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February 2. — A most tempestuous wind, accompanied with heavy rain, began to blow from the south-west, and continued with little intermission till the morning of the following day, when it abated. The rain caused a considerable flood in the river Tyne, Wear, and Tees. At Newcastle, the fury of the wind drove the water forward with extraordinary violence, particularly against the bridge over which the spray was carried to a great distance. The low lands to the westward were all flooded. Near Shields, James Watson, a wherryman, was washed out of a boat and drowned, leaving a wife and family. A sailor, belonging to the Hope, of North Shields, fell out of a sculler boat, in trying to clear it from a hawser, on which it had been driven, and was lost. Another boat was upset, but the persons aboard of it were all fortunately saved. At Sunderland much damage was done by the falling of chimneys, also to the roofs of houses. Many ships and keels in the river were driven from their moorings and much injured by the effects of the gale but no lives were lost. At Chester-le-Street, the Wear was so swelled by the rains, that it extended above the arch of the new bridge, which is more than a quarter of a mile from the channel of the river; the whole intermediate space was a complete sheet of water, by which much injury was sustained. At Durham, a stack of chimneys on the house of Miss Wharton, of the North Bailey, was blown down, and fell through the roof into a room of the upper storey, in which were two servant maids, who had a most providential escape from destruction. On hearing a loud rumbling noise, they rushed into a corner of the room, and a moment afterwards, the chimneys fell through the ceiling on the floor, at a few inches from the side of a bed where one of them had been sitting. In Claypath, a nail manufacturer was at work, and another man was sitting beside him, both at about a yard’s distance from the gable end, which was blown down, but luckily it fell outwards. Much other damage was done to roofs of houses, &c. It was supposed that the river Wear rose twelve feet above its ordinary height; its banks were overflowed, and the low lands completely inundated. Two horses and a cow were seen floating down that river. Great damage was done upon the river Tees, particularly at Yarm. [LRS]

February 28. — About twelve o'clock at night, while two men and two boys were ascending the engine pit at Burradon colliery, and had got a little way from the bottom, melancholy to relate, by some accident, the rope gave way, which falling upon them, killed them all. It appeared in evidence on the coroner's inquest, that the rope was quite a good one, and such as would have worked six months, and that the part which broke had only been subject to wear about a month, from which it was inferred, that it must have met with some accident which had nearly separated it, and had consequently given way when the individuals got upon it. [LHTB]

March 18. — Henry Anderson, a pitman, of Old Painsher, was executed at Durham, pursuant to his sentence, for a rape on Sarah Armstrong. At the fatal tree he addressed the spectators. The unhappy culprit was a married man, but separated from his wife. [LRS]

May 23. — The first rail of the Stockton and Darlington railway was laid by Thomas Meynell, esq., of the Friarage, Yarm, near St. John's Well, Stockton, where the depot for coal is now erected, on the 23rd of May, 1822, with public ceremonies and rejoicings. [LHTB]

May 31. — In consequence of information to the excise officers of Newcastle, an illicit distillery was discovered in the waste of an old coal mine, in a field near Fenham Hall, adjoining the Town-moor. The mine appeared to be one of the most ancient in that part of the country, and was surrounded by furze and underwood. At the bottom of the shaft, which was gained by a gradual descent of several yards, was a small aperture like the mouth of an oven, which could only be entered by crawling; this led to a large apartment in the mine, wherein were found two stills, with about 200 gallons of wash, and a complete distillery apparatus, valued in all at about £50. It appeared to have been abruptly abandoned for fear of detection. A long chimney, built with brick, conveyed the smoke into the old workings, whence the neighbouring pits had a draught. The coal of the mine supplied the fuel necessary for the work; water was also found upon the spot. As soon as the discovery was known, hundreds of persons visited the place, many of whom were induced to explore "The Smuggler’s Hole," as it was now called, and some who ventured into it had to stay much longer than they calculated on. About four o’clock on the morning of the 6th of June, three young men, to gratify their curiosity, ventured in about a mile, it was supposed, from the entrance. They had provided themselves with candles, which they considered sufficient for their purpose; they had, however, proceeded too far, and not having marked their way, were unable to retrace their steps, and their candles being nearly consumed, they were reduced to the necessity of making a fire with a hammer handle (which they had with them for the purpose of knocking off petrifications) and some pieces of coal which they found in the place. As the day advanced their friends became alarmed for their safety, and about twelve o’clock, some pitmen coming to the place, kindly offered their assistance, and, after some time, found the young men, who had been listening with much anxiety to hear the approach of any deliverer. They had not followed these friendly men far, when he who carried the candle stumbled, and they were again in total darkness; and such was the difficulty of their situation, that even with these experienced guides, they were obliged to continue in this dreary cavern several hours longer, when other two pitmen proceeded in, and extricated the whole about half-past four o’clock in the afternoon, the young men having been under ground without any food upwards of twelve hours. The roof and floor of the cavity were covered with very curious petrifications, called stalactites, formed by the drippings of water. Several other persons were liberated by pitmen, so that it became necessary to build up the aperture; but such was the curiosity of the public, that the mason work was soon demolished. [LRS]

