_ The Sleekburns, like
Bedlington, may lay claim to the honour of having had their origin in a very
remote antiquity, though it is only within the last thirty or forty years that
they have become of any note in the district.
As it is, any distinction which they may now possess is due entirely to
the presence in their midst of two valuable collieries.
The Sleekburns are three in number, viz., Sleekburn, East Sleekburn and West Sleekburn. East Sleekburn may be briefly dismissed with the statement that it is a place of no consequence now and consists of only a small number of houses, some of which are inhabited by farm servants and some by miners from Sleekburn and Cambois.
Sleekburn, or as it used to be called, Great Sleekburn, is a place of more importance than either of the other members of the family and although it does not rejoice in the possession of more than one chapel, it possesses two branch co-operative stores, which compete with each other for patronage of the Sleekburnians.
The parent stems of the two branches are situated one at Bedlington, the other being a branch of the celebrated Cramlington Society, which has its branches scattered all over the district and is one of the most substantial co-operatives undertakings in this part of the country. Sleekburn must, judging by from appearance to be a very thirsty place, for it supports three very creditable public houses within a very short distance of each other.
In connection with the colliery there is an excellent school, which is maintained in the manner peculiar to colliery schools. As and additional means of education for their workmen, the company has also established a Mechanic’s Institute, which the men now hold rent free and without any charge coming against them, except for their books, magazines and papers.
Though the Sleekburn pit is the oldest and smallest of the company’s mines, employing only 140 hewers, it is gratifying to hear that the newsroom is well patronised and numbers a total of 120 members. The subscription required from each member is only three-halfpence per week and for this sum the members are able to obtain a most liberal supply of papers and other periodicals.
The sanitary position of affairs at Sleekburn is not so encouraging, for most of the colliery houses are old and of course built on the old fashioned plan for housing a large number of tenants at a minimum cost, both in sites and material.
The first row to the west of the station is one of the often described single rows of two-roomed or rather one room and a garret cottages, without either ashpits or privies and though this row faces the public road to Bedlington, the ashes and other house refuse are simply brought out and thrown down in heaps at a short distance from the doors.
This has also one of the old school of village ovens standing in the centre, which is sometimes used now on the occasion of the village baking day, when it becomes the school for gossip and village scandal among the womenfolk just as the barber’s shop of the country village is the rendezvous for rural politicians.
Higher up the road we come upon a double row of houses, also without privies or ashpits, but with their “kicken sheddeas” as the Danes call them, out of sight at the back of the “raw.”
A few weeks ago the inmates of two of the houses of this row were surprised by a sudden shock as of an earthquake, followed by the breaking of glass and falling of stone, slates and lime. A rush to the outside showed what is called a day fall, or slaking of the ground above the yard seam and underneath the houses, had taken place to such an extent as almost to leave them in ruins.
On the day of my visit to Sleekburn loads of bricks were being laid down behind the rows, in readiness for the masons, who were to commence at once with the building of privies and ashpits. Some of the rows have already had these very necessary additions made and in a short time all the colliery houses will be provided with them.
Sleekburn is intersected by the Blyth and Tyne Railway. Indeed it is the station for Bedlington and the junction for the North Seaton and Newbiggin. and though most of the houses to the west of the line belong to the Bedlington Coal Company, most of the property at the east side of the station belongs to different owners. It may be here observed, as at Choppington, that the houses which belong to landlords, who probably live in Newcastle or some other place at a distance, are in much worse condition than the houses which belong to the colliery owners. And some of these at Sleekburn are very bad indeed.
Several lengthy rows are built on the unhealthy back to back principle and round at the rear you fall in with the sights so awfully familiar in Bedlingtonshire, of overflowing ashpits and ruinous privies. The water supply of Sleekburn is derived from the same source as the supply of Barrington, though it gets its water cheaper from the cart than Barrington and is only half the distance from the well.
West Sleekburn is about a one mile and a half from Sleekburn in a north-easterly direction and it is here that we find the largest colliery of the company. This colliery is not a very old one and is known as the New Winning. Three hundred hewers are employed in the workings of the New Winning and they manage to send to bank some 900 tons of coal per day.
