Meeting Notes September 2018

Meeting Notes September 2018

There was a half term break in October so there are no notes to follow up. However the notes for September have two very interesting articles; John on a very special Railway Engineer and Peter has provided us with an insite into the Co-Op. 

Our next meeting will be at the Into Newcastle University Cafe at the Haymarket on Wednesday 14 November  10:30. Please bring along any work you have been doing to share with the group. We also have a little  fun with judging who is who from old photographs of each other so bring along an old photo and if you have time perhaps you can find a historical or interesting local history fact the happened on your birthday.

TIMOTHY HACKWORTH. RAILWAY ENGINEER. 1786-1850

There are two reasons why I chose to put a few words together about Timothy Hackworth. First three generations of my Brother in law's family have Hackworth as their middle name and it appears the family are in some way related to the Hackworths. Secondly in this period of the Great Exhibition of the North, much attention has been to the a achievements of Stephenson and "the Rocket and little if any mention made of the Railway achievement of Timothy Hackworth. Timothy Hackworth was born in 1786 in Wylam just 5 years after George Stephenson who was also born in Wylam. .

A cartoon published in 1876 — 100 years after Timothy Hackworth was born shows a number of eminent railway engineers laying about each with umbrellas. The cartoon was entitled:" The Battle of the Blast Pipe" a satirical comment on the controversy raging in that century of a great achievement in railway locomotion engineering and a comment on the grievance that George Stephenson was acclaimed an idol while others were neglected.

Arthur Mee in "Durham" one in a series of published guides covering English Counties, writes: ” The really great man of Shildon was the locomotion engineer and Methodist preacher Thomas Hackworth. He is sometimes called the Father of Locomotives and was certainly one of the first in the field”

Certainly it is on record that between 1813-15 Hackworth was introduced to Locomotive construction while cooperating with William Hedley in the building of locomotives known as:

"Timothy's Dillies" and “Puffing Billies". Stephenson didn't build his first engine until 1814.

Hackworth left school in 1800 aged 14 years (old for the time) and after serving an apprenticeship to his father the Master Blacksmith at Wylam Colliery he was appointed to succeed his ailing father responsibility for men much older than himself. His father died two years later leaving Timothy with additional responsibility for the welfare of his mother and younger family members. Hackworth's working life can be divided into two clear halves, each 25 yrs duration. From 1800 to 1825 when he was a colliery blacksmith and 1825 to his death in 1850 when he was railway engineer and manufacturer of locomotives.

A vital factor in Hackworth's life was his conversion to the Weslyan branch of Methodism in 1810 and his marriage to Jane in Ovingham Parish Church in 1812. Jane was a deeply committed Methodist and their marriage was a happy one. In 1817 his religious conviction forced Hackworth to leave his post at Wylam Colliery as he refused to work on Sunday.

So Hackworth moved to Walbottle Colliery to take up a similar job he had held at Wylam. Hackworth was contented and unambitious. ln 1821 George Stephenson met the Darlington Quaker and Banker Edward Peace and Pease was persuaded to accept the used of steam power locomotives as well as stationery locomotion on the Stockton and Darlington Railway. To construct such engines an engineering works was opened in Forth Street under the name of Robert Stephenson, George's son. With George Stephenson involved in surveying the new Liverpool to Manchester line and Robert in South America, George Stephenson selected Timothy Hackworth to stand in as supervisor of engine construction at Forth St. until his own return in December 1824.

At this point the Board valuing Hackworth's knowledge and skill offered him a 1/10"‘ interest in the Forth St. firm but Hackworth refused, instead returning to his post at Walbottle.

