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

1803

May 10. — A great number of keelmen were impressed at Shields, by which the coal trade was much impeded. After being inspected, fifty-three were retained and sent on board the navy; but on the 16th of June following, they returned, government having agreed to take substitutes, and on the 30th, eighty men, raised to serve as such, went down the river Tyne in a keel, to be shipped for the Nore. These were furnished to government at the joint expense of the keelmen, to prevent them being liable to the impress. [_LHTB_]

September 25. — An explosion took place in Wallsend colliery, by which unfortunate circumstance, thirteen individuals lost their lives. [_LRS_]

September 26. — Being the day appointed by Mr. Simon Temple, to celebrate the opening of his colliery at Jarrow, the fineness of the day, and the general invitation, drew many thousands of people to witness the passage of the coals to the ship, Fox, which lay, highly decorated with colours, to receive them. Early on the morning, the South Shields bells announced the intended feast, and all the ships in the harbour immediately hoisted their colours. About ten o�clock Mr. Temple arrived at South Shields, to proceed with the shipwrights, attended by the bands of the Northumberland and Anglesea militias, to the place of festivity, celebrated in early time as the birth place of Bede. Immediately on his arrival in the market place, the shipwrights took the horses out of the carriage, and drew him, attended by his father and three sons to Jarrow, with flags flying and music playing. On Jarrow bridge he was met by a large assemblage of gentlemen, headed by Sir Cuthbert Heron, bart., who greeted him on his arrival. Their first step was to lay the foundation stone of a school, for the education of the poor children of the various workmen employed by Mr. Temple. This was done by his eldest son, Mr. William Temple, amidst the plaudits of the whole company. They next proceeded to lay the foundation stone of a building intended as a seminary for the instruction of poor females in offices more suited to their sex than several of their employments in the north of England. These commendable acts being finished, the procession moved to another part of the estate, to lay the foundation stone of a fever-house and hospital, for such of the families employed in Mr. Temple�s various works as might require these comforts. By this time, several of the clergy of the cathedral of Durham, the corporation barge of Newcastle, with several members of that body, and a great number of the most respectable gentlemen from all parts of the country, had arrived. They now proceeded to the more immediate cause of their meeting, and the wagons being loaded with coals, were taken to the ship, under the banners of the South Shields loyal volunteers, which were then unfurled, and a general discharge of artillery, the music playing "Weel may the Keel Row," and other appropriate tunes. It was supposed that not less than ten thousand people were assembled on this occasion, In a tent prepared for their entertainment, about three hundred gentlemen sat down to dinner. The workmen, in number five hundred, dined at a long table without. After dinner, a great number of loyal and appropriate toasts were given. [_LHTB_]

• 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