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Local Records
1764
March 20. — The fine harbour at Seaton Sluice, about half a mile north from Hartley, in Northumberland, which had been some years in making by Sir John Hussey Delaval, was finished, and on the above day two ships in full sail passed through the canal cut out of a solid rock 900 feet long, 54 feet deep, and 30 feet broad. An elegant entertainment was given by Sir John to a great number of ladies and gentlemen ; three oxen, several sheep, and plenty of strong ale were given to the workmen. On the 22nd, the Warkworth (Captain Curry), a vessel of 13 keels of coals, sailed out of the new harbour, being the first after its completion. [LRS]
October 3. — About ten o’clock in the morning as three poor women were getting, coals at Mr. Kent’s pit, near North Shields, having undermined the loose metal too much, the bank fell in upon them, and crushed one of them to death ; the other two were taken out alive, but one of them so much bruised, that her life was despaired of. [LHTB]
November 27. — A servant girl in the night, in going over Blackburn Fell, near Gibside, Durham, had the misfortune to fall into an old coal pit, thirty fathoms deep, and at the bottom was taken up to her arm pits in water. In struggling to get out of the water, she luckily met with a piece of timber, which she got upon, and as it kept her pretty clear of the water, was the means of saving her life. She continued in that dismal situation two days and two nights, and was discovered at last by the sagacity of a dog, which having heard her cries, &c., made signs of distress to his master, which induced him to follow it to the very pit mouth. The man, then, with proper assistance, got her out alive, by which means she was restored to her friends. [LHTB]
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- LHTB — Local Historian's Table Book of Remarkable Occurrences Connected with the Counties of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, Northumberland and Durham by M.A. Richardson. Published in five volumes in 1844.
- LRS — Local Records or Historical Register of Remarkable Events by John Sykes, Published in 1833 in two volumes
