Due to copyright reasons this web-page does not include the illustrations which originally accompanied this article however these can be found in the full original version which was published in the Industrial Locomotive, No 117 (2005) pp 201-213 (Pub. The Industrial Locomotive Society)
The Grange Iron Company, Gilesgate, Durham,
1867 – 1926.
By Russell Wear & Alan Vickers.
The Grange Iron Company works were established in 1867 on the site of the former Grange Colliery, about two miles from Durham. (NZ 446 304) The colliery had been owned by the Third Marquis of Londonderry who, in 1866, granted a lease to William Stobart that included liberty to pull down the mine buildings etc. (1) Prior to this date the Grange Company had taken over the works of Mr W. Coulson, of The Crossgate, Durham. (NZ 424 269) (2)
The company was first registered on 27th April 1866 and the registered office was at Crossgate Durham. The initial shareholders were:
William Coulson of Crossgate, Durham, Ironfounder;
Henry Thomas Morton, Colliery Agent to the Earl of Durham, of Biddick Hall;
Hilton Philipson, Solicitor and Coal Owner, of Newcastle;
Ralph Park Philipson, Solicitor and Coal Owner, of Newcastle.
Lindsay Wood, a partner in the Hetton Coal Company and the Harton Coal
Company, of Hetton Hall. (He was the son of the better known Nicholas Wood);
Richard Sheraton Johnson, Mining Engineer, of Haswell;
W. Armstrong, Wingate Grange;
John Daglish, Agent to the Marquis of Londonderry, of Belmont Hall;
Richard Fowler Matthews, Mining Engineer, of South Hetton;
William Stobart, a partner in William Bell & Partners of Monkwearmouth
Colliery, of Cocken Hall;
Thomas Crawford, Mining Engineer, of Littletown;
H. Watson, Newcastle;
Thomas Douglas, Mining Engineer, of Peases West;
Edward Fenwick Boyd, Mining Engineer, of Moor House, Durham;
G. B. Forster, Backworth;
A member of the Coulson family was a director of the Company throughout its life.
The initial capital of the company was £30,000 in 300 shares of £100.
The registered office of the company was moved to the Grange Iron Works on 13th July 1877.
The Grange works covered some ten acres and constituted a township in its own right, as dwellings were built there for its considerable workforce. (2) Vane Terrace, Wood Row and New Row were some of the streets of houses. A few employees were also living at Belle Vue Terrace, Grange Row, Carrville and Brickgarth. (3)
The works were located very close to a branch of the North Eastern Railway and a short connection, 15 chains in length, was constructed to connect the works to the railway.
It is possible that in the early years the company had a relationship with the SheepBridge Iron Works as there is a reference that Addison Birbeck of SheepBridge Iron Works, Chesterfield, voted at Gilesgate in the 1868 elections. (4)
There is also a reference to Samuel William Linsley of the Grange Iron Works, Belmont, voting in the same election. (4) This may well have been the Samuel William Linsley who, at the time of the 1881 census, was age 47, living with his wife and family at 13 Victoria Place, Westoe, Co Durham, having been born at Rainton, Co Durham. His occupation was given as Mining Engineer. His daughter, Annie Linsley, age 13, had been born at Grange, Co Durham. From there the family appeared to have moved to Silksworth, to Whitburn and to South Shields. (3)
An advert in Slater’s Directory of Co Durham, 1879, and probably one of the company’s first adverts, showed them as being ‘Engineers, Smiths, Boiler Makers, Iron & Brass Founders and Manufacturers of all descriptions of Colliery Iron Work’:
Colliery Heapsteads, Screens and Pulleys;
Pumping Machinery;
Air-Compressing, Winding and haulage engines fitted with improved expansion valves;
Steam cranes;
Gas apparatus;
Ventilating fans;
Walker & Cole’s patentd coal screen;
Bartrum and Powell’s patent Comet pumps;
Endless chain plant;
Boring tools, etc.;
Edwards’ patented coal washing machine;
Burnett’s patented precipitator;
Alexander Oldham’s piston packing rings.
