RAILWAY AND CANAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY TRAMROAD GROUP Occasional Paper 146 Collieries and early railways in the North East: guide to primary research sources (to c.1830) Grahame Boyes In his Early Wooden Railways (1970), M. J. T. Lewis has provided a coherent account of the wooden waggonway era in the North East and established its position within the overall history of early railway development. For the group of waggonways feeding the staiths along the south side of the Tyne, Lewis has been supplemented by A Fighting Trade: rail transport in Tyne coal 1600-1800 (1990) by G. Bennett, E. Clavering and A. Rounding, which provides much more detail about the individual waggonways, as well as setting them in the context of the politics of the northeast coal trade. But further research remains to be done on the other wooden waggonways and, more particularly, on the important, but neglected, subject of the region's early iron railways which led to the promotion of the Stockton & Darlington Railway and thence to the modern railway era. John Buddle is emerging as a figure of immense influence during the formative years of the locomotive-worked edge-railway; he deserves a full-length biography based on the considerable volume of his reports and papers that have survived. The purpose of the following summary of sources is to encourage such research by demonstrating the considerable range of potential sources. However, it is based largely on a quick search of the National Register of Archives' lists and is certainly not to be regarded as comprehensive. Indeed other sources are referred to both by Lewis and by Bennett, Clavering & Rounding. As the history of the waggonways is inseparable from that of the collieries, they served, this survey covers records of the coal trade generally, not just those that specifically mention waggonways in the handlists. My thanks to the staff of the National Register of Archives, Miss Jennifer Gill (Durham County Record Office), Ms Elizabeth A. Rees (Tyne & Wear Archives Service), and Mrs Sue Wood (Northumberland Record Office) for their helpful advice. DURHAM COUNTY RECORD OFFICE All the catalogues have been scanned into a computer database, which can be scanned for any keyword. It is hoped that it may be available on the internet in the future. Brancepeth Estate records (ref. D/Br; NRA list 26900) D/Br/B.1-408: Colliery records of the Russell family, including D/Br/B.179-189, 253-279, Washington colliery (1760-1877); D/Br/B.218-225, North Hetton colliery (1825); D/Br/B.227-252, Wallsend colliery (1807-34); D/Br/B.307-317, correspondence with John Buddle (1822-3) D/Br/P. 156-183: Colliery plans There is a detailed catalogue, with family trees of estate's owning families. Records of Messrs Clayton & Gibson, solicitors (ref. D/CG; NRA list 26390) There are 35 sets of archives within this collection, of which the following are of particular interest:– 146/2 D/CG 4: Brandling of Low Gosforth MSS, particularly D/CG4/25-36: Felling estate papers (1803-15) D/CG 6: Bute and Windsor MSS, particularly D/CG 6/1244-1823: coal business records (1744-20th c.), including those of Garesfield, Pontop and Tanfield Lea collieries and many records relating to waggonway wayleaves. The catalogue includes details of related records deposited at Durham University Library D/CG 7: Clavering of Axwell and Greencroft MSS, particularly D/CG 7/1695-1760: mineral leases (1812- 20th c.); and D/CG 7/1761-1824: wayleave agreements (1777-20th c.) D/CG 15: Milbank MSS, including coal and waggonway leases and papers (1660-1719) D/CG 16: Liddell of Ravensworth Castle MSS, particularly D/CG 16/1076-1227: coal records, including records of the Grand Allies (1719-1871, Tanfield wayleaves (1731-1885), coal leases from Peareth family at Usworth (18251935), Whickham coals (1807-73), Killingworth colliery (1808-62) D/CG 19: Lordship of Winlaton MSS, particularly D/CG 19/36-43 and 50-297: deeds and papers relating to minerals and waggonways (1720-20th c.) There is a detailed catalogue, which includes family trees of the principal families concerned Records of Dickinson Dees & Co., solicitors (ref. D/DD; NRA list 24754) D/DD/I 18-13 6: Holmside colliery papers (1780-1880) Hodgkin and Pease families, Darlington, correspondence and papers (ref. D/Ho; NRA list 12281) There appears to be only a small amount of pre-1830 material among Edward Pease's correspondence (D/Ho 63/21) The handlist has indexes of persons and subjects/places Leman, Chapman and Harrison, solicitors: Co. Durham deeds and papers (ref. D/X 649; NRA list 24980) D/X 649/215-219: Papers relating to the Vane-Tempest family, including three coal leases (1794-1805) Londonderry papers (ref. D/Lo; NRA list 11528) Relevant material is to be found chiefly among the following:– D/Lo/D 