington Estate.
Radcliffe Colliery sinking account of 1st pit 1839......

How do we go about getting copies of items - such as plan of the harbour 1844 ?

If its anything like a will I ordered from the University library some while ago it should be pretty straightforward.
Click the website link on Coquet's message and have a look for a map, there are some in the Grey papers. There is a link to the side of the page called Document Delivery Service. If the map has a ConneXions link you can order it through the DDS. Just cough up some money :)

Just had a look, I think you'd have to give them a call about getting a copy....can't see any links to ConneXions.

There'll be problems putting such unpublished material online as well. It will still be in copyright, which will be held by the current Earl Grey.

A bit of a pain unfortunately. (not the Earl, but the copyright situation you understand :D)

The three coal seams mentioned are:
Top of Broomhill
Main of Broomhill
Bottom of Broomhill (Known as the BOBS)

Coal at Chevington
 

Somewhere on The Forum Bullocks Hall Colliery is mentioned, I think by Coquet. He said that it showed an aerial ropeway on his map.
Well, I have checked a War Dept. map issued in 1940 but reproduced from a 1925 map of the area. The aerial ropeway is clearly shown going to Chevington Wood and ending just east side of the main LNER railway, (London/Edinburgh), and just south of the junction with the Broomhill/Amble line. There is a single-track railway from the Broomhill line to the end of the aerial ropeway. To me this suggests that coal drawn from Bullocks Hall Colliery was sent via the rope-way to the railway for transfer, possibly to Amble steaths and the ships. This line curves to the east before joining the Broomhill/Amble line therefore it seems unlikely that coal would be sent onto the main line.
The map also shows, interestingly for me, the single-track railway from Broomhill Colliery to Amble via the east side of Radcliffe, through Radcliffe Colliery(Disused).A further single track branch line is shown leaving the single track and terminating at Bondicarr Colliery.

Colliery line from Broomhill to Amble via Radcliffe.
 

This line was made when Broomhill Coal Co. took over Radcliffe Coal Co. in the late 1890's. The purpose was to enable them to ship some of their coal to Amble without paying the N E R so much per ton to use the main line from Broomhill to Amble which they had used since the pit opened and still continued to use.It connected with the already existing line from the old Radcliffe colliery to Amble and a branch was made to the newly opened Newburgh colliery. This branch was still in use until the early 1950's when coal from Hauxley South drift,which belonged to Broomhill, was sent to Amble harbour. Hauxley colliery branch also joined the line nearer Amble. These lines and the tubways from East Togston and Dawsons drifts are shown on "Wagonways of the North East".

Curious things those aerial ropeways. here's a couple of photos of some old time ropeways at Skinningrove.

http://www.image-archive.org.uk/?cat=48&paged=2

I believe one crossed the A1 at Whittle at one time.

Aerial Ropeways
 

So are these the same as those used to carry waste to the heaps nearer to home, at Ashington? They looked very similar to the photograph in your post above.

Yes same thing. The Bullocks Hall one looks to be about 2 kilometres long.
The Whittle one ran from Longframlington Colliery to Whittle Colliery Screens. 4 miles long according to this source on flickr

Longframlington to Whittle ropeway.
 

Durham mining museum, entry for Whittle, gives details of the 4 mile long ropeway with pictures of the method of "hanging on and knocking off "the tubs at either end. When you go to that area and look at the distance, it was a decent feat of engineering to construct this bearing in mind that in private enterprise days they didn't like to spend too much money.