Early in 1825 Hackworth had decided that his future lay in the construction of locomotives rather than foreman colliery blacksmith. He handed in his notice at Walbottle with the intention of setting up his own locomotive construction business. Stephenson fearing a competitor negotiated with Hackworth to employ him with Stockton and Darlington Railway Co. He was offered charge of the static and locomotive engines. His salary would be £150 (small in comparison with others in similar roles) and a House. He was sent to New Shildon the Engineering Headquarters of the Stockton and Darlington Railway Co. Here alongside official duties, he set about loco construction of his own. During this time he constructed the ”Royal George" which some claim saved the day for locomotives. With the Stephensons away, otherwise engaged, it was on Hackworth's shoulders at this time depended many of the critical engineering and practical judgements which insured the future of steam powered locomotives. When the Directors of the Liverpool to Manchester Line held trials at Rainhill in 1Q29 to discover the best locomotive for their project, Hackworth's "Royal George" was not considered. His engine Sanspareil was considered but thought too wasteful of coke. In the event "Rocket" designed by Rbt. Stephenson won. "Sanspareil" was afterwards purchased by the Manchester to Liverpool line Directors for £500.

Between 1829 and 1837 Hackworth designed 17 locomotives for S.& Darlington Railway. In 1836 a Hackworth locomotive was delivered in parts to Russia and reassembled by Hackworth's son for use on the Tran-siberian line. In 1838 the first locomotive used ln Nova Scotia, Canada was built by Hackworth.

ln May 1840 Hackworth broke all ties with S. & D.Railway and set up his own business in what he called Soho Engine Works. This was the first works in the world specially built to make railway locomotives. Here he built Sans Pareil No. 2 which Hackworth himself considered his master piece.

During all this time Hackworth and his wife were building up large and vibrant Methodist circuits in and around Bp. Auckland. While still very active as a Methodist Preacher, and Engineer, Timothy Hackworth died in 1850.

I end by quoting from Geoffrey Milburn’s short life of Hackworth. "In the light of all this

achievement, and also the relative obscurity of Hackworth's name today, one is forced to the conclusion that his work as a locomotive engineer has not received the appreciation it deserves."

Sources: G. E. Milburn Pamphlet 1975 repr. 2000: An Encyclopaedia of N. E. England, Lomas and

Arthur Mee’s Durham.

The Co-operative Wholesale Society Pelaw Works

The Co-operative movement as we know it began with the Rochdale Pioneers in 1844. Working people had long suffered adverse conditions in urban shops - profiteering, false descriptions, shoddy goods passed off as superior, lack of hygiene, and the adulteration ofproduce. Chalk in flour, other dried leaves in tea, ground nutshells in pepper, chicory in coffee, red-lead to colour cheese were just a few common practices. 

The ethic of the Co-operative Societies was to trade by a few basic rules for the benefit of members. Every member must buy shares (often one shilling each) and be issued with a Share Number. All goods would be sold at a fair market price with profits returned to the society for expansion and to members in a dividend related to the amount purchased. Each society would have its own trading name, its own shop premises and be called a ’store’, with elected committees to manage it.

Initially the co-operative movement was entirely made up of retail stores sited in industrial areas, mostly in the North of England. In the 1870s a change to manufacturing began around Manchester. The Co-op saw the advantage of producing its own goods. Soon it needed to expand its manufacturing base and Tyneside was seen as a splendid place to establish a new works. The Pelaw group of factories was established by the Lancashire cooperative movement, to spread the commercial principle of co-operative trading into the North-east.

In 1896 The Ecclesiastical Commissioners agreed to lease 3.75 acres of land between Heworth and Bill Quay for 999 years at 2d per square yard ground rent. It lay conveniently between Shields Road and the North Eastern Railway near Pelaw Junction. Prior to the factories being built, there was nothing between Heworth village and Bill Quay but fields, the odd cottage, a stream called the Catdean Burn, bridle paths and a wagonway. Within ten years a whole new community grew around the works, using the name Pelaw.

A workforce had to be found and skilled men came from Lancashire to start this process. There are still families in Pelaw today whose grandfathers came and settled to work for the rest of their lives in the C.W.S. works.