850-916: Colliery deeds, Hetton (1816-20), Rainton, Pittington and Moorhouse (1683-1835), Stoney Gate (1823-39) D/Lo/E 300-320: Colliery agreements, Rainton (1825-36) D/Lo/E 323-346: Wayleave agreements: waggonways (1804-1921) D/Lo/E 359-375: Wayleave agreements: Seaham Railway (1823-67) – see also D/Lo/B365-7 D/Lo/E 592-610: Seaham Harbour construction papers (1811-36) – see also D/Lo/B 327 D/Lo/B 31-285, 445: Londonderry collieries papers (1799- ) D/Lo/B 288-295: North Hetton Coal Co. (1824-74) D/Lo/13 301-311: Papers of John Buddle (1819-43) D/Lo/F 110-174: Colliery deeds, Chester-le-Street (1654-1717), Gateshead and Whickham (1586-1701), Ryton and Stella (1652-1793) D/Lo/F 314-315, 338-340: Waggonway wayleaves, Newbottle (1697-1743) D/Lo/C 141-142, 150, 267-273, 318, 321, 333-334: Correspondence (1819- ), much of it with John Buddle D/Lo/P : Maps and plans, but few pre-1830 An interim list of additional material deposited in 1987 includes papers relating to the lease and mortgage of collieries, with use of waggonways and staiths, 1820s-1833 146/3 National Coal Board records (ref. NCB; NRA lists 11462 & 19490) A very large collection with a significant quantity of pre-1830 material, particularly among the following:– NCB 1/JB/1-2663: Papers of John Buddle NCB 1/SC/1-1017: Stella Coal Co. records (although the company was not formed until 1839, its records include older material) NCB 1/TH/1-69: Papers of Thomas Young Hall, colliery viewer (1824-66) and his father James Hall (1806- 41) NCB 1/RS/1-484: Papers of Robert Simpson, colliery viewer, including some pre-1830 material (chiefly plans) NCB M1-295: Miscellaneous NCB 1/P/1-136: Plans NCB 2/285-379: Maps and plans (see also NCB 2/270) NCB 5/ : Plans There is a detailed catalogue, with subject, persons and places index, for NCB I series; with supplementary handlists for subsequent deposits Pease/Stephenson papers (ref. D/PS; NRA list 24239) This collection appears to be material collected by J. G. H. Warren when writing A century of locomotive building by Robert Stephenson & Co., 1823-1923 (1923). The pre-1830 material chiefly concerns Robert Stephenson & Co. and the Stockton & Darlington Railway Salvin papers (ref. D/Sa; NRA list 10404) Includes a small number of pre-1830 papers relating to coal mining and railways, e.g. D/Sa/E 799-802: reports on boring for coal at Croxdale (1763); D/Sa/C 139, 141, 143: correspondence from and about George and Robert Stephenson; D/Sa/P 62-64: plans of proposed public railways in north-east (1822-9) Strathmore MSS (family and English estate papers of the Bowes-Lyon family, earls of Strathmore. Ref. D/St; NRA list 32740) Contains a very large collection of papers concerning collieries and transport of coal, chiefly concentrated in Business Papers: Coal (section D/St/Bl), which contains records from late-17th to 20th c. D/St/B1/19/1-76 are papers specifically concerned with wayleaves, waggonways and waggonmen (1720-1915). However, there is also a wealth of related material elsewhere in the collection, particularly in:– D/St/D: records of title (notably D/St/DI/14/139, D/St/D5/1/135-153, D/St/D5/2/120-164, D/St/D5/7/8-10, 12 from the period 1570-1801) D/St/L1: records of court cases and disputes D/St/L2: lawyers' correspondence D/St/C2: estate agents' correspondence D/St/C3: coal agents' correspondence (1726-1930) D/St/P12: plans of collieries D/St/P13/1-5: plans of waggonways (c.1720–mid-19th c.) The detailed catalogue includes an alphabetical list of some 100 collieries and pits mentioned in the collection and biographical details of the family's estate and coal agents 146/4 Papers of Wallis family of Darlington (ref. D/Wa; NRA list 25375) D/Wa/l/3/1-17: Backhouse family business papers, several concerning the promotion of the Stockton & Darlington Railway Papers of Wray family of Beamish and Pitt family of Stratfield Saye (ref. D/X 654; NRA list 25123) D/X 654/1-44: Agreements (1598-1794), several of them relating to coal workings. D/X 654/40 is a lease of a waggonway through Hollenside, Whickham (1712) Miscellaneous deposits in Durham Record Office D/X 495: Business diary of W. Stobart of Pelaw (1824); numerous references to visits to Helton, Washington and Coxhoe collieries and meetings with Mr Buddle D/X 702/1: Account book of Old Etherley colliery (1827-30) D/X 858/1-17: Invoices, receipts, etc. relating to Stockton & Darlington Railway (1824-54) D/X 897/1: Deed relating to Lintz colliery (1829) D/X 1050: Plans of Lumley colliery (18th-19th c.) D/X 1090/1: Deed relating to Sheriff Hill colliery (1805) D/X 1094/4-6: Stockton & Darlington Railway deposited plans (1820-7) DURHAM UNIVERSITY LIBRARY, ARCHIVES & SPECIAL COLLECTIONS, PALACE GREEN SECTION Clavering MSS (correspondence and papers of the Clavering family, baronets of Axwell and Greencroft.