COMPLETED - Where exactly is Bigges Main?

[stephenaedwards]

Hi all,

I have traced some of my ancestors to Low Row, Bigges Main in the early 1800s where the father worked in the pit.

Does Bigges Main lie in the parish of Wallsend or Longbenton? I've found conflicting information on the net and can't find anything conclusive.

Also, what would Bigges Main be characterised as? A town, village hamlet etc?

Also, can anyone point me in the direction of some history of Bigges Main (excluding the Durham Mining Museum website).

Cheers.

[davidft]

There are several references to it on genuki - see link

http://www.genuki.org.uk/cgi-bin/htsearch?method=and&format=builtin-short&matchesperpage=20&sort=score&config=genuki&words=bigges+main

[stanmapstone]

From a book entitled "The Folks Alang the Road".
 "Bigges Main-- The Village that Died":

"The village was founded in the seventeenth century when Thomas Charles Bigg, who lived at Benton, opened a pit there. He leased his coal royalties to Messrs. Bell, Brown and Johnstone in 1785; the lease to last for 40 years. The new owners sank three shafts, built cottages for the miners and successfully ran the enterprise for 41 years."

"In 1910, Bigges Main with its population of 690 was incorporated
into the Borough of Wallsend. In its post-mining era, Bigges Main,
about half a mile outside Wallsend was a pretty peaceful village
with its own village school, chapel and country inn."

Stan

[stephenaedwards]

Cheers stan. That's quite a nice description.

So Bigges Main was a village that was incorporated  into the Borough of Wallsend in 1910. Does that mean that it was in Longbenton prior to 1910 or just in the parish of Wallsend?

[JenB]

An address search of the 1841 census shows Bigges Main  in Longbenton.

For more general information have you tried searching at
http://www.tomorrows-history.com/index.htm or
http://www.historicaldirectories.org/hd/index.asp
 
Jennifer

[stanmapstone]

The village of Bigges Main, was in Little Benton Township the Ecclesiastical Parish of St. Cuthbert's, Longbenton, Rural Sanitary District of Tynemouth.

Stan

[stephenaedwards]

Many thanks.

That's cleared everything up. 

[teecee1941]

Hi Stephen, I have only just discovered this site and your query about Bigges Main. Regardless of which local authority it belonged to Bigges Main was situated geographically about 50 yards behind where Wallsend Sports Centre is now. If you take a diagonal line from Benfield School to the top of West Street Wallsend it was about half way along that line.

It was accessed by a dirt road half way along the Coast Road from West St to Wills cigarette factory until it's demolition around the mid fifties. The village pub was called The Mason's Arms and was still open until the early sixties when it was demolishe as part of the development of the area to form Wallsend Sports Centre.

Bigges Main played quite a part in my early life as I was born about three quarters of a mile away in Cross Avenue Westmorland Estate Wallsend. I remember quite vividly as a young boy that outside the Masons Arms there was a ramshackle brick stucture of sorts that I always thought was the actual village but maybe it was the school. There were also remnants of foundations nearby which were lost amongst the piggeries and allotments that had taken over the area. There was also an old disused mansion almost on the Coast Road until about 1957.
 Around 1930 Westmorland Estate was built and two of the streets were named after Bigges Main.These were Main Crescent and Bigges Gardens and it was said that these names would help the new settlers who were rehoused when Bigges Main was demolished.

I have tried to obtain a photograph of 'The Main' for many years but it seems that for some reason nobody has one. I know it must have been quite a primitive place to live, what with no electricity and flush toilets but in my memory it must have been like Brigadoon or a village out of a Walt Disney film.Surprisingly there seems to be very few people in Wallsend who know very much about Bigges Main even though it is, or was, right on their doorstep.

[fond memories]

.
Hi Guys nice to meet you all,
1939 on there abouts my dad took me on walk around Bigges Main, or what was left. Parts of the foundation was still visible, everything else was covered in grass. He said he was born on the middle row 1902 and I believe he lived there until he married. His father and family moved to Westmorland estate. "Main crescent and Biggs gardens".

The dirt road that was mentioned was the remains of a waggon way. I recall a mound of "slag" from a very old mine, and a rickety building half-way between the Masons Arms and Bigges Main that we called "the powder monkey", explosive storage building.

The Waggon way is where dad met mam. She worked at the farm about 1 mile north of the coast road up past Wills factory which of course was not there then. I have forgotten the name of the form. But it was well known.

John Connolly