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A GEOGRAPHICAL ANALYSIS OF THE TYNE COAL TRADE*

1968; Wiley; Volume: 59; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/j.1467-9663.1968.tb01088.x

1467-9663

N. R. Elliott,

Maritime Ports and Logistics

Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale GeografieVolume 59, Issue 2 p. 71-93 A GEOGRAPHICAL ANALYSIS OF THE TYNE COAL TRADE* N. R. ELLIOTT, N. R. ELLIOTT Edinburgh, U.K. **Lecturer in Geography, Department of Geography, University of Edinburgh.Search for more papers by this author N. R. ELLIOTT, N. R. ELLIOTT Edinburgh, U.K. **Lecturer in Geography, Department of Geography, University of Edinburgh.Search for more papers by this author First published: March 1968 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9663.1968.tb01088.xCitations: 5 † *Grateful acknowledgment is made to the Secretary, Tyne Improvement Commission and the Secretary, North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers for permission to consult records, and to A. M. Smith (T.I.C.) and L. P. Armstrong and G. Clark (National Coal Board, Northumberland and Durham Division) for valuable assistance and advice. AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onEmailFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Reference 1 For the wider considerations of port growth see N. R. Elliott, Tyneside; A Study in the Development of an Industrial Seaport, Tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie Vol. 53 (1962), p. 225–37 and p. 263–72. 2 R. L. Galloway, Annals of Coalmining and the Coal Trade, 1898, Vol. I, p. 66. 3 Ibid., p. 93 et seq. 4 J. Brand, The History and Antiquities of the Town and County of Newcastle upon Tyne, 1789, Vol. II, p. 686n. 5 A History of Northumberland, Vol. XIII (M. H. Dodds), 1930, p. 41–3; Galloway, Op. cit., p. 246, 248, 251. 6 Fig. 1 has been compiled from a range of sources including notably J. U. Nef, The Rise of the British Coal Industry in the 16th and 17th Centuries, 1932, 2 vols.; Galloway, Op. cit. , M. Dunn, View of the Coal Trade of Northern England, 1844; H. Bourn, The History of Newcastle, 1736; BRAND, Op. cit.; C. E. Lee, The Waggonways of Tyneside, Archaeologia Aeliana 29 4th Series (1951), p. 135–202; A History of Northumberland, Vol. VIII, (H. H. E. Craster), 1907. 7 Galloway, Op. cit., p. 449–50. 8 T. S. Ashton & J. Sykes, The Coal Industry of the 18th Century, 1929, p. 68. 9 Ibid., p 33 et seq. 10 M. A. Richardson, Local Historian's Tablebook, 184146, Vol. II, p. 240; Galloway, Op. cit., p. 290, 390; Lee, loc. cit. 11 Dun, Op. cit., p. 44 et seq. 12 The distribution of workings (Fig. 2) has been compiled from the sources noted above and the waggonways are mainly after Galloway, Op. cit., p. 380. The coal output figures are from T. Forster, Coal Trade Notes, 1826, MSS. in Library of the North East Institute of Mining Engineers, Newcastle. 13 W. Richardson, History of the Parish of Wallsend, 1923, p. 247–48; A History of Northumberland, Vol. XIII, p. 51. 14 Galloway, Op. cit., Vol. II, 1904, p. 9–10; A History of Northumberland, Vol. VIII, p. 29, 33; Vol. XIII, p. 54–56. 15 The distribution of workings (Fig. 3) is mainly after maps in W. Armstrong, (Edit..), Resources of the Tyne, Wear and Tees, British Association 1863, p. 280, 285. For railways see W. W. Tomlinson, The North Eastern Railway Company; Its Rise and Development, 1914. 16 Geological Survey, Mineral Statistics, 1865, p. 263–6. 17 Based on information from the Northumberland and Durham Division of the National Coal Board. It was not possible to identify the shipments from colliery washers in terms of the colliery of origin. The map does not include five Northumberland collieries, to the north of the distribution shown, which made some shipments through the Tyne in 1962 but which would usually lead to the port of Blyth. The map excludes also six Durham collieries, well to the south of the given distribution and at an average of about 20 miles from the shipment point, which regularly lead to Tyne Dock and shipped an aggregate of 429,000 tons in 1962. These collieries produce graded gas coal and before the nationalisation of the mines were all owned by Dorman Long & Co. Ltd. This company enjoyed a preferential rail-freight to Tyne Dock negotiated at a time when the dock was owned by the railway company (L.N. E.R.) Moreover ship owners preferred the quick turn-round of Tyne Dock, and the possibility of diversion to other Tyne staiths if necessary, to the facilities offered by nearer staiths at Sunderland or Hartlepool. The preferential freight rate has persisted despite the change in ownership of collieries, railway and dock. 18 Lee. loc. cit. 19 R. Edington, A Treatise on the Coal Trade, 1813, p. 118, 133. 