Lately, indeed, it seems as though the miners had been working too much, for near the pit a gigantic heap of the best coal has accumulated. Since coal begins to increase so rapidly in price, the general public has been treated to an immense amount of almost idiotic drivelling upon the subject.
Whole columns of ignorant abuse of the miner for an alleged restriction of output have been penned. But we hear very little said about the cupidity of the coalowners who, to keep up the price of the article, will suffer the miner to be blamed for all, while they withhold thousands of tons of coal from the public market.
At West Sleekburn the most powerful and improved machinery is to be found in full operation and the size of the winding and pumping engines may be inferred from the size of the massive stone towers in which they work. The boilers from which the engines are supplied with steam do not require the attendance require the attendance of a member of staff or a fireman. For by an ingenious arrangement that fire bars are so constructed as to be self feeding, and all that is required is the teaming of coal from the pit heap into hoppers, which slide the coal down to the mouth of the furnace, from whence, by a slow revolution of the fire bars caused by a wheel and a worm arrangement, they are carried gradually underneath the boilers, where they are consumed. The continuance of the revolution of the bars discharge the cinders and ashes at the other side.
At four o’ clock the men and boys begin to ride to bank and as cage after cage ascends and delivers its livery freight, who move of by degrees, blinking their eyes at the sudden transition from darkness to bright sunlight, the pit heap presents a most animated appearance. Scores of boys from twelve to fourteen years of age are skipping gleefully away like prisoners released after ten hours’ confinement below, and he would be a hard man who would begrudge them their reduction of working hours, even at the expense of a slight rise in the price of coals.
The quality of house accommodation at West Sleekburn is somewhat limited, consider the number of men employed, and many who are employed at the pit live away as far as Sleekburn and even the Guide Post. There is one row of double cottages, which are very comfortable, and have all the necessary conveniences at the back, with liberal patches of garden in front.
Considering the small population of West Sleekburn, it is well provided for religiously, as a long single row of cottages, whose only fault is that they are rather small, is finished off, so to speak, by a Wesleyan Methodist Chapel at one end and a Primitive Methodist Chapel at the other. There is also a little distance from the colliery the parish church of Cambois, upon a site, which has been the site of a church since the time of the Saxons.
Close by is the house of the vicar, and at the other side is the Forester’s Arms, the only public house near the place. There is a good school in operation near the pit and it is pretty well attended, the fees charged being threepence per week, but if three children are sent from one family, the third one is free.
As yet co-operation has not got a hold in West Sleekburn, but many of the villagers are members of the Bedlington or Cramlington Branch Stores. A new co-operative society has lately been started in the neighbouring village of Stakeford; and is only half a mile from the colliery, it is well patronised by the Sleekburn miners. It is only in the second quarter of its existence, numbers 400 members on its list; has built for its own use a handsome block of buildings, and sold goods last quarter to the extent of £500, paying a dividend upon its members purchases of 2s in the pound.
We have now found our way to the northern extremity of Sleekburn and of Bedlingtonshire, and here we find that many houses have been built and are let out by private speculators to however care to take them. Stakeford is now a somewhat extensive village, and it has been built in this manner, many houses being the property of men who work in the pits. Both West Sleekburn and Stakeford are pleasantly and healthily situated on the banks of the Wansbeck, and at a very short distance from the sea, so that nothing is required to keep them in good sanitary conditions, good water and good roads. Whether these essentials can or can not be obtained for the Bedlingtonshire Local Board we do not pretend to say.
A pleasant walk to the junction takes us through a well farmed country, for before the springing up of collieries and colliery villages in the district Sleekburn was a purely agricultural locality, and some of the farms have been for several generations in the hands of the same families.
Indeed the business-like farm homestead of Mr, Huggup with its snug cottages for the farm servants, is one of the most prominent features of the place, as it stands on the top of a hill, with the tall boiler chimney keeping as it were, watch and ward over the valley below. Between this farm and the station many rows of cottages have been built by miners, and one row in particular is pointed out as being the property of one of the colliery “keekers” who seems to indeed to have keeked to some purpose.
