John Common,blacksmith married Mary Rankin 1849/What do colliery blacksmiths do?

[Durhamstatts]

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

[conahy calling]

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 

[Jomot]

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.

[Durhamstatts]

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.

[pityackafromblyth]

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.

[pityackafromblyth]

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.

[pityackafromblyth]

The Durham Mining Museum is www.dmm.org.uk 
I have just revisited the site and wasted 90 minutes 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.

[Mabel Bagshawe]

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

[stanmapstone]

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