In 1887 the company was awarded two silver medals and a bronze at the Royal Exhibition at Newcastle for compound air compressing engines, air locomotives for underground haulage, and for colliery jigging screens. The company’s products were regularly exported. (5)
The following were exhibited at the Newcastle Exhibition and give a good idea of the range of equipment that was manufactured: (6)
1. Working model of screening apparatus and travelling belts for sorting, cleaning, and screening Coal.
2. Working model of automatic expansion-gear as applied to Silksworth and other colliery winding engines.
3. Double horizontal engine for driving dynamos with expansion slides worked by governor.
4. Geared underground portable hand pump.
5. Double-acting horizontal pump for mines worked by tail, or other ropes, showing method of tightening rope.
6. Self-contained hauling engine with drums, worked either with steam or compressed air.
7. Improved Gramme dynamo, very suitable for colliery installations.
8. Coal-getter (Hall & Low’s Patent) for wedging down coal, stone etc.
9. Comet Pump, on bogie for mines.
10. Improved self-skimming foundry ladle (Goodwin & How’s Patent), whereby the metal is drawn from the bottom, but poured from the top.
11. Permanent way safety clip for securing railway keys in their chairs (Goodwin & How’s Patent).
12. Locking-gear for mineral tip waggon (P. Fowler’s Patent).
13. Working model of Jucke’s revolving self-feeding smokeless furnace.
14. Working model of automatic brake attachments, which renders overwinding impossible.
In addition, in the haulage section of the exhibition, a Lishman & Young design compressed-air driven underground locomotive was exhibited. The locomotive and air-compressor were supplied by the Grange Iron Company and the rails and iron sleepers were provided by the Earl of Durham. (6)
A photograph taken in 1890 shows that the company had a very well equipped turning shop. (5)
The company manufactured all kinds of steam engines, machinery and colliery plant, including small compressed-air driven locomotives for use underground, and in 1894 was giving employment to about 600 men. (2)
The iron works had its own gasworks which produced gas for all the lighting for the works and offices. (5)
Much of the steelwork for buildings and bridges which the company produced was in kit form, with each part numbered. Photographs were taken during construction at the works to help in the erection process when the kit of parts reached its destination. (5)
Whellan, in 1894 (2) showed the following as the company officials:
Harry Lawrence Manager.
Robert Matthew Ogle Assistant Manager.
William Rennie Secretary.
George Harry Winspear Cashier.
At its heyday the company was the most important industrial establishment in the neighbourhood of Durham (5)
A photograph of the staff of the Grange Iron Co, taken about 1916 shows a considerable workforce. At that time the company were receiving orders from New South Wales, New Zealand, South Africa, China, Brazil, India and other parts of the world. (5)
The iron works closed in 1926 when it was amalgamated with Messrs Joseph Cook, Sons & Co. Ltd of the Washington Steel & Iron Works. (5)
The Iron & Coal Trades Review for 19th March 1926 carried a note that Joseph Cook, Sons & Co Ltd., Washington, have absorbed the Grange Iron Co. Ltd. and the Company’s offices at Durham have been closed. (7), (10)
Joseph Cook’s commenced operation early in the nineteenth century at North Biddick on a site very close to the later built Victoria Railway Bridge. In Hagar’s Directrory of County Durham, 1851, the company was described as being ‘iron merchants, founders and general manufacturers of shovels, spades, nails etc’. In 1894 it was employing about 300 men and was carrying on the manufacture of all kinds of colliery plant. (2)
Items known to have been manufactured by the Grange Iron Company include the following:
1. Conventional steam tank locomotive, named CARBON, and built for Pease & Partners group. This was an 0-4-0 with 10” cylinders first known with the North Bitchburn Coal Co Ltd at Gordon House Colliery, Cockfield (NZ 131244) in the 1920s. This concern was a subsidiary of Pease & Partners Ltd, and when this colliery closed about 1931 the loco was transferred to Randolph Colliery (NZ 157249), Evenwood, also part of the Pease empire. When Pease & Partners collapsed in 1933 it passed with the site to the Randolph Coal Co Ltd which restarted the colliery about 1934. It is understood to have been scrapped there a few years later. (7)
2. Steam winding engine for Silksworth Colliery No 3 shaft. (NZ 377541)
The specifications for this winding engine were:
Cylinder diameter 48 inches.
