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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Northumberland => Topic started by: Durhamstatts on Saturday 03 October 15 22:01 BST (UK)

Title: John Common,blacksmith married Mary Rankin 1849/What do colliery blacksmiths do?
Post by: Durhamstatts on Saturday 03 October 15 22:01 BST (UK)
Hi.
John Common ran his own blacksmith's shop at GuidePost in the 1860s.  He closed the business in 1872 and I think then goes to work as a colliery blacksmith in the Killingworth/ Earsdon/ New seaham areas (with a brief stop at jarrow in the 1880s).   Help needed to prove this theory!  If anyone can tell me what a colliery blacksmith did, then that would be fascinating too.
Many thanks
DurhamStatts
Title: Re: John Common,blacksmith married Mary Rankin 1849/What do colliery blacksmiths do?
Post by: conahy calling on Saturday 03 October 15 22:06 BST (UK)
http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/bigpit/historic-buildings/

Some info on this link about work of colliery blacksmith :)

Welcome to Rootschat Durhamstatts.

http://www.francisfrith.com/south-kirkby/colliery-blacksmith_memory-89631

http://communities.northumberland.gov.uk/005886FS.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Racecourse_Colliery 
Title: Re: John Common,blacksmith married Mary Rankin 1849/What do colliery blacksmiths do?
Post by: Jomot on Sunday 04 October 15 01:00 BST (UK)
Why do you think he became a colliery blacksmith?   If I have the right family then in 1881 he was a Boilersmith and his sons, who had also been blacksmiths, were also working in the ship building industry. 

By 1891, although working as a blacksmith again, he has was living about half a mile from Newcastle Quayside, so I think it unlikely he was working in a colliery.
Title: Re: John Common,blacksmith married Mary Rankin 1849/What do colliery blacksmiths do?
Post by: Durhamstatts on Sunday 04 October 15 09:13 BST (UK)
This is my theory.  He vanishes after giving up his business in 1872 and reappears on the Jarrow census in 1881.  In between his daughter Margaret is living at Killingworth colliery when her illegitimate daughter is baptised in 1875; another daughter Mary Jane says she is living at Killingworth Colliery when she marries a colliery joiner in 1878; and his son Edward married a miner's daughter, Annie,  from Killingworth in 1883 (they are also both witnesses at Mary Jane's wedding in 1878).  The family have left Jarrow a couple of years before Isabella marries in 1887 when she says she is living at New Seaham.  My Aunt is adamant that her grandma Isabella and her sisters all stayed at home until they were married, so I am assuming that John is living and working at Killingworth Colliery and New Seaham.  He is not listed in the trade directories for either place so i am assuming that he is employed in the colleries.
Title: Re: John Common,blacksmith married Mary Rankin 1849/What do colliery blacksmiths do?
Post by: pityackafromblyth on Sunday 04 October 15 12:17 BST (UK)
Re reply #2 by Jomot, and your ancestor living near Newcastle quayside, and not likely to be working at a colliery.  There were several collieries within the confines of Newcastle or just outside the city.  There is a website for the Durham and Northumberland collieries which lists the hundreds which were in the North East.  I had a friend who was born at Byker in the 1920s, and there was a colliery within a mile or so - one of his uncles worked there.
I always thought the collieries were away from the city until I came across the relevant website, and learned differently.
Colliery blacksmith - one of his main jobs would be seeing to the pit ponies.
Title: Re: John Common,blacksmith married Mary Rankin 1849/What do colliery blacksmiths do?
Post by: pityackafromblyth on Sunday 04 October 15 12:36 BST (UK)
Durhamstatts,  Google "Northumberland and Durham coalfields" and you will find many sites with info and history re the pits.  One of the best is Durham Mining Museum.  It has maps throughout the years from the 1800s, showing each colliery.  You will be surprised at the number of pits shown on the maps.
Title: Re: John Common,blacksmith married Mary Rankin 1849/What do colliery blacksmiths do?
Post by: pityackafromblyth on Sunday 04 October 15 13:55 BST (UK)
The Durham Mining Museum is www.dmm.org.uk 
I have just revisited the site and wasted 90 minutes ;D looking at various contents therein.
One an inquest report (mine fatality) where witness stated he was 50 years of age and "forty three years a pitman."
Another newspaper report from 22nd Sept. 1855 where 3 men were fined at South Shields Police Court for "unlawfully working on a Sunday".  They were engaged in repairing a railway line. The noise caught the attention of the local vicar who reported the matter to the Police. Resulted in a conviction for all 3  and fined 5 shillings each.
Title: Re: John Common,blacksmith married Mary Rankin 1849/What do colliery blacksmiths do?
Post by: Mabel Bagshawe on Sunday 04 October 15 14:18 BST (UK)
The colliery blacksmith I knew didn't work do the farriery work with the ponies, he was definitely the other kind of blacksmith described in the link to Big Pit posted by Conahy Calling who spent his time making and repairing tools, metal fixings etc other

