Burradon Pit Village Beginnings 1820 - 1828

At the beginning of this period Burradon was a small hamlet of around thirty people. At the centre of the settlement were two farmsteads, but were often tenanted by just one farmer. The hamlet of Burradon was in the centre of a contained tract of land of some 540 acres. Camperdown had not yet come into existence. A road (Salter's Road), or more accurately a dirt track, ran through the area on exactly the same course as the main highway does today. It was bounded by the fields of Weetslade and Hill Head Killingworth farms. 


A pit was sunk at Burradon in 1820 and would be the beginning of a new community, eventually leaving the previous centre of Burradon as an isolated farmstead. The colliery was described as "large" in one contemporary source, but this is a comparative term and was small in terms of what would come later.


By 1828 rows of colliery housing, of around eighty dwellings had been erected in Camperdown, or Hazlerigge as it was known then, which is a little distance away from the colliery and in a different parish, with possibly one pub and a shop, but the whole area would still have a largely rural feel to it. 


1820 - A coal pit was sunk at Burradon. The Ridley family were landholders of nearby Blagdon and Blyth and their estate papers include a map from around 1802 showing boreholes drilled at various locations within Burradon Township which would indicate the mineral deposits lying under the surface. They didn't sink a coal pit but did quarry for building stone. Work commenced on the sinking of a coal pit in 1819. The pit was sunk by Lord Ravensworth and partners, who were known by the name of "The Grand Allies". They owned the nearby colliery of Killingworth, where they employed the soon to be famous engineer George Stephenson. He was to play a large part in installing an engine at Burradon Colliery. In a letter to his friend, and fellow engineer, Joseph Cabry (Dec 1819) he mentions that the engine at Burradon is "working satisfactorily". The continued development of the steam engine to pump water and the introduction of gunpowder in the sinking of shafts meant that by the beginning of the 19th century  mines could be sunk to the coal seams that were at a greater depth away from the coast and the rivers. Transport costs to the shipping points on the rivers were also becoming less expensive with the introduction of cast iron rails. Previously rails were made from wood. A large amount of the coal was shipped to London by sea. Mining north of the ninety fathom dyke, where the coal seams are even deeper because of a geological fault, was achieved in 1802 on the sinking of Killingworth Colliery. Backworth and Burradon collieries were soon to follow.


1821 - The census of this year lists 52 persons living in the township of Burradon, a rise from 29 persons in 1801 which represented an increase of 79.31% compared to 26.36% in Northumberland and 34.93% in England and Wales an increase presumably due to increased quarrying. They consisted of nine families in nine separate dwellings. This was only an increase of four persons since 1811. It is not recorded how many workers were employed at Burradon Colliery at this time, but what is clear is that they were not living within the township and a settlement at Camperdown does not seem to have come into existence until after 1826. This was not unusual. It was often several years before a colliery village was established after the pit became operational. It was a similar situation at the Isabella Colliery near Blyth where the workforce travelled from Cowpen Colliery. The location of the Burradon Colliery workforce would most likely be at Killingworth Colliery, which was 25-30 minutes walk away and under the same ownership of the Grand Allies.


1824 - The land tax returns of this year, and of 1806 and 1812, lists the landowner of Burradon Township as William Ogle, paying £11 14s. 8d. William Ogle was of the Causey Park (near Morpeth) branch of the family. The family had held Burradon since the 16th century. The occupiers (farmers) were Thomas Spraggon and Robert Bell. In a later document Bell is named as the farmer of Hill Head, Camperdown.


1824 - The land tax returns for South Weetslade, of this year lists Charles Brandling esq. as the landowner. The land was mostly occupied by John Colbrook and others and were assessed at £5 15s. 3d. Charles Brandling occupied 5s. 6d. worth of land. In 1812 he had been listed as the sole landowner and occupier.


