Durham Coal Mines

[tauporainbow]

Wow! There is a lot of Coal Mines in Durham!  My ggg/gg/g and grandfather plus many twigs and branches were Coal Miners in West Yorkshire and particularly Durham.  Particular references I have found are about Chester Le Street, Houghton Le Spring, West Railton, Rainton Gate and north to Gateshead and South Shields.  In Yorkshire they are about just North of Leeds. 

I would like to know more about these coal mines and the possibilty of identifying my Richardsons, etc to particular mines.  I have been in conact with the National, and the Durham Coal Mining Museums but as I'm light on information for them the information provided is just too general. 

Can anyone recommend a few good book titles and authors on Durham Mines and Miners and where I can acquire such a book or books.  I live in New Zealand and my enquiries here are fraught with problems of distance and identifying appropriate books. Grateful for any help.
Gordon Stevenson

[Ruskie]

Hi Gordon. If you have their exact addresses through the various censuses they most likely would work in the mine nearest their home. A lot of housing was supplied by the mines for their workers.

I've got a good map of the mines somewhere which I'll try to find.

[Ruskie]

Here it is:
http://sites.google.com/site/waggonways/
Click to zoom in.
It's an excellent map, but it may not help you identify which mine your family worked in. Highly likely they moved around anyway. 

Good luck in the search.

[Bilge]

Have you looked at this excellent site?

http://www.cmhrc.co.uk/site/home/index.html

http://www.cmhrc.co.uk/index.php?text_search=Richardson&action=search_by_keyword&page=site%2Fdatabase%2Fsearch&Go=Search

[stanmapstone]

The Durham Mining Museum site has the most information http://www.dmm.org.uk/ a list of books is at http://www.dmm.org.uk/misc/biblio.htm

Stan

[clowts]

Hi, I'm finding that there is a lot of information but not quite specific enough to drill down to individuals.

A direct line leads to a George Claughton who appears to have been a colliery viewer in 1720's onwards.  As to his own lineage, it seems to point to Leeds/Horsforth area(?)

Is there a connection to migration of workforce between the various emerging mining centres?  Thanks.