MONKWEARMOUTH COLLIERY
Monkwearmouth, or Wearmouth Colliery was sunk in the period which followed the Hetton Coal Co.’s success in breaking through up to 250 ft. Work began in 1826, but development was slow because of significant drainage problems, a feature of the east Durham pits. The first coals were drawn at 1,578 feet from the Maudlin seam in 1834, and in June 1835 the first cargo of Wearmout
h coals was shipped from Sunderland. In 1846, the rich 5ft.-thick Hutton seam was struck at 1,772 feet. Employment rose from approximately 100 men and boys in 1836, to 340 in 1843, and to 1,100 in 1855. In 1851 Wearmouth was the world's deepest mine and one of the most technically advanced, employing cage and rail-transport technology and 'longwall' working in the Hutton seam. The leading partner and, with others of his family, major investor in Wearmouth colliery, was Richard Pemberton of Barnes, the mine being sometimes known as Pemberton Main. The technical problems created by the geology of east Durham meant that between £80,000 and £100, 000 was spent on sinking and development costs before quantities of coals were first shipped in 1834. The discovery of the Hutton seam made the mine an attractive commercial proposition, but it had potentially high capital costs and these factors, together with the volatile state of the coal trade and the deaths of a few the partners, may explain the decision of the Pembertons in 1847 to sell 18 of the total 32 shares, for which they were paid £54,000. Two of the new owners were London-based coal capitalists, William Stobart and Charles Richard Fenwick, their emergence indicative of the way in which London capital was entering north-east industry. Day-to-day running of the re-named Wearmouth Coal Co. was left to the third new shareholder William Bell of Ford, who with Stobart had interests in collieries at Lumley, Herrington and Fatfield. The great strike of 1844:
At the time of the great strike of 1844, Monkwearmouth colliery was still under development, for it would be two years before the Hutton seam could be worked. Monkwearmouth was not a large pit in terms of its workforce, in 1843 employing 340; Willington colliery, in contrast, had 618 employees 15 years earlier. It is difficult to estimate the level of trade union activity at Monkwearmouth at this time. The new east Durham pits tended to be more radical and unionised than longer-established mines, with Hetton the epicentre of trade unionism during the first half of the century. A second shaft was sunk at Monkwearmouth between 1841 and 1845, and new transport machinery installed, so that the pit at the time of the strike would have had sinkers and engineers working alongside hewers and putters. There is little doubt that the Miners' Association was active at Monkwearmouth. In December 1843, four Wearmouth miners were on trial, charged with assault and making threats against fellow collier Joseph Russell, who had left the union on the grounds that he objected to threats of violence against the colliery viewer. Large numbers of the Wearmouth pitmen were present at the trial. Despite a succession of non-union witnesses supporting the defence, Russell's assailants were convicted, fined and bound over. The Wearmouth pitmen were also active during the great strike of 1844. In May 1844 a meeting which took place in a field drew ‘upward of 300’ men from Monkwearmouth, Jarrow, Hepburn and Shields collieries. The pitmen were clearly organised, electing a chairman and passing three resolutions, one of them from Nicholas Morgan of Monkwearmouth colliery: ‘That it is the opinion of this meeting that the conditions of the miners’ bond of this district are nothing but what are reasonable and just and this meeting pledges itself , individually and collectively, not to commence work until the conditions are complied with.’
How many of the Monkwearmouth miners were union men it is impossible to say, as is how many of them struck during April to August 1844. The 300 who attended the meeting in May amounted to perhaps 20 per cent of the combined workforces of the pits represented; how many of these collieries were not in production or partly working is not reported in the local press. Significantly, evictions from tied housing were reported at nearby Rainton, Hetton and Pittington, but not at Wearmouth. By early September the pitmen were back at work. Trade union activity and disputes, 1847-69:
Many of the disputes preceding the formation of the DMA in 1869 concerned changes to piece work prices and systems of working set out in the bond. Despite the collapse of the Miners' Association in the region in 1844, the spirit of trade unionism did not expire. In March 1847, Wearmouth miners in dispute over prices held several meetings and resolved to unite with the National Association of United Trades. By April the men had returned to work. In 1850, three to four hundred Wearmouth miners struck work to resist payment by the score rather than by the yard, which would have meant a reduction in wages. Mr Burnes, the colliery viewer, appealed to the magistrates and mayor. Bailiffs, accompanied by the borough police, removed 20 families from their houses. The belongings of the miners and their families were taken to a nearby quarry, where the men stayed overnight. Four years later, in 1854, the pitmen of Wearmouth colliery struck and in doing so breached their bond. The dispute turned on changes in the work process, from ‘board and pillar’ to ‘long wall’, and an associated demand from the men for an increase in prices. Summonses were taken out against four of the men, and they appeared before the magistrates. The miners argued their case ‘intelligently’, and during the proceedings the masters and men came to an agreement ‘without the aid of the bench’. “ Rob Owers
