In County Durham pits seggar was the shale like material found as a band within a coal seam or often underlying the coal seam. The material was generally worked along with the coal but the seggar was kept separate from it.
On the surface the seggar was used in the manufacture of bricks and other items, sometimes mixed with clay, and there were many examples of brick kilns located adjacent to coal mines for this purpose. I have extracted all the availabvle information on collieries from Whellan's directory of County Durham, 1894 and there are many examples of colliery brickworks listed. Some references from Whellan:
Broom Park Colliery 'There is also a firebrick works supplied with cIay from the seams'.
Charles Colliery, Middridge, near Spennymoor, the Busty seam was said to be divided by a seggar band of from 3 inches, until it formed two sections, having a thickness together of 5 feet 6 inches to 6 feet.
A great feature of Cornsay Colliery was that it yielded a splendid fire-clay, which supplied the rather extensive brick, tile, and sanitory pipe-works at the colliery. Ferens and Love, the owners were then planning to construct plant for the manufacture of glazed, sanitory, and other ware, for which purposes the clay was so well suited.
Whellan lists 19 seams and says that all of them were provided with an underclay, and these underclays were mostly useful as fire-clays. In many cases similar fire-clays occur without coals surmounting them, or with only very thin unworkable seams above them. Such fire-clays were frequently worked.
I lived near Lambton D colliery for many years (and worked there for a short time) and I can always recall the brickworks being in operation there - it made many items other than bricks. I do not recall from which seam the seggar was obtained, however. It may have been transported in from nearby collieries. Likewise there was a large brickworks at the nearby Lumley 6th pit.
Last night's Sunderland Echo carried an article on 'Seggar Robinson' (correct name William Robinson) who was a stoneman at Whitburn Colliery, Tyne & Wear, which said:
'Seggar, as a miner would tell you, is a fire-clay, a shale-like substance found between coal seams. It is so called because it is used to make "saggars", the fire clay boxes that protect delicate pieces of pottery in a kiln. William, was a stoneman at Whitburn Colliery, responsible for blasting out the seggar, to make the underground 'gates' or roads.'
Much of the article concerns Robinson's life at Marsden Grotto (near South Shields, Tyne & Wear) and is not mining related. If anyone is interested I can type the article (a full page) and scan the two photos if they contact me 'off list'.
On a separate note I can recall listening to the 'What's My Line' programme and the example of the Seggar Maker's Bottom Knocker.
Alan.
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