Coquet and Coast Forum
Don't forget to check out our sister site: Amble and District

Go Back   Coquet and Coast Forum > Local History, Genealogy, People and Places > Amble and Hauxley

 We no longer use activation emails. Please allow 24h after sign up and your account should work
Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old 14-09-2015, 11:20 AM
Coquet's Avatar
Coquet Coquet is offline
Administrator
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Amble
Posts: 3,253
Default Early Mining, Amble and District

We mentioned the early 17c coal mining at Amble in Janwhin's Bullock Estate thread; rather than take that way off topic I'll start a new thread. We keep coming across references to early mining in unexpected places. We should therefore probably have a thread to consolidate references to early mining in the district. This is now it. So pre 'modern' Amble and district mining - i.e. pre Victorian.
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old 14-09-2015, 11:33 AM
Coquet's Avatar
Coquet Coquet is offline
Administrator
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Amble
Posts: 3,253
Default

In my mining book collection there is a two volume work by J.U. Nef Ph.D. (Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago) titled 'The Rise of the British Coal Industry' published 1932

This book is also on-line somewhere partly digitised by Google.

Chapter 1 is 'The Principal Coal producing Regions' with a subdivision for 'Durham and Northumberland'. In this section is a map of the area showing Collieries 'about 1635'. For our neck of the woods he has marked: Bilton, Shilbottle, Amble and Coquet Island. (all collieries with a probable output of less that 5,000 tons per annum).

He also says this about our area:

"………… But, in Northumberland, outcrops were found along the strip of coastline between the rivers Tyne and Coquet, and during the reigns of Elizabeth and the first two Stuarts a number of ambitious attempts were made to work coal at various points in this district for shipment from Amble, Blyth, Hartley, and Whitley.
They were all failures. Until after the Restoration the shipments of coal from the Northumberland coast never appear to have exceeded 5,000 tons in any one year. A contract made in 1618, with a view to the development of the coal and salt industries near Amble, was terminated in 1620 because of a dispute between the contracting parties over the costs of financing the scheme ; and there is no evidence that either coal or salt was shipped from this port. At Blyth enterprise was less easily discouraged. After the dissolution of the monasteries, coal pits and salt pans at Bebside and Cowpen were frequently leased by the Crown, and early in Elizabeth's reign certain lessees received encouragement from the Percys. In 1595, nine salt pans are said to have been in working order ; but, by the end of the sixteenth century, the operation of pits and pans alike had been practically discontinued. Not more than 800 tons of coal appear to have been shipped from Blyth in the year 1609, ......"

So we nearly had a coal port in the times of James I
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 11:46 AM.


Powered by: vBulletin
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.