20 The term ‘Hostmen’, probably dating from the early 15th century, refers to the practice of the Burgesses of Newcastle of ensuring involvement in all maritime business by claiming the right to act as host to all merchant strangers. The hostmen were coal merchants, the middle-men between the collieries and the sea-going vessels, but by the early 17th century they were commonly also coal owners and had varied local investments. See F. W. Dendy, (Edit.), Extracts from the Records of the Company of Hostmen of Newcastle, Surtees Society, 1901. 21 J. Batllie, An Impartial History of the Town and County of Newcastle upon Tyne, 1801, p. 610; Galloway, Op. cit., Vol. I, p. 366–69. 22 M. A. Richardson, Op. cit., Vol. III, p. 127. 23 G. Collins, Chart of 1681 in Great Britain's Coasting Pilot, 1693; Trinity House Soundings in: J. Bell, Collections Relative to the River Tyne 1603–1850, (Newcastle Central Library Local Collection), Vol. VI, p. 131. 24 Report of the Admiralty Enquiry under Acts 11 & 12 Victoria 129, 1849; J. Ventress, River Tyne: A Collection of Reports, Plans, etc., 1841–99, (Newcastle Central Library Local Collection), Item 12, 1858. 23 Quoted by P. J. Messent, A Description of Improvements of the River Tyne, Trans. Institution of Naval Architects 29 (1888), p. 122 et seq. 26 The channel depths in Fig. 3 relate to conditions in 1853 and are after A. J. Sargent, The Tyne, Geog. Jour. 40 (1912), p. 469–82. 27 Bourne, Op. cit., p. 172. 21 Bell, Op. cit., Vol. III, p. 15; Ashton & Sykes, Op. cit., p. 199. 29 B. Plummer, Newcastle upon Tyne: Its Trade and Manufactures, 1874, p. 52. 30 Brand, Op. cit., Vol. II, p. 439, 443. 31 Bell, Op. cit., Vol. V., p. 157. 32 J. Hodgson, The Picture of Newcastle upon Tyne, 2nd Edit., 1812., p. 140–41; E. Mackenzie & M. Ross, A View of the County Palatine of Durham, 1834, Vol. I, p. 55n; T. Salmon, South Shields, Past, Present and Future, 1856, p. 49. 33 W. Scott, Letter book, in : M. A. Richardson, Reprints of Rare Tracts, Vol. II, 1847, p. 26–52. 34 Bell, Op. cit., Vol. II, p. 193; Ventress, Op. cit., Item 9. 35 Nef, Op. cit., Vol. II, p. 95; Brand, Op. cit., Vol. II, p. 617. 36 W. Harrison, Description of England, prefixed to Holinshed's Chronicle, 1577, edit, of 1807, Vol. I, p. 397. 37 W. Grey, Chorographia, 1649, Reprint 1884, p. 91. 38 Ashton & SYKES, Op. cit., p. 211 et seq. 39 The statistical basis for the discussion of the trade before 1854 and for the relevant portions of Figs. 1 and 3 was compiled from a wide range of sources including the following: - Nef, Op. cit., Vol. I, p. 19, 36, Vol. II Appendix D; T. S. Willan, The English Coasting Trade 1600–1750,1938, p. 116 and Appendix 4; Galloway, Op. cit., p. 23–4, 30, 127–28; B. R. Mitchell, Abstract of British Historical Statistics 1962, p. 108–11; The Bell Collection, newspaper cuttings and pamphlets pre 1850, 22 Vols., North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers Library, Newcastle; Ashton & Sykes, Op. cit., p. 249–51; Brand, Op. cit., p. 255, 273, 277, 591–2; Hodgson, Op. cit., p. 227–28; E. Mackenzie, A View of the County of Northumberland, 2nd Edit., 1825, Vol. I, p. 158; E. Mackenzie, A Descriptive Historical Account of the Town and County of Newcastle upon Tyne, 1827, p. 721; W. Fordyce, History and Antiquities of the County Palatine of Durham, 1857, Vol. I, p. 184; G. R. Porter, The Progress of the Nation, 3rd Edit., 1851, Revised by F. W. Hirst 1912, p. 275. 40 As far as can be determined all shipments (and certainly those post 1881) are of coal and coke and include bunkers. This is appropriate to maintain the maximum possible comparability over the long period involved and when the individual evaluation of these comparents is not always available. In fact the amount of coke and bunkers involved is only rarely significant in any general analysis of the volume and pattern of the coal trade (see below footnotes 47 and 51). 41 Willan, Op. cit., Appendix 4; Dendy, Op. cit., p. 260. This distribution omits small shipments to Jersey and Guernsey. 42 Ashton & Sykes, Op. cit., p. 194, 239. 