Stroke 84 inches.
Steam pressure 120 pounds per square inch.
Brake horse power 1,200
Winding drum Conical drum, 28 feet large diameter, 15 feet small diameter.
Shaft sunk in 1874 to a depth of 1,476 feet to the Hutton seam.
Later deepened to the Harvey seam 2,062 feet. (10)
Later still deepened to the Bottom Busty seam although the engine only wound from the Hutton seam.
By 1887 the engine was fitted with automatic expansion gear. (6)
During its working life a crack developed in the cast iron bed-plate of the engine. This was successfully repaired by fitting brackets on either side of the crack and pulling the two brackets together with large bolts. The crack was then filled with molten lead.
The crack had developed some years before 1949 and the engine ran satisfactorily in this condition for the remainder of its working life.
Silksworth Nos 2 and 3 winding engines operated in one shaft which was sub-divided by a ‘brattice’. No 2 engine operated in the east side of the shaft and No 3 engine operated in the west side and also worked the Five Quarter and Maudlin seam levels. The west side cage, or ‘wall side cage’ as it was commonly known’ also worked to ‘the pump hole’. This was a small inset level, located about 325 feet (99.06 metres) from the surface where water was extracted from the magnesian limestone strata and the underlying sand bed before being pumped to the surface for use in the colliery boilers.
The four-decked cages each carried two 10 cwt (464 kg) tubs of coal. When used for man-riding eight men were carried in each deck.
The engine was removed and scrapped in 1959 along with the other two steam winding engines.
3. A conventional steam saddle tank 0-4-0 locomotive built in 1873 for the South Durham Steel & Iron Co Ltd of West Hartlepool. This carried the running No 5 and was in use until about 1918. (7)
4. In 1872, at Ryhope Colliery a 32 in bank engine of 150 HP provided the motion for two air-compressing cylinders, made by the Grange Iron Company. (8) (9)
5. In 1876 a new stationery haulage engine was installed at Copt Hill, Houghton-le-
Spring on George Stephenson’s Hetton to Sunderland Railway to replace the 60 horse power engine originally installed as this was found too small to deal with heavier loads.
This was a large four-drummed haulage engine which was known as the Byer (or Byre) engine and was used to haul wagons up an incline to Copt Hill. From Copt Hill the line ran towards Warden Law and was almost level for about three-quarters of a mile. This section was known as the Flat, and was worked by a drum on the Byre engine
The engine carried the makers No 125.
Also at the Flat there was a Watt’s pumping engine, which pumped from a borehole put down to the limestone strata, from which water was pumped to a reservoir at Copt Hill in order to supply the boilers there. (10)
6. Some time after 1881 a vertical steam winding engine at Sacriston Colliery was replaced by a modern, more efficient horizontal steam winder built by the Grange Iron Company. (11)
7. An overhead wrought iron crane installed in 1883 in the Fitting and Erecting Shop at Lambton Engine Works. (NZ 336525) The crane was probably hand powered and converted to electric power at a later date. This crane was removed from the works when it closed in 1989 and was then moved to the Bowes Railway at Springwell, near Washington, Tyne & Wear, where it is currently believed to be lying dismantled. (NZ 279577) (15)
8. A number of small underground locomotives, driven by compressed air, for use at Lambton collieries. It is possible that work had been done on the prototype locomotive in colliery workshops some time before the Grange Iron Company came into the picture. (13) These locomotives were featured in company adverts in the mid 1880s and were built to a patented design of Lishman and Young. (7) By 1887 at least two dozen locomotives were in use in collieries owned by the Earl of Durham. These were probably in operation at the Lambton Lady Ann (NZ 319 507), Lambton D (NZ 318 509) and Lambton Dorothea collieries (NZ 334524). The locomotive exhibited at the Newcastle exhibition in that year was an improved design.