Satisfied with our ramble, and rather leg weary, we pull up at the station in time to catch the train which bears us away through the gathering darkness past the innumerable rows of pit cottages and villages lighted only by the glare of burning pit heaps.
26th April 1873
The Sleekburns are three in number, viz., Sleekburn, East Sleekburn and West Sleekburn. East Sleekburn may be briefly dismissed with the statement that it is a place of no consequence now and consists of only a small number of houses, some of which are inhabited by farm servants and some by miners from Sleekburn and Cambois.
Sleekburn, or as it used to be called, Great Sleekburn, is a place of more importance than either of the other members of the family and although it does not rejoice in the possession of more than one chapel, it possesses two branch co-operative stores, which compete with each other for patronage of the Sleekburnians.
The parent stems of the two branches are situated one at Bedlington, the other being a branch of the celebrated Cramlington Society, which has its branches scattered all over the district and is one of the most substantial co-operatives undertakings in this part of the country. Sleekburn must, judging by from appearance to be a very thirsty place, for it supports three very creditable public houses within a very short distance of each other.
In connection with the colliery there is an excellent school, which is maintained in the manner peculiar to colliery schools. As and additional means of education for their workmen, the company has also established a Mechanic’s Institute, which the men now hold rent free and without any charge coming against them, except for their books, magazines and papers.
Though the Sleekburn pit is the oldest and smallest of the company’s mines, employing only 140 hewers, it is gratifying to hear that the newsroom is well patronised and numbers a total of 120 members. The subscription required from each member is only three-halfpence per week and for this sum the members are able to obtain a most liberal supply of papers and other periodicals.
The sanitary position of affairs at Sleekburn is not so encouraging, for most of the colliery houses are old and of course built on the old fashioned plan for housing a large number of tenants at a minimum cost, both in sites and material.
The first row to the west of the station is one of the often described single rows of two-roomed or rather one room and a garret cottages, without either ashpits or privies and though this row faces the public road to Bedlington, the ashes and other house refuse are simply brought out and thrown down in heaps at a short distance from the doors.
This has also one of the old school of village ovens standing in the centre, which is sometimes used now on the occasion of the village baking day, when it becomes the school for gossip and village scandal among the womenfolk just as the barber’s shop of the country village is the rendezvous for rural politicians.
Higher up the road we come upon a double row of houses, also without privies or ashpits, but with their “kicken sheddeas” as the Danes call them, out of sight at the back of the “raw.”
A few weeks ago the inmates of two of the houses of this row were surprised by a sudden shock as of an earthquake, followed by the breaking of glass and falling of stone, slates and lime. A rush to the outside showed what is called a day fall, or slaking of the ground above the yard seam and underneath the houses, had taken place to such an extent as almost to leave them in ruins.
On the day of my visit to Sleekburn loads of bricks were being laid down behind the rows, in readiness for the masons, who were to commence at once with the building of privies and ashpits. Some of the rows have already had these very necessary additions made and in a short time all the colliery houses will be provided with them.
Sleekburn is intersected by the Blyth and Tyne Railway. Indeed it is the station for Bedlington and the junction for the North Seaton and Newbiggin. and though most of the houses to the west of the line belong to the Bedlington Coal Company, most of the property at the east side of the station belongs to different owners. It may be here observed, as at Choppington, that the houses which belong to landlords, who probably live in Newcastle or some other place at a distance, are in much worse condition than the houses which belong to the colliery owners. And some of these at Sleekburn are very bad indeed.
Several lengthy rows are built on the unhealthy back to back principle and round at the rear you fall in with the sights so awfully familiar in Bedlingtonshire, of overflowing ashpits and ruinous privies. The water supply of Sleekburn is derived from the same source as the supply of Barrington, though it gets its water cheaper from the cart than Barrington and is only half the distance from the well.
West Sleekburn is about a one mile and a half from Sleekburn in a north-easterly direction and it is here that we find the largest colliery of the company. This colliery is not a very old one and is known as the New Winning. Three hundred hewers are employed in the workings of the New Winning and they manage to send to bank some 900 tons of coal per day.
Lately, indeed, it seems as though the miners had been working too much, for near the pit a gigantic heap of the best coal has accumulated. Since coal begins to increase so rapidly in price, the general public has been treated to an immense amount of almost idiotic drivelling upon the subject.
