Dawdon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Dawdon | |
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  Dawdon shown within County Durham |
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| Population | 4,187 (2001 Census) |
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| OS grid reference | |
| District | Easington |
| Shire county | County Durham |
| Region | North East |
| Constituent country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Sunderland |
| Postcode district | SR7 |
| Dialling code | 0191 |
| Police | Durham |
| Fire | County Durham and Darlington |
| Ambulance | North East |
| European Parliament | North East England |
| UK Parliament | Easington |
| List of places: UK • England • County Durham | |
Dawdon is a former pit community which has gradually become part of Seaham County Durham, in England. It is situated in the south of Seaham, near Parkside. An area of the beach near Dawdon (known locally as "the Blast", a former waste coal dumping site) was used in the opening scenes of the film Alien 3.
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[edit] History of Dawdon Colliery
The decision to create a new pit at Dawdon was taken by the Marquess of Londonderry in the late 19th century, due to problems at his collieries in nearby Seaham. As Seaham Colliery's workings pushed out to the south-east, it became increasing expensive to mine the reserves from the old pit's shafts.
It was therefore decided to sink new shafts in the rocky coastal area of Noses Point, close to the ancient settlement of Dawdon. Sinking work began in March 1900, but soon ran into problems. Water-bearing rocks proved difficult to excavate, which meant freezing techniques had to be used. The colliery finally opened for production in October 1907. Dawdon reached the peak of its employment in 1925, when 3862 men and boys helped to produce over one million tonnes of coal annually.
The men of Dawdon Colliery were involved in several industrial disputes, but escaped the major tragedies suffered by pits at Seaham and Easington. Many of Dawdon's men did die within its depths, but usually from individual accidents.
Dawdon was a major coal producer for the Londonderry family throughout their ownership, and was later a jewel in the crown for the National Coal Board too. However, as the mining industry went into decline in the 1980s, Dawdon suffered too. The colliery was eventually closed in July 1991.
Home to a rich industrial past relating closely with its near neighbour Seaham, Dawdon was home to the Seaham Harbour Blast Furnace, in Dawdon Field Dene. The original Seaham Bottle Works was situated here in 1855. The blast furnaces closed in 1865 but were soon replaced by the Chemical Works.
In 1920 the new colliery, Dawdon, employed 3,300 workers and produced over 1 million tons of coal per year outstripping its local competitors. The ironworks and colliery sites have recently been reclaimed and a modern industrial estate launching Dawdon into the 21st century.
[edit] Climate
| Climate chart for Dawdon | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| J | F | M | A | M | J | J | A | S | O | N | D |
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56.2
6
1
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38.8
7
1
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51.1
9
2
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52.0
11
3
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49.5
15
6
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54.8
17
9
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44.5
20
11
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61.3
20
11
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57.5
17
9
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56.9
13
6
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61.5
9
3
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59.2
7
2
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| temperatures in °C • precipitation totals in mm source: [1] |
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Imperial conversion
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Like the rest of the United Kingdom, Dawdon has a temperate climate. At 643.3 millimetres (25 in)[1] the average annual rainfall is lower than the national average of 1,125 millimetres (44 in).[2] Equally there are only around 121.3 days[1] where more than 1 millimetre (0.04 in) of rain falls compared with a national average of 154.4 days.[2] The area sees on average 1374.6 hours of sunshine per year,[1] compared with a national average of 1125.0 hours.[2] There is an air frost on 52 days[1] compared with a national average of 55.6 days.[2] Average daily maximum and minimum temperatures are 12.5 °C (54.5 °F) and 5.2 °C (41.4 °F)[1]compared with a national averages of 12.1 °C (53.8 °F) and 5.1 °C (41.2 °F) respectively.[2]
The table below gives the average temperature and rainfall figures taken between 1971 and 2000 at the Met Office weather station in Durham:
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[edit] Dawdon Colliery Timeline
1900 March - started sinking of shafts.
1907 October - completed sinking of shafts. 5 October – colliery opened.
1910 Welfare Hall opened. Twenty streets of colliery houses built.
1912 Church of St Hild and St Helen, known as “The Pitmen’s Cathedral” erected by the Londonderry family.
1914 Low Main and Hutton seams being worked.
1921 Low Main, Maudlin, Hutton and Main coal seams being worked.
1921 8 August – Triple Alliance of Miners, Railwaymen and Transport Workers started. 30 June – strike called off plunging Durham into a trade depression that left 20% of miners and over 100 collieries idle.
1925 Employment peaks at 3862
1926 May – General Strike started. November – Durham Miners returned to work having held out for 7 months.
1927 12 Aged Miners’ cottages built in Dawdon.
1929 2nd March – Dawdon Miners locked out in dispute over piece work rates. 4 November – Dawdon Miners reluctantly return to work.
1930 1000 Dawdon miners laid off. Seaham Colliery closed for 2 years to ensure production at Londonderry’s new Vane Tempest Colliery.
1930’s Dawdon Welfare Park completed.