43 R. A. Pelham, Medieval Foreign Trade: Eastern Ports, in: H. C. Darby, (Edit.), An Historical Geography of England before A.D. 1800, 1936, p. 321 using Customs Accounts 106/4. See also L. F. Salzman, English Trade in the Middle Ages, 1931, p. 282, for 1390 using Customs Accounts 106/18. 44 W. Hutchinson, A View of Northumberland, 1778, Vol. II, p. 464 et seq. 45 Galloway, Op. cit., Vol. I, p. 461. 46 Compiled from Plummer, Op. cit., and from the records of the Tyne Improvement Commission. In the T.I.C. records Spain includes Gibraltar up to and including 1905, Italy includes Malta to 1926 and Denmark includes Iceland to 1938. The evidence of later years suggests that in all of these cases the additional shipments involved were not sufficiently great to impair the general analysis. 47 The practice of including bunkers in the volume of shipments, assigning them according to the port specified in the clearance of the vessel from the Tyne, has had the particular effect, in a limited period, of over-emphasising the extra-European markets. Mainly a feature from about 1870–1930 the quantities of bunkers were never large in proportion to the total trade. The statistics allow a more precise, but still limited, identification of bunkers only from 1923. In 1923 bunkers of 1.5 mln. tons, mainly in the foreign trade of which they comprised 7%, were probably near the maximum involved at any time. In the first quarter of the 20th century it was common practice for Swedish vessels of say 9,000 D.W.T. to call at the Tyne to load 1,500 tons of bunkers for an Asian sailing or 600 tons for a north American trip. Bunkers had decreased to 1 mln. tons in 1937 and in 1964 were no more than 33,000 tons and now almost entirely coastal. This reflects the decline in coal-fired tonnage which was gradual in the inter-war period but rapid and conclusive after the Second World War. The major part of bunkers at any time merely re-affirm the main market areas but the evidence since 1923 shows that in recorded shipments to the western Hemisphere, south east Asia and Oceania, bunkers were usually greater in volume than coal as cargo. This is true especially of north America and Australia where very little coal as cargo has been shipped since 1923. The volume and relative importance, as shown by statistics, of extra-European markets and notably those mentioned above, must be interpreted in the light of this procedure. The distributions for 1937 and 1954 (Figs. 5 & 6) include only those ports where recorded shipments include coal as cargo. 48 Shipments of ‘less than 1,000 tons’ to Lerwick (Shetland Islands) are omitted from both 1937 and 1954 distributions. Note also that the shipment to the Tees shown on the 1954 distribution was of short duration (1952–59). Since 1959 the electricity generating station concerned, although built to use coastwise coal, has been more economically served overland from south Durham. 49 The National Coal Board estimate that on average in 1962 about 64,000 tons were shipped weekly for electricity generation and about 33,000 tons weekly for gas production. This would amount to 57.2% and 29.5% respectively of the total coastwise shipments on the basis of a 50-week year. About 12,000 tons weekly was shipped to the iron and steel works of the Ford Motor Company at Dagenham on Thames side. 50 Manuscript records of the Tyne Improvement Commission make available shipments to individual ports, as opposed to states or areas, only for the period 1933–54 inclusive. 1937 and 1954 have been chosen as useful sample years in terms of the state of the trade and the economic conditions of the time. 51 The inclusion of coke in the statistics of the coal trade has assumed importance only in the period of dimished trading since the Second World War. Coke shipments are overwhelmingly in the foreign trade. A volume of 0.3 mln. tons in 1900 was stable until 1916 but then increased to 1.4 mln. tons in 1923 (8% of foreign shipments). Coke shipments in the foreign trade of almost 1 mln. tons in 1937 (11 %) meant that the decline was notably less than in coal. The relative importance of coke shipments has markedly increased in the post-war period. From 1962–64 inclusive average coke shipments of 453,000 tons per annum represented 44% of the total foreign trade. It is clear that the specialised demand for coke has markedly sustained the foreign trade since 1948 and has been of main importance in the major markets for coke, in Sweden, Norway and more recently Portugal. Citing Literature Volume59, Issue2March 1968Pages 71-93 ReferencesRelatedInformation