1825 - The historian and publisher Eneas MacKenzie had this to say of Burradon in his History of Northumberland: “... It consists of two farmholds, and a few cottages for labourers and colliers. Adjoining on of the farmhouses are the ruins of a strong old fortress... Near the village are quarries of good freestone, and a brick manufactory. Persevering attempts have been made by the owners of Killingworth mines, during the last five years, to work the colliery here, but the intersections of dykes etc. render very difficult and expensive.” McKenzie also continued to say of the whole of Earsdon parish of which Burradon was one of eight townships. "...The surface is gently undulated; and the soil which is strong, is well adapted for wheat, turnips and potatoes. The farms are mostly let on leases, and the whole are well cultivated... There is a poor house [residence for paupers] at Hartley and another in the township of South Blyth."


1828 - The Parson and White directory, Burradon entry, of this year gives the following information: 

1828 - Greenwood's map of this year has some inaccuracies and is at too small a scale to yield detailed information, but some features are worth noting:


Burradon Farm


 This has two areas of quarrying in its vicinity. Quarrying had probably been undertaken here, off and on, for centuries to provide local building stone. It had no doubt been expanded in recent years on the purchase of the quarry by Tate and Brown to provide stone not just for local usage, but to be sold commercially. 


Burradon Colliery


This is marked as co. pit on the map. A wagonway (1820) runs from the colliery in a southerly direction joining on to an existing wagonway at Killingworth, which was constructed in 1764. The Killingworth wagonway had been made from wood but later reinforced with metal strips, especially when the wagonway became the venue for George Stephenson's early locomotive experiments. By 1818 the Backworth wagonway was constructed with short cast iron plates set on stone blocks and from their shape became known as fish-bellied rails. It can be presumed that the Burradon wagonway was similar. It was a horse-drawn wagonway at first. According to John Buddle, the famous mining engineer of the period, on the nearby Backworth wagonway a horse drawing two wagons would make three journeys per day and there were several horses employed. During the 1830s locomotives began to be introduced although horses were still employed when the engines broke down or for shunting in the pit yard.


There does not seem to be any housing at Burradon Colliery, namely Pit Row, which we know by census returns was in existence by 1841. It could be that the map is simply not detailed enough to be able to distinguish Pit Row from the rest of the colliery buildings, but is to be expected that Pit Row was in existence having been built to accommodate the pit sinkers in 1819, which was the usual practice. Once the colliery was up and running and the sinkers had moved away the housing became occupied by ordinary pitmen, although later census returns indicate Pit Row was reserved for a while for the workmen who held some kind of maintenance position at the colliery. The housing was abandoned in the later 20th century and was used by the coal company for storing of lamps and other equipment.


Camperdown


Weetslade Township part on the north side of the main highway, shows from east to west:

Killingworth Township Part on the south side of the main highway 


The Seaton Burn Wagonway


The Seaton Burn Wagonway runs on an east-west course through Burradon and Camperdown. It was not originally connected to, or for the use of, Burradon colliery - this had its own wagonway for transporting coals to the Tyne - but had a major impact on the landscape of the two settlements. Originally it was known as the Brunton-Shields Railway, having been built by the Grand Allies in stages (1826 and 1837) from Brunton Colliery to the staiths on the Tyne between Wallsend and North Shields.


It was a rope-hauled wagonway being served by several stationary engines and self-acting inclines along its route. One of these stationary engines was in the west of Camperdown (Hill Head) and was permanently manned. A cottage was provided beside the engine house for the engine man and his family. The cottage was described by a resident, Bill Wardle, as small with only earth for a floor and no toilet in the early part of the 20th century. The ropes were guided by rollers set in the ground between the two rails known as sheaves.


Tunnels were dug which allowed the wagons to travel underneath the main highway and the Burradon wagonway. A cutting was made to keep the wagonway at lower than ground level between these two obstacles. 

Approx Line of 90 Fathom Dyke and Outcrop at Cullercoats

Coal Drops on the Tyne

Horse-Drawn Wagonway at Wideopen Colliery

Pit Row Housing

The Seaton Burn Wagonway Tunnels and Cutting