all about Shildon
Shildon history and stories
New Shildon was once more reknowned for the mines than the railway. Families came from Ireland and the Carlisle area for work in the South West Durham coalfields.
It was very common for some pit owners to pay the miners with coins or tokens specially made for each particular owner. These coins or tokens could only be spent in the shops belonging to the mine. Not only were the miners paid less but they could only spend at these shops who charged more than other local shops. (Miners at Dabble Duck pit worked under this system). Some of the shops in the now Redworth Road area belonged to the mine owners.
Other workers were paid slightly more than these miners but tended to spend their wages in the drinking establishments.
Timothy Hackworth was a very religious man and believed in treating his employees fairly which was unusual at that time (1800's). After moving to Shildon and creating the Soho Works, he not only built the cottages for him and his foremen but built good quality housing for his workers at Shildon.
Timothy Hackwork decided that he would only pay in cash and berated the mine owners who ran these systems.
It was said then that Shildon was a 'den of iniquity' with all the drinking establishments and the trouble which went them. The Irish workers were reknowned for drinking and fighting. Timothy Hackworth built chapels for their spiritual needs. He used to go into the rougher pubs to try and covert some of the inhabitants of Shildon. His workers had to sign 'the pledge' and abstain from alcohol.
It was very common for some pit owners to pay the miners with coins or tokens specially made for each particular owner. These coins or tokens could only be spent in the shops belonging to the mine. Not only were the miners paid less but they could only spend at these shops who charged more than other local shops. (Miners at Dabble Duck pit worked under this system). Some of the shops in the now Redworth Road area belonged to the mine owners.
Other workers were paid slightly more than these miners but tended to spend their wages in the drinking establishments.
Timothy Hackworth was a very religious man and believed in treating his employees fairly which was unusual at that time (1800's). After moving to Shildon and creating the Soho Works, he not only built the cottages for him and his foremen but built good quality housing for his workers at Shildon.
Timothy Hackwork decided that he would only pay in cash and berated the mine owners who ran these systems.
It was said then that Shildon was a 'den of iniquity' with all the drinking establishments and the trouble which went them. The Irish workers were reknowned for drinking and fighting. Timothy Hackworth built chapels for their spiritual needs. He used to go into the rougher pubs to try and covert some of the inhabitants of Shildon. His workers had to sign 'the pledge' and abstain from alcohol.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jude on -
ASTRAKA FURS
Originally called Alfred Morris Furs, the company was formed in London in 1898, moved to Buckinghamshire and in 1944 was relocated by the Board of Trade to a hall in Eldon, where it employed just three people.
In 1949 they moved onto the new Shildon trading estate. By the 1960s, Astraka was employing 400 people – mainly women – selling to top stores like Harrods and Selfridges and exporting all over the world.
Out in the Cold War, the Russians were especially keen to have Shildon coats on their back. The company called them fun furs and, for years they were working full pelt, the workforce laughing all the way to the bank.
Lionel Blair came to dance round in Shildon fur coats, world ice dance champion Courtney Jones designed Shildon gear for the 1980 British Winter Olympic team at Lake Placid.
In February 1988, however, the company went into receivership.
Soon afterwards it was announced that it had debts of £73,000, mainly in rates to Sedgefield council. That summer the company’s final assets were sold off.
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Permalink Reply by Jude on
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Things you didn't know about Astraka Furs
LORD LITCHFIELD
Lichfield’s first jobs inevitably came from members of the circles in which he mixed. Offering his services at a flat rate of five guineas, he began intermittent portraiture of London’s smart set. Additionally, he began to photograph their young children, a service for which he began to develop an unintended word-of-mouth reputation. In both these ways, he was following the lead of his distant relation by marriage, Lord Snowdon. Ten years before, Anthony Armstrong-Jones had kick-started his career in exactly the same way from his Pimlico Studio. Lichfield also began to develop a little black book of potential models. These included the young Joanna Lumley, Jill Kennington and Jaqueline Bisset (whom his flat-mate had met on a bus). Bisset would work as the model on an early shoot for the fake fur company Astraka and, in his first properly commissioned fashion shoot in 1964, Lichfield found himself photographing the future doyenne of the fashion world, Grace Coddington.
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Permalink Reply by Jude on
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If you lived in the Bishop/Shildon area and were poor, sick or just too old to work, this is where you ended up:http://www.workhouses.org.uk/index.html?Auckland/Auckland.shtml
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Permalink Reply by Sedgie on -
I've really enjoyed reading all your historical things Jude, thanks a lot!!
2 branches of my family arrived in the Shildon area c1871.
One were the Sedgwicks who started out Bedale, then Middlesbrough, Trimdon, Spennymoor, where he died in a pit accident 1872 ( he was a brickmaker, then a miner)...his widow, children and her new husband then settled in Pasture Houses Eldon, and my G Grandad worked as a coalminer in Eldon Colliery, where his step father and step grandfather also died shortly after, he then moved to Queen Street Shildon, and then Main Street, Cambridge Terrace and finally Byerley Road. ( He stopped working in the Pit after 3 family deaths and became a boot repairer) His older brother also lived in Shildon c1896, and younger brother in Willington and Eldon Lane. My Grandfather was born in Shildon, and was quite a clever lad and so avoided the pits.... he trained to be an accountant, was a principal in a technical college, and also co-founded and ran a business supplying school furniture in Darlington which unfortunately foundered, and he ended up doing book-keeping. His elder brother was a train driver ( steam trains) in Darlington.
The other branch, the Latchams, came up from Somerset where they were miners in the Radstock coal-fields. They settled first in New Pit Houses Eldon sometime between the 1871-1881 census, also Railway Row Eldon, then in 1901 Church Street,shildon, after he'd retired from mining. Some of the children lived in Hope Street shildon, Oakenshaw, and Pasture Houses, Eldon. All were mining workers.
The third branch of the family , the Horner side, moved up from North Yorkshire to 12 Eden Pit, Middridge, New Shildon c1910, I've a book inscription for them 1911 . I believe that Pit was disused in 1924, when they moved to Soho Cottages, Shildon 1925 to 1938 or 1945 depending on what age he was when he retired.... Probably the latter, they then went to live in Darlington. They were more the railway side...Great Grandad was a blacksmith and had worked as such before the war, and family stories say he had something to do with the pit ponies, he worked in the wagon works at Shildon though from 1925. His eldest son also worked there, then later became a train driver of the steam trains. He and his son built many working steam engines in smaller sizes, 2 of them used to have pride of place in the museum in Darlington in the 1950-1970's.
So it all fits in with what you were describing!
Sedgie
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