Title: Re: John Common,blacksmith married Mary Rankin 1849/What do colliery blacksmiths do?
Post by: stanmapstone on Sunday 04 October 15 14:40 BST (UK)
Another newspaper report from 22nd Sept. 1855 where 3 men were fined at South Shields Police Court for "unlawfully working on a Sunday".  They were engaged in repairing a railway line. The noise caught the attention of the local vicar who reported the matter to the Police. Resulted in a conviction for all 3  and fined 5 shillings each.

They were Summoned under a 1677/78  Act for the better observation of the Lord's Day, commonly called Sunday.  29 Charles II, c. 7
Newcastle Guardian and Tyne Mercury - Saturday 22 September 1855

Stan
Title: Re: John Common,blacksmith married Mary Rankin 1849/What do colliery blacksmiths do?
Post by: pityackafromblyth on Sunday 04 October 15 16:29 BST (UK)
The colliery blacksmith I knew didn't work do the farriery work with the ponies, he was definitely the other kind of blacksmith described in the link to Big Pit posted by Conahy Calling who spent his time making and repairing tools, metal fixings etc other
I stand to be corrected,Mabel, as I thought shoes for the ponies would have been one of his jobs, and that fashioning other metal fixings, etc. would also have been in his daily workload.
And, re Stan's post, subsequent to mine, that is the newspaper report I came across.

Delve into Durham Mining Museum contents - you never know what you will discover.  As I said I wasted ( ;D :)) 090 minutes earlier today, but I came across a photograph of workers at a local pit in the 1950s, and there was a neighbour from 3 doors away. !!!!
Title: Re: John Common,blacksmith married Mary Rankin 1849/What do colliery blacksmiths do?
Post by: Durhamstatts on Monday 05 October 15 21:11 BST (UK)
It is amazing how one site leads to another.  Durham Mining museum a top tip. Many thanks.  It seems alot of the coal seams at Killingworth were abandoned between 1876 and 1884, so I wonder if that is why the family leave the area (assuming they were there!)  for the booming river banks. Its a lovely theory, but is it credible???

Off to follow up the blacksmith links above.

Thanks again
 
Title: Re: John Common,blacksmith married Mary Rankin 1849/What do colliery blacksmiths do?
Post by: Malcommon on Tuesday 06 October 15 14:21 BST (UK)
Hi,

My Great Great Grandfather was a Colliery Blacksmith and coincidentally his name was John Common and he originated from Bedlington ( Netherton ) where his father James was an " Engineman".

John was a Blacksmith at the "Forster pit " at New Delaval which is Newsham on the West end of Blyth.

In his day they would have done some work for the making of Horse shoes but were very heavily involved in the manufacturing of all sorts of stuff such as brackets and spill plates and conveyor points and maintenance of the " Cage " and the heapstead and shaft.

I was a Colliery electrician and the shoes were made by one particular man who had a little book which contained the dimensions of the shoe to fit every pony at the pit,  the horse keeper would phone him up and say that " Tiny " needed a new shoe for his right front leg and Bob Would look in his book and then make it to match and then go down to the underground stables and fit it.

There were of course no fires underground and so no forge's.

My John Common married Frances Jennings and he died in Blyth.

regards Malcolm Common.