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March 19. — A new engine, with many improvements on a previously invented machine for drawing up coals out of the pits without horses, erected at Hartley, by Thomas Delaval, esq., was set to work with incredible success. By this means, coals were drawn out of that deep mine at the rate of a corf per minute. The machine and improvements were invented by Mr. Joseph Oxley. This was the second machine which had been erected in this colliery, and was of so simple a construction, that the whole worked upon two axletrees of about five feet long. [LRS]

April 1. — A terrible explosion took place at Walker colliery, near Newcastle. The workings of this mine were about 100 fathoms below the surface of the earth. The foul air fired in an instant, and the explosion, which immediately followed, made a report as loud as thunder. There were no lives lost, but the workmen were in a most miserable condition, being scorched and burnt to a frightful degree. As soon as it could be done, all possible assistance was given to the sufferers, who, on being drawn up, were sent to the infirmary. On the day following, several overmen and others descended to examine the state of the mine, when, dreadful to relate, it fired a second time, and killed eight persons and seventeen horses, who were all burnt in a most shocking manner. [LRS]

July. — About this time drifts were wrought in Murton Colliery, then considered to be the most fiery on the Wear, by the faint but secure light of fish skins. [LRS]

October. — At the beginning of this month, the pitmen in the counties of Durham and Northumberland resumed their labour, after a strike of several weeks. The difference between the pitmen and the coal owners was, according to the appeal of the former to the public :– "That most of the pitmen were bound the latter end of August, and the remainder of them were bound the beginning of September, 1764 ; and they served till the 24th or 25th of August, 1765, which they expect is the due time of their servitude; but the honourable gentlemen in the coal trade will not let them be free till the 11th of November, 1765, which, instead of 11 months and 25 days (the respective time of their bonds), is upwards of 14 months; so the said pitmen are resolved not to work for or serve the said gentlemen in any of the collieries till they be fully satisfied that the said article is dissolved, and new bonds and agreements entered into for the year ensuing." During the strike, on the "18th of September, early in the morning, the mine of coal and one of the pits of Pelton Common colliery, in the county of Durham, belonging to Mrs. Jennision and partners, were wilfully and maliciously set on fire;" the owners offered £100 reward for the discovery of the incendiary. A most diabolical letter was sent to Mr. Alderman Bell, in Westgate Street, Newcastle. For the bringing to justice the persons concerned in writing the letter (the actual writer excepted) his majesty’s pardon was announced, and a reward of £100 was offered by the corporation of Newcastle. [LRS]

November 1. — There was a great storm at sea which continued for several days. Upwards of sixteen keels were driven out of the river at Sunderland, and sunk at sea, by which upwards of thirty keelmen were lost, most of whose bodies were afterwards found washed on the sands. There were twenty two widows, and fifty three children left by the sufferers. A very liberal subscription was raised for their relief. [LRS]

November 27. — A violent shock, like that of an earthquake, happened at Long Benton, a village about four miles from Newcastle, which disjointed all the houses built of stone upon a freestone rock. The inhabitants fled from their houses into the fields, expecting their fall every minute. The street opened and closed again from end to end. A gentleman’s garden and some fields sunk about two feet, and many parts of Killingworth Moor shared the same fate, but no lives were lost. This was occasioned by the colliery at Long Benton having been wrought completely out. It was a custom, at that time, in working collieries to leave as much coal as they dug away ; but being a coal of great character in London, they had worked the coal pillars away, and fixed slight wooden ones in their stead, which not being sufficient to support a rock of two miles square, and seventy-five fathoms thick, being the depth of the coal pit, the whole sank down together. [LRS]

 

 

 

• LRS — Local Records or Historical Register of Remarkable Events by John Sykes, Published in 1833 in two volumes