The goal of coal.

FOR a period of around 500 years, the North East was possibly the most important coal exporter in the world, so states a new book, Carrying Coals to Newcastle, which tells The Story of the Tanfield Way.

The Tanfield Way or Tanfield Waggonway, came about because of the need to get good quality coal from outlying coalfields quickly to Dunston Staithes. The first seams were very close to the Tyne and there were, as this book points out, 'plenty of men willing to take the financial and physical risks to hew the coal out of the ground and transport to where it was required'. As seams became exhausted, the industry was pushed further away from the river, and this is the story of how the coal owners, viewers - later to be known as engineers - surveyors and miners solved a difficult series of geographical and technological challenges to actually get the coal to the Tyne.

Not least of their problems were heavy levies the landowners charged on the coal wagon passing through their estates, plus the trouble of getting horse-drawn wagons through rough roads, especially in winter conditions, to the Tyne.

This was solved by the forming of the 'Grand Allies', an alliance of a powerful group of coal owners, comprising Sidney Montague, his son Edward, Thomas Ord of Newcastle, George Bowes of Gibside and Henry and George Liddell, of Ravensworth. They purchased the Gateshead and Whickham lease from the Coatsworth family, achieving a monopoly on the most valuable coal mining district in the North of England, with a 99-year agreement by which they agreed to run all collieries as a joint effort. As the book shows, while river or sea transportation of coal was never a problem, getting the coal overland was the big headache.

The Allies now had the economic, social and political means to raise the investment needed to solve the problem, by improving the Whickham Grand Lease Way into what became the Tanfield Way.

Construction of the new waggonway began in 1723. The route began at Marley Hill and extended through Sunniside, Fugar, Lobley Hill and to the staithes. The line became a source of amazement for visitors.

The book goes on to tell the story of the massive Beckley Burn embankment, and of the Causey Arch - wonders of their age - and the development of the waggons and the railway. It tells of the evolution of an important and now almost disappeared transport link to demonstrate the kinds of challenges needed to "carry coals to Newcastle".

It incorporates new research and a wealth of photographs and illustrations, some used for the first time. It also has an accompanying DVD, Pontop Pike to the Tyne. The book and DVD are priced pounds 9.99 and are available from September 4 from ww.northern-heritage.co.uk other local outlets.

CAPTION(S):

HAULING COAL: above, the Tanfield Railway BYGONE LIVES: miners working on the Tanfield Way during in the 1930s EVOCATIVE: above, Marley Hill coke ovens in the early 1900s and, right, 'Four Lane Ends', in Dunston

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