The use of compressed air locomotives in British coal mines had ceased before 1900. The Lishman and Young design was the first fireless underground locomotive. A full description of the locomotive appeareds in the Transactions of the Northern Institute of Mining Engineers for 1887. (12) (15) (16) The designers were probably William Lishman, who at the time of the 1881 Census was age 49, living at Bunker Hill, Newbottle, Co Durham, with his wife and family, occupation ‘Mining Engineer’, and James Young, age 45, who was also living at Bunker Hill with his wife and family, occupation ‘Manager of Engineering & Iron Works’. (3) It is probable that the Engineering & Iron Works was the nearby Lambton Engine Works but was there possibly a connection with the Grange Iron Company also? There were also Thomas Lishman senior and junior then living at Eppleton Hall, Little Eppleton, Co Durham, occupations ‘Mining Engineer Retired’ and ‘Mining Engineer’ and it is, of course, possible that they may also have been involved in the design of the locomotives. (3)
The smaller locomotive were built to a very basic design. They were built to 2 ft 0 in gauge, with a wooden frame having dumb buffers which supported an air receiver with a capacity of about 25 cubic feet. They had two cylinders, each of 3 inches diameter by 6 inches stroke, mounted between the frames. The cylinders drove coupled 12 inch diameter cast iron wheels with a wheelbase of 17 inches, to enable the locomotive to work round curves of about 6 or 7 feet radius. The forward and reverse motion was arranged by slip eccentrics. There were no springs on the suspension and the simple brakes were worked by hand at one end and by foot at the other end. The total weight of the locomotive was a little less than one ton. They could haul up to four tons for up to 500 yards on one charge of compressed air, provided that the gradient did not exceed 1 in 48. The locomotive could be driven from either end but when hauling empty tubs the driver sat in the first tub to work the controls. When hauling full tubs he sat on a small detachable seat.
The larger design of locomotive was more sophisticated and had cylinders 4.5 inches diameter by 10 inch stroke and 20 inch diameter steel wheels. The air receiver had a capacity of 56 cubic feet and the locomotive could pull 30 tons a distance of 500 yards (457.2 metres) on one charge of compressed air. These locomotives could be driven from one end only. They had a dropped foot-plate and were provided with a cab to give some protection to the driver.
Compressed air for the locomotives was piped down from the surface at a pressure of 210 pounds per square inch and supply points were provided at the various places where the locomotives were being used. The filling apparatus was described as being like a water crane, with the arm swung round to the locomotive to be filled and the valves opened. The receivers on the small engines could be filled in 8 – 10 seconds and the locomotives were then ready for work, the receivers on the larger locomotives took 15 – 18 seconds to fill. At the end of the shift the locomotives were left standing at the various filling stations so that filling them up with compressed air and oiling them could be done at the commencement of the next shift, when they were then ready for work.
Boys of about 16 years of age usually drove the smaller locomotive and it was claimed that they were able to do this after a few hours instruction.
There is a record of an accident at Lambton D pit when, on 11th June 1881, John Wilson, age 49, Shifter at ‘Newbottle’ D Pit was killed. The report of the accident says that he took away a small locomotive in the pit, something he had no right to do, and it collided with some tubs and crushed him to death. This suggests the possibility, at least, that some of these small locomotives were in use underground earlier than the mid 1880s. (?)
