Tomorrow, at 12.30 pm in Marley Hill engine shed, all volunteers are invited to celebrate 296 years since our railway was founded as the Tanfield Waggonway to Causey, heading for Tanfield Moor.
In Durham Records Office, there are documents recording the Grand Allies establishing themselves to consolidate & enable extension of the Waggonway over Causey Arch:
The Grand Allies, Later Lord Ravensworth and Partners (Ref: D/St/B1/6)
Partnership Agreement, 27 June 1726
(1) The Hon. Sydney Wortley of Wortley, Yorkshire, esq., and Edward Wortley, esq., his son and heir apparent, and Thomas Ord of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, gent.
(2) Sir Henry Liddell of Ravensworth Castle, bart., an infant of nearly 18 years, and George Liddell of Ravensworth Castle, esq., for himself and as guardian of Sir Henry
(3) George Bowes of Gibside, esq.
(4) William Cotesworth of Gateshead Park, esq.
Copy agreement for partnership for 99 years for purchasing and working collieries and for sale of coal; all collieries above Newcastle Bridge to be divided into 3 equal parts, except family collieries of the Liddells in Ravensworth, Lamesley and Eighten and Kibblesworth, and collieries of George Bowes at Gibside, Parkhead, etc.
The following extract is from William Weaver Tomlinson's book The North Eastern Railway Its Rise and Development. Newcastle-upon-Tyne : A. Reid & Company, limited; London, Longmans, Green & Company, 1915.
The Liddells and Montagus had already been associated in the working of Blackburn, alias Burdon Moor, Colliery, held by lease of the Bishop of Durham, and had gained possession of a number of royalties, leasing the coal under the freehold lands of Thomas Dawson and William Davison at Tanfield, and of Ralph Clavering, jun., at Causey, and they had begun to construct "at the expense of many thousand pounds" the longest and most remarkable waggonway which had so far been laid down. Besides some large cuttings, the works comprised a huge embankment across the valley of the Beckley Burn, which rendered necessary the making of a drift through the solid rock for the course of the diverted stream, and the building of a stone bridge of a single arch 102 feet in span over the stream higher up, famous as the Causey Bridge or Tanfield Arch. The Chancery case, already quoted, gives a description of the permanent way of the period :
"For the making of waggonways the ground must be made as level as possible, without narrow turnings, and pieces of hard timber or wood called sleepers must be fixed in the ground, and raised some inches from the ground, for the wheels of the waggons to run on, and can be used only by waggons and not by carts."
The engineering features of this remarkable waggonway made it one of the wonders of the district, and Dr. William Stukeley, the eminent antiquary, with his companion Richard Gale, who were in Newcastle during the early part of September, 1725, found it well worth seeing, even after the Roman Wall. Boreale gives an account of the visit :
"We saw Colonel Lyddal's coal-works at Tanfield, where he carries the road over valleys filled with earth, 100 foot high, 300 foot broad at bottom : other valleys as large have a stone bridge laid across : in other places hills are cut through for half a mile together, and in this manner a road is made, and frames of timber laid for five miles to the river side, where coals are delivered at 5s. per chaldron."
Uniting with George Bowes, who had estates at Marley Hill and Hedley, rights over Hedley Fell, and a joint interest in Park Head Colliery, and who had recently purchased a colliery at Shield Row, the Liddells and Montagus came to an agreement on the 27th of June, 1726, "to join some of their collieries and to enter into a friendship and partnership for the purchasing or taking other collieries, and for winning and working of coals thereout, and to exchange benefits and kindnesses with each other, upon a lasting foundation", George Bowes contributing his share of the expense incurred "in making and erecting the bridge called Dawson's Bridge (the Tanfield Arch), and of drifting into and winning the colliery called Mr. Dawson's Colliery". The collieries specified were to be held in thirds from the llth of November, 1726, for a term of 99 years, the coal was to be worked jointly but led to separate staiths and vended distinctly. The partners agreed to pay 5s. a ten a measure consisting in this instance of 46 tons and a few hundredweights to William Cotesworth for all coals led from these collieries, whether conveyed over his lands and to his staiths or not, the undertaking not to open out new collieries or let further wayleaves to any other persons through his manors or lands, or grant staith-rooms to them without the consent of the partners. By this agreement they got the monopoly of the most valuable mineral district in the North of England.