1935 Low Main, Maudlin, Hutton and Main coal seams being worked.
1940 15 August – Dawdon bombed by Luftwafe. 12 dead, 119 people homeless, 5 houses destroyed, Dawdon Church, Vicarage and 230 houses damaged.
1947 Nationalisation of Coal Industry. 2556 miners employed at Dawdon. 647,555 tonnes of coal produced.
1950 Low Main, Maudlin, Hutton and Main coal seams being worked.
1950’s Steam winders replaced by electric Koepe winders.
1960 2348 miners employed. Low Main, Maudlin, Hutton, Main Coal and High Main (Dawdon’s highest producing seam) seams being worked.
1969 13 October – Dawdon on strike for 3 days in support of Yorkshire Miners demanding shorter shifts for surface workers.
1972 High Main and Yard Seams being worked. 8 January – National Strike begins demanding substantial wage rise. 28 February – successful conclusion to National Strike.
1973 19 September – N Simpkins, a Dawdon Fitter, begins apprenticeship.
1974 9 February – 6 week strike began. Again for improved wages and conditions.
1975 High Main and Yard seams being worked.
1977 19 December – N Simpkins, a Dawdon Fitter, completes apprenticeship.
1980 2106 miners employed. High Main, Yard and Main coal seams being worked.
1984 14 March - All Durham collieries on strike against the threat of pit closures.
1985 3rd March – National Strike over without agreement. Dawdon Miners returned to work behind their banner and promptly marched back out as a gesture of defiance. Only 133 men had returned to work early. High Main, Yard, Main Coal and “C” seams being worked. 2186 miners employed.
1986 E90 Face lost to water.
1988 1700 miners employed. N Simpkins, Dawdon Fitter, accepts voluntary redundancy. One million tons of coal abandoned for safety reasons in the “G” seam.
1990 1592 miners employed. High Main, Yard, Main Coal and “C” seams being worked.
1991 27 July – Dawdon Colliery closed.
[edit] History of St Hild and St Helen's Church
The church of St Hild and St Helen's - known as the Pitman's Cathedral - was built by donations from local pitmen and consecrated on February 10, 1912.
A Grand Bazaar, charity events and a £2,000 donation from the Marquess of Londonderry helped pay for the building and hundreds of pitmen mingled with ministers and civic dignitaries for the grand unveiling.
"The milestone date began with Holy Communion, held for the last time in the former Cottages School," the late Tom McNee recorded in a history of the church.
"After lunch at Seaham Hall, the Marquess of Londonderry and his distinguished party of 100 joined more than 500 parishioners for the ceremony."
In the 1860s, the part of Seaham Harbour which would become Dawdon consisted of three isolated communities. The first had grown around the bottleworks, the second was next to a chemical works, and the third was at Swinebank – housing Londonderry's engine and wagon works staff.
His decision to sink a new colliery at Dawdon in 1899 was to change the face of the area forever. As work on the pit progressed, so the three little hamlets were swallowed up by rows of houses, shops and pubs.
Plans for a new church followed, with the Marchioness of Londonderry laying the foundation stone in September 1910. Walter Bolland, the senior curate, took church services in the nearby Cottages Schoolroom while the work progressed.
Just two years later, the new £6,500 St Hild and St Helen's was finished, seating up to 700 worshippers in comfort. "Uniquely, it was built from north to south, rather than east to west, because of an unusual fault in the rock formation under the church," Mr McNee recorded.
The interior "was beautified by numerous and costly gifts", many from Marchioness Theresa, including a fine organ. But the high altar was a particular highlight, decorated with the face of St Hild and carved as a likeness to Theresa.
Church organisations soon flourished, including a successful choir, which opera singer Thomas Allen once belonged to. Decades later, however, the vicarage and church came under attack from Hitler's Luftwaffe during World War Two.
As explosives dropped in nearby streets, the vicar, James Duncan, sought refuge under the stairs of the vicarage. Just minutes later, two bombs exploded next to the house, bringing down ceilings and ripping doors from hinges.
A large hole was also blown in the west wall of the Grade II-listed church and almost all the stained-glass windows were shattered. Confident the community would be able to raise the £1,000 needed for repairs, the Rev Duncan authorised work to begin.
His faith in the people of Dawdon was soon rewarded as, just nine months later, the target was reached. Today, however, the church is once again facing an uncertain future, having just closed due to dwindling congregation numbers.
[edit] Dawdon in the 19th century
Dawdon Township - details taken from History, Topography and Directory of Durham, Whellan, London, 1894
"The population in 1801 was 22; in 1811, 27; in 1821, 35; in 1831, in consequence of the construction of a new harbour, it had increased to 1022; in 1841, 2017; in 1851, 3538; in 1861, 6137; in 1871, 7132; in 1881, 7714; and in 1891, 9044."
[edit] Pitmen - and boys - who lost their lives at Dawdon Colliery
Attwood, George: 34, September 6, 1907, after electric lamp cable broke and fell on him.
Bacon, Edward: 51, June 6, 1963.
Barden, James: 34, March 17, 1930.
Baron, Joseph: 32, November 2, 1968.
Black, JA: 27, December 21, 1941.
Boad, G: 60, January 25, 1943.
