East Durham: mining colonisation and the genesis of the colliery landscape, 1770-1851,

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the spatial outcomes of the extension of coal mining onto the concealed coalfield of east Durham in the first half of the nineteenth century. Here, in contrast to the long-established exposed sections of the North-Eastern coalfield, raining was developed suddenly consequent upon the first successful sinkings through the Magnesian Limestone at Hetton-le-Hole between l820 and 1822.In more detail, the first objective of the work is to reconstruct the agrarian base upon which the colliery landscape was superimposed. The agrarian base is presented as a cadaster composed of patterns of landownership, landholding, settlements, fields and land-use that provided a spatial matrix within which the process of mining colonisation developed. Subsequently, the following three questions are examined: (i) to what extent did the legal relationships between the east Durham landowners and the colliery companies structure the emergent locational pattern of the colliery landscape in terms of the siting of the mines with their associated surface installations, the colliery settlements and the transport lines? (ii) what was the social structure of these rapidly-developed mining communities? (iii) what effect did the sudden creation of large-scale centres of mining employment have upon patterns of labour mobility? By this means, it is intended to analyse, in terms of a regional case study, the impact of coal mining upon the human geography of east Durham. Because of the nature of these objectives, the work is essentially ideographic rather than nomothetic in concept, empirical rather than theoretical in approach, the overall aim being to present the spatial outcomes of the complex and at times subtle relationships between man, technology and' resource in this small corner of the Industrial Revolution