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#1
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Wild Widdrington Pitmen
Those Widdrington miners must have been proper desperadoes. Here's a newspaper article from the Morpeth Herald of 21 November 1868:
"A number of men have come on several occasions from Widdrington Colliery and vicinity in large bodies for the purpose of getting salmon in the Coquet....On Sunday the 15th at two a. m. a large number of people assembled on the Coquet to fish. A body of police were on watch and they succeeded in apprehending William Bolam, Robert Black, James Young, and James Liddell, all pitmen at Widdrington Colliery. Bolam is a desperate character, known by the sobriquet of "Dick Turpin" to which he answers. He is well known in Castle Division, in Bedlington, and Six Mile Bridge......" |
#2
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Quote:
That's early for Widdrington Colliery. Perhaps they were shaft sinkers, I think they had a bit of a reputation. There was another colliery, at the roundabout end, near Widdrington castle, called...you guessed it... Castle Colliery, they could have worked there if it was still operational? Castle Colliery started in the 1720s. This is after the Widdringtons lost their lands so it must have been started by the new owners. Looking at the modern map the new road must be just about on top of Castle Colliery. [any casualties for 'Castle Colliery' Janwhin?] 1864: |
#3
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I've got 13 deaths so far for Widdrington and Ferneybeds but nothing specific to Castle Colliery. The earliest death is 1871 which makes mention of the colliery starting up about 4 years previously. That would tie in with the desperadoes of 1868 being sinkers!
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#4
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Castle Colliery was about half way towards the roundabout from the farm entrance. The map showing the farm buildings is accurate to this day as I know the farm very well. The area around it was one of the earliest opencasts in this area, can anyone state when opencasting started in this area?, I believe it was pre -WW11
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#5
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The earliest reference I have is a site started in 1942 at Ferneybeds to help the war effort. I think there was a site at Acklington Aerodrome during the war as well. Both these areas have good seams at shallow depths, so makes sense for some quick and easy coal.
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#6
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"Ferney Bed" shaft being sunk in 1909:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/368917...98857/sizes/k/ It was coaling within 5 weeks of the first sod being cut. On the DMM site the shaft log shows 41cm of coal at 14.43 metres and 107cm of coal at 23 metres depth. Shallow stuff. Some sort of cage contraption attached to that winch. Wouldn't get me in that, even if it was just 70 ft. deep. |
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