Durham Mining Museum - Newspaper Articles (original) (raw)

6th August 1937, Page: 268, Column: 1

Notes from the Coal Fields

Northumberland and Durham

[Local Correspondence.]

Negotiations have been completed for the taking over of Sir W. G. Armstrong Whitworth and Co.'s Scotswood works, Newcastle, by Vickers-Armstrongs, Ltd., and the change was carried into effect on Monday. The works, which have in the main been engaged on locomotive manufacture, will be devoted almost entirely to arms manufacture under the Government's rearmament programme. When the change was originally announced in February trade unionists and others on Tyneside opposed it on the grounds that a permanent industry was being sacrificed for a temporary arms boom. Efforts were made to divert the locomotive making industry to another Tyne district, but without success.

A third effort by three Morpeth (Northumberland) miners to work coal on the Park House estate, Morpeth, has failed, and they are now working again for one of the colliery companies in the district. The men are three brothers, Robert, Thomas and Elijah Wood, all elderly men, who set about working coal on the estate from a plan left by their grandfather. They drew their first coal in February, but have now come up against a belt of stone which would be too costly to overcome. Previous attempts were beaten by water and the scantiness of output.

The Harton Coal Co., Ltd., has offered land at Boldon Colliery to the Boldon Urban Council as a public park. The offer has been accepted.

Two coal hewers, T. Marsden and W. Chalk, who were trapped by a fall of stone at Horden Colliery, Co. Durham, were released last Saturday morning after being entombed for 14 hours. The two men were imprisoned in a space about 5 ft. square. A rescue party, working under the direction of Mr. Earle Best, manager of the colliery, and other officials, had to bore a hole with pneumatic picks through solid rock, working all night in relays.

There was a sequel to an accident at Burradon Colliery on July 6, in which a boy was killed, at Newcastle Moothall Police Court last week, when T. Riddle, fore-overman, pleaded "guilty" to a breach of the Mines Act by omitting to see that a haulage rope was properly spliced and socketed. He was fined £5. It was explained by Mr. F. J. Lambert, prosecuting, that on July 6 the rope snapped, and instead of having it spliced, Riddle ordered it to be knotted. After hauling five sets of tubs the rope snapped again, and several tubs ran amain, killing a boy at the bottom of the incline.

Presenting safety first badges last Saturday to youths employed by the Consett Iron Co., Ltd., Mr. E. J. George, managing director of the firm, said they heard much of accidents on the roads, but they must also think in terms of underground roads. On behalf of the miners' lodge, Mr. N. F. Nattrasspaid tribute to the safety classes schemes which were started five years ago.

Despite the warning of "grave risk of damage" to Westerhope school by mining operations, Northumberland Education Committee recommend in their report to the county council, that they take the risk, rather than spend an estimated £3,000 upon the purchase of mineral rights. The committee has already purchased 55 per cent. of one seam at a depth of 600 ft., at a cost of £700, to maintain a support under the school, under an agreement made in 1933. Throckley Coal Co., Ltd., owners of the mineral rights under the school have notified their intention to work the coal in the 3 ft. thick Three-quarters seam, 105 fm. under the school. Mr. Guy Clephan, mining engineer consulted by the committee, expressed the view that there was grave risk of damage to the school by the projected mining operations. He recommended that the committee should purchase 55 per cent. of the coal for surface support, and should consider the advisability of purchasing support. in all seams in view of the uneven subsidence which would occur during the working of the various seams. The Government mineral valuer reported in similar terms.