A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



leases and agreements contain no reservation of minerals, but the reason 

 probably is that it seemed preposterous to think that the tenants had any 

 claim. All they could expect was that they should be recompensed for 

 actual loss, and upon that principle the present law is based. However, the 

 old pits were simply shallow holes for surface mining, and the question is 

 much thornier when serious subsidences of the soil might and do take place 

 through modern deep mining, and 'wayleave' for a railway can be taken at 

 the lord's option.^ 



It is outside the scope of this article to trace the rise of industrial 

 Durham, but reference must be made to some of the chief trades followed. 

 In olden times each village was almost a self-contained economic unit, and even 

 in the village the most elementary and necessary crafts alone were followed by 

 a special worker. The peasant might need the services of a smith or a 

 carpenter, but his own wife and daughters spun and wove the wool from his 

 own sheep, and perhaps did not always take it to the local fulling mill for 

 that operation. We find dyers at Darlington in 1183 and, of course, 

 weavers, cordwainers, &c., in big cities like Durham at a later date. There 

 were iron-workers at Winlaton, and probably a fair number of skilled metal- 

 workers in the county, but it was not until the eighteenth century that 

 organized manufacture on any large scale as opposed to the satisfaction of 

 casual wants began to be common. Even at the end of the eighteenth 

 century Sir John Eden could find no manufactures at Sunderland except 

 the shipping industry, and he found little else at South Shields except 

 glass-making and a salt-refining industry, ruined by the loss of the London 

 market.^ 



However, in a few places in the county flourishing industries were 

 created. The famous Winlaton Mills, which made all kinds of iron goods, were 

 founded by an ex-blacksmith, Ambrose Crowley, in 1690, who laid down 

 a most excellent code of laws for the workmen, which were to be put into 

 execution by a court of arbitrators held at Winlaton every ten weeks for 

 hearing and determining causes among the workmen. Thanks to this court 

 the workers secured easy, expeditious, and cheap justice, for the fees were fixed 

 very low. The court owed its power to the fact that recalcitrant litigants 

 could be expelled from the works, and would thus lose all claim on the fund, 

 to which all men had to contribute. One of the laws was, ' No publican 

 can sue in this court for debts contracted for drink.' Add to this regulations 

 for a superannuation fund, the erection of schools and a place of worship, and 

 we have a curious anticipation of New Lanark.* 



Of course, all masters were not so considerate, but there were flourishing 

 iron manufacturers at Blackball, Swalwell, Beamish, and Lumley, at High 

 and Low Team, Gateshead, and Bedburn near Bishop Auckland. At the 

 beginning of the eighteenth century some Germans established a sword 

 factory at Shotley Bridge, and later on foundries for casting brass and iron 

 were erected at Gateshead and a few other places including Darlington, 

 There were glass-houses at Gateshead, South Shields, and Sunderland, and 



' This question, on its technical side, is treated elsewhere. For information as to the early system of 

 mining see article ' Archaeology of the Coal Trade ' in Proc. Arch. Inst., Newcastle (1852). 

 ' ^tate of the Poor, ii, 166, 171. 

 ' For a fuller account of Ambrose Crowley see article on 'Industries' in this volume. 



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