 The first factory to open was the Drugs and Drysaltery in 1902. Houses began to be built in the former fields. Red brick terraces stretched from Heworth to Bill Quay. The bricks almost all came from William Foster’s Pelaw and Stoneygate brickyards.
Between 1902 and 1912 a series of factories went up in good red brick, most of them Foster’s. He was fortunate to be in the right place at the right time and his brick works flourished.

The factories included drugs and dry goods, clothing, quilts and bedding, cabinet making, engineering and printing and behind them were sidings directly onto the railway providing excellent communication links nationwide.

Other manufacturers resented the Co-op’s high moral approach to trade, its lower prices and its success in taking their customers. Pharmaceutical companies began to withhold supplies to the C.W.S. The Co-op responded by purchasing its own bulk raw materials, making its own pharmaceutical preparations and selling them in its own chemist shops. One particular item was used by its opponents in a 1906 court case, namely Iron Oxide tablets. They were accused of copying another commercially popular iron tablet but at a lower price. The C.W.S. lost the case and had to take care to avoid similar incidents.

 

By 1912, one of the most popular products ever made was well established at Pelaw, with sales rising dramatically. This was Pelaw Polish. Millions of tins of it were sold every year all over the world, and Pelaw Polish became a household name.

In the clothing factory women at their sewing machines turned out shirts, nightwear, underwear, coats and suits, and industrial clothing - overalls, boiler-suits, and pit clothes.

Cabinet making became as important as clothing and then upholstery followed. Pelaw was the third cabinet works of the C.W.S. and all followed the same rules: no luxury furniture, all union labour, all time served men, no bought-in timber or ready-made pieces, and every upholsterer was C.W.S. trained and tested. In 1936 the works was also making commercial furniture, for offices, hotels, cinemas and boardrooms. During the Second World War, the whole factory was switched to war work, in particular the building of gliders and aircraft parts.

Pelaw’s famous Down Quilts were first made in 1914. Within County Durham women there was an ancient tradition of quilting. The Durham quilts, though popular, were later eclipsed by eiderdowns, filled with the soft, warm and light down feathers. The covers were in satins and silks of deep, lustrous colours and strong patterns.

The Pelaw Quilt factory had its own buyers, who travelled the world to find the finest materials. In the Second World War the quilting works made uniforms and flying suits.

The tailoring factory was extended twice, in 1933 and 1937. The women who worked there were all expert machinists and tailoresses. All the female workers were paid less than the male staff, as was the general rule. There were wage disputes at times even in this benevolent regime.

In the clothing factory women at their sewing machines turned out shirts, nightwear, underwear, coats and suits, and industrial clothing - overalls, boiler-suits, and pit clothes.

Cabinet making became as important as clothing and then upholstery followed. Pelaw was the third cabinet works of the C.W.S. and all followed the same rules: no luxury furniture, all union labour, all time served men, no bought-in timber or ready-made pieces, and every upholsterer was C.W.S. trained and tested. In 1936 the works was also making commercial furniture, for offices, hotels, cinemas and boardrooms. During the Second World War, the whole factory was switched to war work, in particular the building of gliders and aircraft parts.

Pelaw’s famous Down Quilts were first made in 1914. Within County Durham women there was an ancient tradition of quilting. The Durham quilts, though popular, were later eclipsed by eiderdowns, filled with the soft, warm and light down feathers. The covers were in satins and silks of deep, lustrous colours and strong patterns.

The Pelaw Quilt factory had its own buyers, who travelled the world to find the finest materials. In the Second World War the quilting works made uniforms and flying suits.

The tailoring factory was extended twice, in 1933 and 1937. The women who worked there were all expert machinists and tailoresses. All the female workers were paid less than the male staff, as was the general rule. There were wage disputes at times even in this benevolent regime. 



 

 

The lifetime of the Co-operative Wholesale Society Pelaw Works has proved to be a similar span to that of many people - about eighty years.

Older people who were once members of "The Store" can still remember their check number, even after as long as 60 years.

Peter Sutherland

Acknowledgements: -

Joan Hewitt - Felling Local History Society

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

ChronicleLive