July. — The owners of Hetton Colliery having occasion to make a reservoir for water at the summit of Warden Law, a hill of considerable altitude in the county of Durham, at the depth of ten feet, the workmen discovered an oak tree, which measured seventy feet long, three feet in diameter at one end, and two feet at the other. The branches extended thirty feet further, which made the whole length one hundred feet. The workmen bored down ten feet further, and found nothing but wood, but it was not dug out. A large quantity of nuts and nut-bushes was found, the former were very perfect. About the same time, as some quarrymen were laying bare a quarry belonging to the same owners, they discovered a human skeleton about three feet below the surface, with an old fashioned button and two breeches knee buckles, which had probably been worn by the deceased. [LRS]

October 24. — In addition to the inconvenience arising from the strike of the keelmen on the Tyne, a number of seamen proceeded from Shields up the river in boats, and took the crews from some of the vessels which were loading at the spouts. The mayor of Newcastle, Robert Bell, esq., proceeded down the river in his barge, with a party of the volunteers and police, and took thirty-two of the rioters into custody, and carried them down to the Low Lights, at Shields, when thirty were put aboard the king's cutter. A mob assembled on the sands, and demanded the liberation of the prisoners, which was refused, and the riot act was read by a Northumberland magistrate, soon after which the crows dispersed. On the following day the prisoners were conveyed from the cutter in carts, under a strong military guard to the Castle of Newcastle, to which place a number of refractory seamen, &c., following the prisoners, Previous to their arrival, all the avenues leading to the castle were guarded by parties of the Northumberland and Newcastle volunteer cavalry, and dismounted troop, to prevent the admission of the anticipated crowd, and a powerful phalanx was placed in the Castle-garth, the conduct of the mob was so outrageous, that the riot act was read by the right worshipful the mayor, and two of the ringleaders were taken into custody, one of whom was recognised a having been very active at Shields, while the prisoners were conveyed from the cutter to the carts. A military guard remained all night at the castle. [LRS]

November 18. — The Hetton coal company effected the first shipment of coals at their newly erected staith on the banks of the river Wear at Sunderland. The wagon-way, which extends over a space of eight miles from the colliery to the river, and in its course crosses Warden Law (one of the highest hills in this part of the country), was crowded with spectators to witness the first operations of the powerful and ingenious machinery employed for conveying the coal wagons. Five of Mr. George Stephenson's patent travelling engines, two sixty horse power fixed reciprocating engines, and five self-acting inclined planes (all under the direction of Mr. Robert Stephenson, the company's resident engineer) simultaneously performing their various and complicated offices, with a precision and exactness of the most simple machinery, exhibited a spectacle at once interesting to science, and encouraging to commerce. After the business of the day, the owners of the colliery, with about fifty of their friends, dined at Miss Jowsey's, the Bridge inn, Bishopwearmouth. [LHTB]

December 10. — The beginning of this month, the keelmen of the Tyne resumed their labours, after a suspension of about ten weeks, under alleged grievances which the coal owners had determined to resist. At periods during the stick they were very refractory, but by the vigilance of the navy and military employed, together with the prompt assistance of the magistracy, their turbulence was suppressed, The Swan cutter was moored on the south side of the river, opposite to Newcastle Quay, and fired her morning and evening gun. This was supposed to be the only instance of a ship of war having been so far up the Tyne since the rebellion in 1745-6, when troops were landed at Newcastle from king's ships. In consequence of the restoration of order, the mayor conveyed the thanks of the civil authorities, on the above day, to the officers, seamen, and marines of his majesties ships the Egeria, Nimrod, and Swan, previous to their departure from the port, the acknowledgements of the civil authorities, and of the gentlemen interested in the coal trade were likewise conveyed to Lieut.-Col. Holmes, 3rd dragoon guards ; Lieut.-Col. Brandling, of the Northumberland and Newcastle volunteers cavalry, and to Hon. Captain Liddell of the Ravensworth cavalry, for their services in support of the civil power, and the exemplary conduct of the troops under their command. [LRS]

 

 

 

• LHTB — Local Historian's Table Book of Remarkable Occurrences Connected with the Counties of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, Northumberland and Durham by M.A. Richardson. Published in five volumes in 1844.
• LRS — Local Records or Historical Register of Remarkable Events by John Sykes, published in 1833 in two volumes