9. Six Lishman & Young compressed-air driven locomotives were sent to California in 1879. These were the first mines locomotives in the USA. (12) (16) (18) An article on compressed-air driven locomotives appeared in the Proceedings of the Institute of Mining Engineers, Volume 27, 1903 - 4. (19) Following this there was a letter from H. Lawrence of Newcastle, the manager of the Grange Iron Co. This said ‘Locomotives worked by compressed air were introduced into the mines of the Earl of Durham by Messrs. W. Lishman and W. Young about 1885, and one was exhibited by the Grange Iron Co. in the hauling ground of the Newcastle Exhibition in 1887 and formed part of the exhibits of several systems of underground haulage.’ (13)
10. Henry Lawrence and others carried out trials with a compressed-air driven loco in a South Wales colliery - possibly Risca Colliery (ST 216916) (12). Poor track and sparking of the wheels on the rails resulted in the trials being a failure. (13) (20)
11. Whitwood Colliery, Normanton, owned by Henry Briggs, Son & Co. Ltd, had thirteen compressed-air driven locos in use underground from c 1880. (SE 405246) It is likely that these were built to the Lishman & Young design and were made by Grange Iron Co. (13) (21)
12. A steam engine made in 1888 which was later bought second hand and installed at Washington ‘F’ Pit in 1903. (NZ 303574) (22)
The specifications for this winding engine are:
Horizontal twin cylinder steam engine having four double beat drop valves (two inlet and two outlet) for each cylinder. The valves were operated by Gooch Link Motion.
Cylinder diameter 30 inches.
Stroke 60 inches.
Brake horse power 500
Winding drum Parallel drum.
Shaft sunk in about 1777 later deepened to a depth of 660 feet to the Hutton seam and later still deepened to the Harvey seam. (21)
In 1903 the engine was fitted with expansion gear for improved economy of working. (6) (23)
When in use the engine was fitted with a speed controller and a steam brake which could not be released unless there was sufficient steam pressure available to work the engine safely. This equipment was removed from the engine when the colliery closed and at the present time only the handbrake remains.
The engine would wind up to 120 tons of coal per hour from the Hutton seam. The cages originally had three decks and held three 7 cwt (325 kg) capacity tubs or about 20 men. Later two deck cages were introduced. When winding coal from the lowest level, the Busty seam, one wind took 28 seconds; men travelled more slowly.
The engine house became the Washington F pit Museum of the Tyne & Wear Museums Service and for demonstration purposes the engine has been fitted with an electric motor in order to turn the winding drum. Access to see this winding engine is only possible on a limited number of weekends. (22)
A 16 mm colour film, running for nine minutes, was made about this winding engine and a copy is currently held by Tyne and Wear Museums, at the Discovery Museum, Newcastle upon Tyne. Unfortunately, at the time of preparing this paper the museum have no equipment with which to show the film. The museum also have a five- minute video called ‘Don’t Forget …’ This is believed to be an edited version of the 16 mm film.
13. Self-contained hauling engines. The advert for these carries the caption ‘Grange Iron Co. Ld., Durham. Foundry, Engineering and Boiler Works’, and, with regard to the hauling engines says ‘Ordinary sizes kept in stock’. (24) These hauling engines could be powered by steam or compressed air. (6)
14. A horizontal duplex winding engine at Bentinck Colliery, near Kirkby-in-Ashfield, about 1890. (25)
The colliery was formerly owned by the New Hucknall & Blackwell Mining Company Ltd, who had sank three shafts by 1895, each shaft being 14 ft in diameter. The shafts were:
No 1 shaft sunk to the deep hard seam at 381 yards, but used to wind men to the Warterloo horizon at a depth of 244 yards.
No 2 upcast shaft 505 yards deep to the Blackshale seam and used for men and materials to the Tupton inset at 438 yards and also from the Warterloo seam at the inset at 244 yards.
No 3 downcast shaft sunk to the three-quarters horizon at a depth of 438 yards and used for men and materials for the Blackshale and Tupton seams. (26)
It is not known which shaft this winding engine was working.
