James

All of the institute, including the library was situated on the top floor of the building. It was in a small alcove at the end of the institute; not where the arrow is pointing which was a private house. It was not a public library but for members of the institute, i.e. employees of the Doctor pit. The arrow should point to the area on the top floor of the building mid- way between the window to the right of the war memorial and the end of the building adjoining the house.

Some of the names of the rows are incorrect. The photo has been enlarged and cropped and has cut off Shiney Row which can be seen on the extreme left of the main photo. Telephone Row and Cross Row are correct but - Shiney Row should read Doctor Terrace. Doctor Terrace should read North Terrace. North Terrace should read New South Row. This is an interesting photo as it shows two winding houses. It shows a new brick built electric winding house (it was later painted white) and in front of it the old steam driven winding house. As I mentioned in a previous posting the steam driven winder was replaced with the electric winder in 1921. So there was loss in production, the new winder house was built behind the old one. The pulley ropes from the old winder were then passed through to the new electric winder and the old steam driven winder house with its chimney demolished. (Information taken from James Tuck’s book “The Collieries of Northumberland”) This photo show both winding houses in 1921 so it was taken exactly 100 years ago this year!

Dr Pit in 1912 with the surface workers posing for the photo. Note the guy on top of the headgear next to the “pulley wheels”. This old winder house was for the steam driven winder and was replaced with the electric winder in 1921. So there was loss in production, the new winder house was built behind the old one and the electric winder commissioned. The pulley ropes from the old winder were then passed through to the new winder to the electric winder and the old winder house with its chimney was demolished. (Information taken from James Tuck’s book “The Collieries of Northumberland”) We know that any photo of the Dr Pit showing the white brick built winder house was taken after 1921.

The Old Colliery Row, better known as “The Aad Pit Raa” was built in 1840, 15 years before the Dr Pit was opened. According to Stephen Martin’s book it was built by a farming family, The Swann Brothers to rent to miners who were moving into Bedlington to work on collieries that were opening up in the vicinity. The Colliery Row was initially leased then sold in 1892 to the Bedlington Coal Company. The row was demolished along with Bell’s Place in 1950. Hollymount Square was built on this area immediately after the demolition of the rows.

Of all the photos I’ve seen of the Dr Pit, this is the only one that shows the Drift. The Drift entrance can be seen on the extreme right of the photo with its screening plant. The Drift was an inclined shaft that was in operation between 1947 and 1960. It was opened to mine coal under what is now the golf course but it was decided that it would be cheaper to mine these reserves by opencast methods so the drift was closed.