Striking miners and the master of the colliery (From Durham Times)

Striking miners and the master of the colliery

2:56pm Friday 8th May 2009

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USHAW Moor’s original colliery village overlooked the actual colliery about three-quarters of a mile to the west of the present village and was the scene of a troublesome strike in the 1880s.

The colliery owner, Henry Chaytor, of Witton Castle, was an uncompromising master.

Sanitary conditions in his terraces were appalling and wooden huts housing additional miners were described as “the most wretched dwellings it was possible to conceive”.

Conditions in Chaytor’s mine were no better, and men complained of working in 18 inches of water.

Chaytor hated unions and appointed Thomas Robinson, a ruthless colliery manager who assigned the best seams to his favourite employees and reduced the wages of others. Robinson was especially hard on miners with union connections.

Before 1881, two union representatives were removed from the colliery.

Robinson threatened to expel a further 60 miners when the union complained.

In December 1881, a colliery overman instructed a miner called Thomas Westoe not to load tubs with poor quality coal from a geological fault.

It is said that Robinson overruled this and told Westoe that it was acceptable.

However, when Westoe’s coal arrived at the surface, Robinson was unhappy with its quality and Westoe was sacked and his family evicted from their colliery-owned home. Westoe was, of course, the union representative.

Ushaw Moor’s miners came out in support and handed in a fortnight’s notice. If they thought Chaytor would crumble, they were wrong. A fortnight later, Robinson arrived with helpers to evict the mining families from their homes. They systematically removed furniture and dumped it outside.

Police attended to prevent violence, but only intervened when Robinson personally tried to remove a seriously ill boy from his bed.

The miners regarded their protest as a strike and relied on support from workers at other mines. Help also came from Fr Philip Fortin, the priest of Newhouse, in Esh Winning.

He allowed evicted women and children to stay in a corrugated school he had built near Ushaw Moor Colliery in 1874. Ushaw College also helped, allowing strikers to pitch a large tent in its grounds.

Robinson brought new workers to the colliery, causing great resentment.

Thomas Pyle, a platelayer from Crossgate Moor who worked at the colliery, was murdered. Found dead in Durham’s Redhills Lane with a severe blow to his throat, Westoe was suspected but nothing was proved. It was the worst of several violent incidents during the strike.

In 1882, several men hired by Robinson in Staffordshire arrived at Croxdale and walked to Ushaw Moor for work.

Unaware of the situation in the village, they were persuaded to leave by Durham union officials, who provided their train fare home.

As they walked to Durham station, Robinson rode up and told the men they were breaking a contract. Union officials argued otherwise so Robinson departed, threatening to return with police. The men avoided confrontation by diverting to Croxdale station before returning home.

Robinson was desperate to find colliery workers and resorted to faking documents to mislead recruits about the location of their work. He became increasingly frustrated and ended up in court on several occasions.

During one appearance, a magistrate described Robinson’s employer, Henry Chaytor, as “a very rich and very determined man who would never submit”. In truth, Chaytor sat in the comfort of his castle while Robinson did the dirty work.

Robinson was almost out of control. He became involved in various trespassing disputes with the coalowning Cochrane family, of New Brancepeth, and with Capt Leadbitter, of Flass Hall.

Fr Fortin was also a focus for Robinson’s wrath.

Robinson said that if he had 20lb of dynamite he would blow up Fortin and his school.

Robinson, attempting to have the overcrowded school closed, illegally entered the building to check its condition and assaulted a striking miner’s wife.

Another incident occurred in September 1882, when Ushaw Moor’s working miners arrived at Waterhouses station in Esh Winning on return from an excursion organised by Chaytor.

Angry strikers gathered at the Stags Head to greet the workers. Robinson opened fire on the crowd. He was using blanks, but a boy claimed that a bullet scathed his back.

Robinson, now a liability for Chaytor, was replaced by a new manager later that year.

By 1883, it was all over. The protest petered out as strikers found work at other collieries.

Chaytor, weary but victorious, was now in his 80s and sold the colliery to the Peases.

Ushaw Moor’s development, now in the hands of the Peases, was increasingly concentrated in a new location in and around the crossroads, three-quarters of a mile east of the colliery. This became the focus of the village after a railway station opened nearby in 1884.

Located near the river, at the foot of Station Road, the station also served New Brancepeth, but closed to passengers in 1951 and to goods in 1964.

Two impressive wooden viaducts transported the railway over the River Deerness between New Brancepeth and Ushaw Moor and were demolished in 1966.

The corrugated Catholic school near the colliery had lost its licence during the strike.

It was dismantled in 1898 and rebuilt as a Catholic club at Newhouse, Esh Winning.

The Peases opened a school in Ushaw Moor’s centre the following year and a new Catholic school opened further east in 1910.

Ushaw Moor was a lively place in the early 20th century, when two cinemas opened in Station Road. The Empire Cinema of 1912 was later a billiard hall, while Club Hall Cinema was located in the workingmen’s club.

Hard times returned during economic depression, and the colliery closed from 1927 to 1929. Tragedy also paid a visit.

On November 14, 1932, two young miners were killed in a gas explosion in the Victoria Seam. It was not an unusual or remarkable event in the history of the Durham coalfield but the accompanying photograph captures the drama of the day.

The terraces of the original colliery village, the scene of the troublesome evictions back in 1881, were cleared in the 1950s. The colliery itself was permanently closed in August 1960, closing a most eventful chapter in the history of Ushaw Moor.

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