Bolton, J: 49, March 19, 1952.
Briggs, Robert: 30, September 11, 1907.
Brown, F: 63, April 9, 1945.
Bryan, John: 20, May 27, 1914, after rock fall.
Buckley, J: 16, January 5, 1940.
Carr, S: 62, March 23, 1945.
Casey, Randolph: 44, July 29, 1959.
Close, Francis: 42, September 27, 1961.
Clyde, George: 44, October 14, 1931.
Coates, Thomas: 14, May 22, 1925.
Crake, R: 24, February 11, 1937.
Davis, W: 55, January 2, 1948.
Davison, William: 24, August 23, 1923.
Dodds, Charles: 31, March 12, 1929.
Douglas, Thomas: 26, September 23, 1901, scaffolding broke, fell into sump and drowned.
Duck, Frederick: 15, November 16, 1910, crushed by a tub.
Dunn, Henry: 27, September 6 1907, electric lamp cable broke and fell on him.
Edminson, M: 60, February 23, 1922.
Emery, William: 26, November 6, 1929.
Evans, George: 63, April 29, 1934.
Field, John: 51, March 21, 1908, fell down shaft.
Fleury, James: 17, August 21, 1925.
Foster, Ralph: 14, February 18, 1914.
Freeman, Thomas: 37, June 6, 1963.
Geddes, W: 57, May 6, 1927.
Glithro, Thomas: 25, September 11, 1907, thrown from a cradle to the bottom of the pit.
Greenwood, George: 44, November 30, 1910, buried by stones.
Grieves, Ralph: Died April 25, 1960.
Hamilton, Charles: 19, March 28, 1926, crushed by a tub.
Hasson, Frederick: 20, May 19, 1927.
Hastings, Samuel: 19, February 27, 1910.
Hepworth, Robert: 14, July 20, 1917.
Hockings, W: 15, July 25, 1929, run over.
Hughes, Richard: 14, April 14, 1911, crushed.
Hull, James: December 25, 1924, crushed.
Jones, S: 34, April 18, 1944.
Judd, T: 43, December 29, 1945.
Kennedy, Robert: 18, October 2, 1914, crushed.
Langley, Norman: June 1967, fell 60 ft.
Lawrence, John: 19, June 4, 1913, crushed.
Little, J: 21, July 4, 1929, crushed in accident.
Maratty, J: 45, October 25, 1945.
Maratty, Patrick: 18, December 27, crushed.
Marsh, Ed John: 14, April 26, 1923.
McDonald, Alexander: 46, March 14, 1933.
McDonough, Bernard: 14, January 21, 1926.
Mead, William: 36, October 15, 1954.
Muir, JH: 15, December 28, 1942.
Murphy, John: 29, February 13, 1925.
Musgrove, Frank Currie: 17, June 25, 1931.
Nixon, T: 51, November 1, 1943.
Nugent, H: 15, July 29, 1928.
Olley, Edward: 39, December 1955.
Owen, Ralph: 41, May 23, 1934.
Phelan, John: 19, November 6, 1929.
Pigg, F: 17, December 9, 1930, crushed.
Potts, George: 22, March 27, 1926.
Preston, John: 17, December 17, 1912, binding wheel accident.
Robinson, Daniel: 17, July 23, 1926.
Robson, Emmerson: 38, September 30, 1930.
Rodgers, William W: 14, December 10, 1923.
Rogan, Vincent: May 28, 1925, roof fall.
Rogerson, Frederick: 11, June 17, 1916.
Rudkin, J: 59, December 27, 1943.
Schneider, George: 36, August 11, 1903.
Shepherd, Walter: 14, February 23, 1923.
Simpson, Joseph: 49, September 5, 1908.
Smith, George: 23, September 11, 1907.
Snaith, Alfred: 31, November 25, 1955.
Spence, Randolph: Died 1960.
Tempest, W: 51, August 21, 1948.
Thirlwell, William: 44, September 1, 1922.
Turns, David Dick Brown: 50, September 19, 1923.
Walker, W: 38, January 16, 1931.
Walters, Edward: 45, March 10, 1926.
Waugh, Charles: 38, April 26, 1927.
Wheatman, Ralph: 24, February 11, 1937.
Williams, John: 40, July 27, 1910, crushed.
Williams, Silas: 53, May 27, 1914.
[edit] Economy
This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of County Durham at current basic prices published (pp.240-253) by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.
| Year | Regional Gross Value Added[3] | Agriculture[4] | Industry[5] | Services[6] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | 4,063 | 47 | 1,755 | 2,261 |
| 2000 | 4,783 | 40 | 1,840 | 2,904 |
| 2003 | 5,314 | 39 | 1,978 | 3,297 |
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e f Durham 1971-2000 averages, Met Office. Retrieved on 2007-08-20.
- ^ a b c d e UK 1971-2000 averages, Met Office. Retrieved on 2007-08-20.
- ^ Components may not sum to totals due to rounding
- ^ includes hunting and forestry
- ^ includes energy and construction
- ^ includes financial intermediation services indirectly measured
[edit] External links
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