Durham E-Theses Coalmining, population and enclosure in the Seasale colliery districts of Durham (northern Durham), 1551-1810 : a study in historical geography. Hodgson, Robert Ian How to cite: Hodgson, Robert Ian (1990) Coalmining, population and enclosure in the Seasale colliery districts of Durham (northern Durham), 1551-1810 : a study in historical geography., Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/961/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without his prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. COALMINING, POPULATION AND ENCLOSURE IN THE SEASALE COLLIERY DISTRICTS OF DURHAM (NORTHERN DURHAM), 1551-1810: A STUDY IN HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY A thesis in two volumes, submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the University of Durham, 1989 by ROBERT IAN HODGSON (Lecturer in Geography, University of Manchester, and research student in the Department of Geography, University of Durham) VOLUME ONE (5 -3 APR1990 ABSTRACT COALMINING, POPULATION AND ENCLOSURE IN THE SEASALE COLLIERY DISTRICTS OF DURHAM (NORTHERN DURHAM), 1551-18101 A STUDY IN HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY Robert Ian Hodgson By reference to a wide range of sources and with an especial, but deliberately not exclusive, concern for events in Northern Durham, an attempt is made to reconstruct basic patterns of coalmining, population and enclosure. A second major task is to provide a framework of explanation for these patterns: to examine the factors which may have created and, in turn, destroyed them, and to explore ways in which the patterns may have been interrelated or interdependent. Rising demand for coal throughout the period 1551-1810, emanating chiefly from London, stimulated population growth within the mining districts, and the rise of an increasingly specialized industrial work force, in turn, put pressure upon agriculture to reform its technical and organizational structures in order to ease the task'of providing more locally grown food. Developments were not as simple as might be assumed from the above scenario, however. The variable attitudes and actions of decision makers were no less crucial than the uncertainties of natural resource endowment in determining the pace and location of developments through time and space, period and place. Landownership emerges as a dominant factor in understanding contrasts and Durham. similarities in the changing economic landscape of Northern An appreciation of the richness and variety of regional experience is essential to the formulation of descriptive or explanatory models of economic and social change. 11 COPYRIGHT The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without his prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. DECLARATION No material contained in this thesis has previously been submitted by me for a degree in this or any other university. Signed Date w-D r^ iii C0NTENTS in two VOLUMES VOLUMEONE List of tables vii List of plates viii List of figures (in volume two) ix List of appendices (in volume two) xii Acknowledgements xiv INTRODUCTION Period and place 2 In search of an historical geographical problem 7 A framework of investigation 13 Scale variations: discussion 18 Scale variations: application 20 PARTI: C0ALMINING 2 COLLIERY LOCATION PATTERNS, 1551-1810 Information sources and the task of pattern reconstruction 27 The antecede nt pattern: coalworking to 1550 32 The colliery location pattern, 1551-1680 34 The colliery location pattern, 1681-1740 42 The colliery location pattern, 1741-1810 50 3 FACTORS AFFECTING COLLIERY LOCATION PATTERNS, 1551-1810: DEMAND AND SUPPLY CONSIDERATIONS Markets The coastal trade 61 Overseas aarkets 64 Local consuaption 66 Supply factors: resource endowment and technological progress Coal spans 74 Coal working at depth 80 Distance constraints and transport innovation 87 Supply factors: the coal royalty 94 4 FACTORS AFFECTING COLLIERY LOCATION PATTERNS, 1551-IB10s ECONOMIC STRUCTURES AND SPATIAL STRATEGIES The coal maketing system and the price of coal 103 Capital and entrepreneurship on the coalfield Profits and losses 109 Costs 114 Sources of investaent capital 121 iv Combination, competition and territorial possession The monopoly of the Newcastle hostsen 135 Regulation and the rise of the Grand Allies 141 The Limitation of the Vend 154 PARTII: P0PULAT10N 5 POPULATION PATTERNS AND THE FACTORS AFFECTING THEM, c. 1551-1810 Information sources and the task of pattern reconstruction 168 Patterns of population change 171 Factors affecting population patterns The industrializing economy in Northern