Whole columns of ignorant abuse of the miner for an alleged restriction of output have been penned. But we hear very little said about the cupidity of the coalowners who, to keep up the price of the article, will suffer the miner to be blamed for all, while they withhold thousands of tons of coal from the public market.
At West Sleekburn the most powerful and improved machinery is to be found in full operation and the size of the winding and pumping engines may be inferred from the size of the massive stone towers in which they work. The boilers from which the engines are supplied with steam do not require the attendance require the attendance of a member of staff or a fireman. For by an ingenious arrangement that fire bars are so constructed as to be self feeding, and all that is required is the teaming of coal from the pit heap into hoppers, which slide the coal down to the mouth of the furnace, from whence, by a slow revolution of the fire bars caused by a wheel and a worm arrangement, they are carried gradually underneath the boilers, where they are consumed. The continuance of the revolution of the bars discharge the cinders and ashes at the other side.
At four o’ clock the men and boys begin to ride to bank and as cage after cage ascends and delivers its livery freight, who move of by degrees, blinking their eyes at the sudden transition from darkness to bright sunlight, the pit heap presents a most animated appearance. Scores of boys from twelve to fourteen years of age are skipping gleefully away like prisoners released after ten hours’ confinement below, and he would be a hard man who would begrudge them their reduction of working hours, even at the expense of a slight rise in the price of coals.
The quality of house accommodation at West Sleekburn is somewhat limited, consider the number of men employed, and many who are employed at the pit live away as far as Sleekburn and even the Guide Post. There is one row of double cottages, which are very comfortable, and have all the necessary conveniences at the back, with liberal patches of garden in front.
Considering the small population of West Sleekburn, it is well provided for religiously, as a long single row of cottages, whose only fault is that they are rather small, is finished off, so to speak, by a Wesleyan Methodist Chapel at one end and a Primitive Methodist Chapel at the other. There is also a little distance from the colliery the parish church of Cambois, upon a site, which has been the site of a church since the time of the Saxons.
Close by is the house of the vicar, and at the other side is the Forester’s Arms, the only public house near the place. There is a good school in operation near the pit and it is pretty well attended, the fees charged being threepence per week, but if three children are sent from one family, the third one is free.
As yet co-operation has not got a hold in West Sleekburn, but many of the villagers are members of the Bedlington or Cramlington Branch Stores. A new co-operative society has lately been started in the neighbouring village of Stakeford; and is only half a mile from the colliery, it is well patronised by the Sleekburn miners. It is only in the second quarter of its existence, numbers 400 members on its list; has built for its own use a handsome block of buildings, and sold goods last quarter to the extent of £500, paying a dividend upon its members purchases of 2s in the pound.
We have now found our way to the northern extremity of Sleekburn and of Bedlingtonshire, and here we find that many houses have been built and are let out by private speculators to however care to take them. Stakeford is now a somewhat extensive village, and it has been built in this manner, many houses being the property of men who work in the pits. Both West Sleekburn and Stakeford are pleasantly and healthily situated on the banks of the Wansbeck, and at a very short distance from the sea, so that nothing is required to keep them in good sanitary conditions, good water and good roads. Whether these essentials can or can not be obtained for the Bedlingtonshire Local Board we do not pretend to say.
A pleasant walk to the junction takes us through a well farmed country, for before the springing up of collieries and colliery villages in the district Sleekburn was a purely agricultural locality, and some of the farms have been for several generations in the hands of the same families.
Indeed the business-like farm homestead of Mr, Huggup with its snug cottages for the farm servants, is one of the most prominent features of the place, as it stands on the top of a hill, with the tall boiler chimney keeping as it were, watch and ward over the valley below. Between this farm and the station many rows of cottages have been built by miners, and one row in particular is pointed out as being the property of one of the colliery “keekers” who seems to indeed to have keeked to some purpose.
Satisfied with our ramble, and rather leg weary, we pull up at the station in time to catch the train which bears us away through the gathering darkness past the innumerable rows of pit cottages and villages lighted only by the glare of burning pit heaps.
26th April 1873
