The simple answer to Mike's question is that Newcomen engines were very
common in the North East at mid C18.
William Brown of Throckley, a noted colliery viewer, who supervised the
building of many such engines, produced a list of Newcomen Engines at work
in the north in 1769. He lists about 90 of them on the NE coalfield (some
place-names are uncertain)
Stafford
On 13 February 2015 at 18:00, Mike Syer <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I'm sorry to ride upon David's original message, as this is probably not
> of interest to him in his enquiry about Barnabas Brough. But can anyone
> advise how common were such "fire engines" in the North East at that time -
> i.e. late middle 18th century?
>
> An agreement and release held by Durham County Record Office (Ref. D/X
> 769/1), dated 12 August 1778, records that that John Burdon of Hardwick had
> "for many years worked Quarrington Colliery adjoining the Coxhoe estate and
> has erected and used a 'Fire Engine', engine house, engine man's house,
> smith's shop etc. standing on the Coxhoe estate when John Swinburn
> purchased the estate from him, and that some of the coals were led for a
> short distance over the estate".
>
> The location of what must surely (from the sketch included) be a Newcomen
> steam engine is shown in Quarrington, on a map dated 1797, of the estates
> of the executors of the late John Burdon. (I don't know the source of this
> map, a copy of which I found among documents in a 1995 opencast planning
> application. If anyone's interested, the NZ map coordinates are something
> like 431738 / 537059.) I did think this must have been the same engine as
> the one mentioned earlier, until I realised that it was about 500 yards
> north of the Quarrington-Coxhoe boundary. (Quarrington and Coxhoe were not
> just different townships; they were different royalties. Burdon owned the
> freehold of the Coxhoe one (as well as the estate) and leased the
> Quarrington royalty from the Bishop of Durham.)
>
> Mike
>
> ====
>
> On 9 Feb 2015, at 15:08, Poyner, David wrote:
>
> > Thanks; I will contact Les. Brough was only ever a minor player, but he
> does seem to have had some interesting contacts. From what I can see, he
> lived to be nearly 100 and was active well into his 70s, so he spanned the
> generations.
> >
> > David
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: mining-history [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
> Of Ian Winship
> > Sent: 09 February 2015 14:18
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: Re: Steam engine erection
> >
> > Hi
> >
> > I asked the Librarian at the Mining Institute in Newcastle to do a quick
> check and I looked at their lists of archive material and checked the
> Durham Mining Museum site, but we have found nothing.
> > Apparently local historian Les Turnbull is working on a book on William
> Brown, so may be able to help. You can contact him via the Institute -
> mail [log in to unmask]
> >
> > Hope this is of use.
> >
> > Ian Winship
> >
> > ============
> >
> >
> > On 9 Feb 2015, at 08:41, Poyner, David <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >
> > Dear All,
> > I am trying to trace the career of Barnabas Brough. He was born in
> Chester-le-Street in 1731 and according to a memoir he published, around
> 1765/6 he was employed to erect a "fire engine"; this was when he met his
> wife, Sarah Hemple, who he married in Newcastle in 1766. Does anyone know
> of a steam engine that was being assembled at a Tyneside (or at least,
> North-east) colliery at this time? My guess is that he worked for William
> Brown, the leading colliery engineer in the Great North Coalfield at this
> time, but I have no direct evidence for that.
> >
> > Thanks
> >
> > David Poyner
>
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