Northumberland Holiday Guide 2009
The South Northumberland coal field stretches from Blythe to was so successful Stephenson went on to build more engines,
Tynemouth and the centre of this area’s mining industry was including Locomotion No1 and Rocket. The first steam freight
Ashington. In 1840 Ashington was just a hamlet owned by the railway near Sunderland (1820), the first public railway between
Duke of Portland but when coal became profitable the Duke Stockton and Darlington (1825) and the first modern passenger
encouraged refugees from the potato famine to come and work railway from Liverpool to Manchester (1829).
in his expanding mines. Within a generation Ashington was
the world’s largest pit village but by the 1980s environmental George Stephenson also fixed the standard railway gauge at 4
concerns, an unfavourable economy and political hostility forced feet 8½ inches. Legend has it he chose this cumbersome figure
more and more mines to close. Ellington, Ashington’s last deep as it was the width of Hadrian’s Wall, which ran close by his
colliery, shut in 2005. birthplace, but it was more likely he simply measured between
the wheels of a traditional horse drawn cart!
“Northumberland is not a
county to pass through on
Stephenson’s birthplace survives and is now in the care of the
National Trust. The simple cottage has been faithfully restored to its
the way to Scotland as it
1791 condition, the year he was born and though the Old Wylam
contains some of the finest
Colliery has long gone you can still follow the original wagon way
worked by Puffing Billy along a pleasant riverside walk.
scenery in the Kingdom and
very many most remarkable
By the time his father died in 1848, Robert Stephenson
(1803-1859) was firmly established as an engineer in his own
historic buildings...”
right. He had worked with his father surveying the Stockton
Introduction to The King’s England
to Darlington railway and helped establish the world’s first
by Arthur Mee
locomotive works, off Forth Street behind Newcastle’s Central
Station, to build the engines they designed. At Forth Street,
Another Ashington mine, Woodhorn closed in 1984, but it has Robert designed and built Planet, a great improvement on their
since reopened as the award winning Woodhorn Museum. earlier Rocket.
This state of the art Industrial Heritage museum offers computer
simulations, exhibitions and interactive displays that recreate
the hard lives of the miners and their families.
Traditional horse drawn wagons were far too inefficient to
transport the millions of tons of coal needed by Britain’s hungry
factories. In 1794, a Cornish tin miner named Richard Trevithick
had the idea of turning fixed steam engines used to pump
mine-water into ‘Travelling Engines’ that could pull coal trucks.
Sadly, despite keen interest from mine owners, Trevithick’s
engines were not a success and he went bankrupt in 1811.
One of the few customers for Trevithick’s prototype steam
locomotives was Christopher Blackett who owned Wylam
Colliery in Northumberland. Trevithick travelled to Wylam
to build an engine for Blackett but it was too heavy for the
colliery’s wooden rails. By the time Blackett had realised the
problem could be solved with iron rails Trevithick had fled to
Peru to escape his creditors and rebuild his fortune.
Undeterred, Blackett continued to pursue the idea of a practical
travelling steam engine for his mines. Five years later, Blackett’s
engineer, Thomas Hedley, built Puffing Billy and the world’s first
practical steam locomotive began hauling coal trucks at Wylam
in 1813. Soon afterwards, the phrase ‘to go like Billy-o’ entered
the English language.
The success of Puffing Billy greatly impressed a young
Northumbrian inventor named George Stephenson. George
was born in a cottage in Wylam and his father worked at
Blackett’s colliery as a fireman for the stationary steam engines.
George had only basic schooling but he greatly improved
Hedley’s early designs. Nearby Killingworth Colliery was so
Cragside Estate, Mario Czekirda
impressed, Stephenson was asked to build the Blucher and this
www.visitnorthumberland.com 15
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