The engine was scrapped in 1978. (25)
15. Billet skid and engines for the 22 inch Angle Mill at Consett Iron Works in 1892 . The erection of the mill and engines was carried out by Lamberton & Company. (27)
16. A ‘main and tail’ haulage engine for use as the main haulage engine at No 1 pit bottom at Langley Park Colliery. The hauling engine had drums of 8 ft in diameter which were worked by cylinders 24 inches in diameter by 54 inches stroke, steam being supplied from the surface. (28)
17. Coal screening plant at Ryhope Colliery. (29)
18. In 1924 the mechanical parts of an endless rope haulage system was provided for use in the Hutton seam at Horden Colliery. The haulage was provided with two fleeting wheels 8 ft in diameter and was driven by a 300 horse power electric motor by The Metropolitan-Vickers Electrical Co., Ltd., working on an alternating current, 3-phase, 3,000-volt system, at a speed of 390 r.p.m. This hauled tubs of coal at a speed of 2 miles per hour. (30)
19. Again in 1924 the mechanical parts of a 300 horse-power hauler for a man-riding haulage system were provided for Horden Colliery. (30)
References.
1. One of the ‘Londonderry Papers’ in Durham County Record Office, reference D/Lo/E/290.
2. History, Topography and Directory of the County Palatine of Durham, 1894, William Whellan & Co.
3. The 1881 Census for County Durham. Public Records Office Reference, RG11.
4. The North Durham Poll Book for 1868.
5. Durham at Work, by Michael Richardson. Published by Alan Sutton Publishing Limited, 1995.
6. The 1887 Newcastle Exhibition Guide.
7. Communications from Russell Wear, April - May 2000.
8. Description of air-compressed machinery as applied to underground haulage etc. at Ryhope Colliery. The Journal of the North East Institute of Mining and Mechanical Enginees, Vol. XI, 1872, pages 73 - 9.
9. The Collieries of Durham, Volume 2, by David Temple.
10. From Copt Hill to Ryhope: the Diary of a Colliery Engineer, by Arthur Gair.
11. The Collieries of Durham, Volume 1, by David Temple.
12. Communication from Rodney Weaver, May 2000.
13. Iron & Coal Trades Review, 19th March 1926.
14. The Story of Silksworth, published by the Silksworth Heritage Group.
15. Mines de Lambton 1891, by Colin E. Mountford, an article which appeared in Industrial Railway Record, December 1997.
16. Letter from Rodney Weaver published in The Industrial Locomotive, Vol 2, No 15, (1979).
17. North of England Mining Accidents, 1859 -1899, indexed by George Bell.
18. Transactions of the North of England Institute of Mining Engineers for 1887.
19. Proceedings of the Institute of Mining Engineers, Volume 27, 1903 - 4.
20. Letter from G. C. Down in Industrial Railway Record, No 58, February 1975.
21. A note in Industrial Railway Record, No 40, December 1971.
22. Washington F Pit. An Information Sheet of the Museum of Science and Engineering.
23. Tyne and Wear County Council, Top 10 Museums, a leaflet produced by Tyne and Wear Museums Service.
24. Copy of the Grange Iron Company advert that appeared in Sacrifice, Achievement, Gratitude.
25. Communications from Paul Stephens of the International Stationery Steam Engine Society (ISSES), January – February 2002.
26. Information from ‘the Terry Blythe web pages’ at www.terryblythe.co.uk/page11.html
27. Description of the Consett Iron Works, originally published by Mawson, Swan, & Morgan, Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1892. (From the website at www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/DUR/Consett/Works4.html
28. A booklet on Langley Park Colliery, by Mr P O Kirkup, the colliery manager from 1897, and written for a visit of the Mining Student’s Association. (From the internet website mselectrical.co.uk/langleypark2/assets/images/history/history-txt/history9-12.gif)
29. Colliery Engineering, July 1932 and May 1935.
30. An Illustrated Account of the equipment of a Colliery Winding over 4,000 tons of Coal per day, an article in Colliery Engineering, April 1924.