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MINERS ROWS.
In 1873 a reporter for the Newcastle Weekly Chronicle descended on Pegswood looking for stories. Judging by his writing he had other motives in mind than accuracy. Walking through the village, he passed the colliery rows then under construction and instead carried on for one and a half miles to the west where he upon Quarry Bank. Here he found housing that: ‘May be safely taken as the worst specimens of the human habitation to be found within the whole length and breadth of Northumberland’. He then goes on to describe in great detail the houses, of which there were four. That they lay on land held by the Duke Of Portland and had at least one miner living in them, qualified them, in the reporters eyes, as miners housing. Sadly some latter day ‘historians’ have used this information as a factual account of the mining community of Pegswood.
The first rows of miners housing were built from around 1873. These were: Portland, Cavendish, Bentinck, Spencer and DeWalden Places as well as Howard Cottages and Bothal Terrace. All of these houses were erected when the Fifth Duke of Portland was in power. The common tie being that all these houses were built with substantial gardens. The reasoning being to provide the workforce with recreational activity as well as a source of good, healthy food. A healthy workforce was a happy workforce. In the 1880s the second phase of housing was begun and so was created; Longhirst, Titchfield, Welbeck, Bolsover, Langwell and the shorter DeWalden, Mortimer and Bertram Terraces. Gone was the Fifth Duke, in his place the Sixth Duke. Gone also were the gardens as the new phase of housing only had a piece of waste ground between each of its terraces with a well worn strip down the middle that passed for a path.
All of the housing was built with economy in mind. The early housing only had a ladder to access the upper rooms in later years these were replaced by a staircase. All of the housing was built with a wall thickness of only one course of brick. The majority of houses had only one room downstairs and either one or two bedrooms upstairs. All of the housing had their toilet facilities outside and in the early days, these were earth closets known as ‘netties’. The overspill from these closets was allowed to drain into a communal, open gutter, which ran the length of the street. Each inhabitant being responsible for the cleanliness of their own stretch of gutter. Pegswood, being built on an incline, allowed the drainage from these closets to proceed down the street. The second phase of the housing had each street divided into two halves: ‘haffs’. The collection of the overspill of sewage that regularly occurred gave rise to the erroneous idea that people who lived in the bottom half of a street were not as clean as they might be. Sadly, old ideas in close-knit communities are hard to dispel and this idea, false as it was, survived into the 1960s. Blocked gutters also provided instant playgrounds for the children and much of the disease that was rampant within the village may well have had its origins from these.
The houses themselves were all built with a concrete floor, concrete being cheaper and quicker than wood as well as longer lasting. In the downstairs room everything was done. It served as a dining cum sitting room as well as supplying the space for the weekly washing. The floor was covered in home made mats during the early days. With the end of World War Two, the utilitarian lino found its way onto the floors of the houses. This was relatively cheap, could be bought local and it was easily maintained. A quick wipe over with a mop after the wash would have it as a sitting room again. Still the old home made mats were in evidence as a decoration as well as a protection for the lino. These mats were also made in this same room, usually on winter nights, on a special frame kept for that purpose. Various pieces of clothing, after being cut to size, found their way into the making of these mats.
Normally only one large cupboard was in this downstairs room, however, the space under the stairs was often walled off to provide further space. The large open range was the only source of heat, cleaned and lit every morning but, more often than not, left on over cold winter nights. To one side of the fire was a pot for hot water storage, to the other an oven. Attached to the back of the house was a pantry. This was for storage use only and had large shelves for the storage of the husbands mining equipment including the stinking carbide for miner’s lamps, as well as the pans for cooking. In one corner stood the tap, cold water only. In days prior to the 1920s, all water had to be carried from a communal pump strategically placed in various parts of the street.
Two bedrooms was the norm although some houses were fitted with only one. One room was a double while the other was a single. The double bedroom was fitted with a small fireplace but, more often then not, these were bricked up. A bed, wardrobe and chest of drawers usually filled the room. The flooring upstairs was of wood covered with the obligatory lino and often the newest of the mats. All rooms, upstairs and down, had only one large single sash window. A smaller window lit the top of the stairs.
In 1958 the second phase of housing was passed as fit to be modernized. A bulldozer ran the length of each street reducing the old pantries to rubble. In their place, new back ends were built onto the old foundations, extra foundations being laid where the old yards used to be. Pegswood’s colliery rows were now fitted with kitchens and bathrooms complete with hot running water. However, heating was still provided by an open fire in the sitting room. Gone were the old ranges, replaced by modern hearths. Gone also was the original first phase of housing as it was demolished.