Durban 177 The developing economy in the rest of County Durban Ise Mobility, migration and employment opportunities 193 Wages and living standards 199 Food supplies and prices 206 PARTIII: ENCL0SURE 6 ENCLOSURE PATTERNS AND THE FACTORS AFFECTING THEM, 1551-1810 Information sources and the task of pattern reconstruction 214 The setting 218 Enclosure patterns 221 Factors affecting enclosure patterns Towards agrarian capitalism: initiatives and constraints 227 Enclosure and husbandry practice 237 7 ENCLOSURE AND COALMININ6: LORDSHIP AND LANDSCAPE IN NORTHERN DURHAM, 1551-1810 Land use priorities: three case studies 250 The enclosure of Lanchester Fell 262 Mineral ownership disputes and the timing of enclosure 276 8 CONCLUSION Coalmining, population and enclosure: a summary 285 The wider perspective The coal industry in the industrial revolution 299 Regional change and industrial revolution 306 Notes to the text 315 Plates after page 404 V VOLUME TWO List of figures page iii List of appendices vi Figures 1 Appendices 151 Bibliography 297 A NOTE ON DATES: All dates prior to 2 September 1752 are in the Old (Julian) Style except that the new year is taken to start on 1 January. From 14 September 1752 dates are in the New (Gregorian) Style. vi TAELE6 2.1 Sizes of seasale collieries, 1636 page 35 2.2 Sizes of seasale collieries, 1636 and 1728 45 2.3 Sizes of seasale collieries, 1636,1728 and 1804 52 3.1 Percentage share of shipped quantities of coal destined for the London market 62 3.2 Principal coal se ams identif ied and worked by 1810 79 4.1 Colliery operators on the Tyne, c. 1710, and on the Tyne and Wear, c. 1804 130 5.1 Population change by households, 1563-1801 172 5.2 Population change in Northern Durham, c. 1563-c. 1801: a comparison of household totals with parish register entries 176 5.3 Size of the workforce in the seasale coal industry, 1792 and c. 1804 187 6.1 Number of enclosures and amount of land affected, 1551-1810 222 6.2 Rent and renewal fine increases on ecclesiastical estates in County Durham, 1662-1791 233 vii PLATES (after page 404) 1 Lease of coal in Ryton and Kyo (Stella Grand Lease), 1615 (courtesy of Department of Palaeography and Diplomatic, University of Durham) 2 Wayleaves on the Bucksnook waggonway, 1712-6 (courtesy of the Librarian, Durham University Library) 3 List of 'gone off' collieries, 1738 (courtesy of Durham County Archivist) 4 Extract from Lanchester parish register, 1597-8 (courtesy of Durham County Archivist) 5 Probate inventory of John Rawling of Thomas his Close, Whickham, 1678 (courtesy of Department of Palaeography and Diplomatic, University of Durham) 6 Order in Chancery, 1637, to safeguard the interests of Chester-le-Street tithe owners following enclosure of townfields, 1635-6 (courtesy of the Controller of H. M. Stationery Office and the Keeper of Public Records) 7 Petition to enclose Lanchester Fell, 19 April 1719 (courtesy of House of Lords Record Office and Archivist to the House) 8 First petition against enclosure of Lanchester Fell, 26 April 1721 (courtesy as for plate 6) 9 Second petition against enclosure of Lanchester Fell, 5 May 1721 (courtesy as for plate 6) 10 House of Lords' rejection of Lanchester Fell enclosure bill, il May 1721 (courtesy as for plate 6) viii FI0URE8 (VOLUME TWO, pp. 1-150) 1.1 The mapping of Northumberland and Durham collieries in 1768-9 and 1787 1.2 Scale variations employed 1.3 Northern Durham: parishes and parochial districts 1.4 Time-space transformation: Northern Durham c. 1785 and Great Britain 1985 2.1 Coal working, c1300 - 1550 2.2 Working collieries, 1551-1680. Output and vend, c. 1636 (with colliery iden tification overlay) 2.3 Working collieries, 1681-1740. Vend, 1728 (with overlay) 2.4 Working collieries, 1741-1810. Vend, 1804 (with overlay) 2.5 Tyne and Wear coal vends, 1551 -1810 (with contingencies) 3.1 Destinations of Tyne and Wear coal shipments, 1551-1810 3.2a Markets for Tyne and Wear coal shipments for selected dates, -s 1562-1749/50 3.3 Coal imports coastwise from the Tyne, 1683 and 1731 3.4 Main local coal consumers and other industrial sites by 1810 3.5 Winlaton village, 1782: morphology, industrial features and landownership 3.6 Northumberland and Durham coalfield: main geological features 3.7 Northbanks colliery, 1692-1723 3.8 'A Survey of Tanfield Leigh Estate belonging to Gilbert Spearman Esqr... 1715' 3.9 Colliery atmospheric and steam engines, 1715-1803 3.10 Tyne and Wear waggonways, c1645-1810 3.11 Extract plan of the river Wear (as surveyed by Burleigh and Thompson, 1737) 3.12 Coal Royalties and estates 3.13 'A plan of Westerleigh alias Tanfield Moor Edge Copyhold land..