Durham Mining Museum - Local Records Extracts (original) (raw)

1801

This year, Framwellgate and Brasside Moors, and Witton Gilbert Common (2,400 acres), all in the county of Durham, were divided. The late Bishop (Barrington) had one sixteenth of the soil allotted, and all the mines. This venerable prelate appropriated one third of his whole allotment to the founding of schools within the county of Durham. [_LRS_]

April 19. — Died at Walker, near Newcastle, aged 36, Mr. Thomas Barnes, principal viewer and agent at Walker colliery. He was a man of very superior abilities in his profession. A most ingenious and yet simple combination of machinery, for the purpose of regulating the conveyance of wagons, laden with coals, down an inclined plane, from Benwell colliery, on the north side of the Tyne, to the staith at the border of the river, and for bringing up the wagons, when unloaded, by the same power that resisted its projectile impetus in the descent, was, in the year 1798, perfected and brought into use by Mr. Barnes. His remains lie interred in Long Benton churchyard where a table monument is erected to his memory. [_LHTB_]

May 4. — About four o'clock in the mornin, the iron slitting-mill of Messrs. Hawks and Co., near Gateshead, was discovered to be on fire, but by the prompt exertions of the company's workmen who lived upon the spot, it was readily extinguished. [_LRS_]

October 2. — A line of keels was moored across the river Tyne near Clifford�s Fort, and deals laid across from shore to shore. After carefully examining this extraordinary highway, Lord Mulgrave mounted his charger, and accompanied by General Murray, Major Heron, and other officers, rode over from the county of Durham to Northumberland. Major Heron then galloped back again. Soon after, Lord Mulgrave marched the 1st regiment of royal Lancashire militia (accompanied by their field pieces and ammunition waggons) from Tynemouth barracks over this bridge to the Herd Sands, when an action took place against a supposed enemy; at the same time several shells were fired from a battery on the north side, which had a fine effect. The troops were then marched back again, and Major Heron (after firing three close vollies), marched the South Shields volunteers into Northumberland. The adjacent banks and hills were covered with spectators to witness this novel sight. [_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