The History of Consett Steelworks project team are working on a display for the Consett Rugby Clun Funday on Bank Holiday Monday 28th August 1pm-4pm
We are working on doing a display related to No 1 pit and No 1 Industrial Estate
We would welcome any pictures and/or memories to share on the display boards
Do you or have you worked on the Estate??
Zoe Howe took the below picture and has kindly agreed for us to use and share
The Miner – A Life Denied
(Inspired by Tommy Armstrong The Pitmans Poet and my Dad Tommy Kilburn The Miner}
My Daddy was a miner
Black diamonds were his aim
Digging for coal destroyed his soul
But he never did complain
My Daddy was a miner
He earned his daily bread
Hewing coal in the dark and dust
Just to keep his family fed
He spend his whole life working
So far beneath the soil
Night and Day
He hauled the coal
In never ending toil
The Dust it finally killed him
But long before he died
He made me swear
That I would live
The life he’d been denied
My Daddy was a Miner
He worked hard all his life
To get the bare essentials
For his children and his wife
My Daddy was a miner
He couldn’t read or write
But he made sure that I’d achieve
The things he’d missed in life
I’ll keep my promise to him
And think of him with pride
For Him I’ll live the life he yearned
The life he was denied
My father was a miner
I think of him each day
I think about the life he led
The things he had to say
My Father was a Miner
He lived to see my son
He lived to see the Life I lead
The life he had begun
He spend his whole life working
So far beneath the soil
Night and Day
He hauled the coal
In never ending toil
The Dust it finally killed him
But long before he died
He made me swear
That I would live
The life he’d been denied
I’ve kept my promise to him
He’s always been my guide
And I have lived the life he yearned
The life he was denied
Yes I have lived the life he yearned
The life he was denied
Kel writes
I thought you may be interested in hearing a song my friend and I recently wrote inspired by Tommy Armstrong (The Pitmans Poet) and based loosely on the life of my dad Tommy Kilburn a pitman in the Durham Coalfield from the age of fourteen (in1918) until he retired at sixty five. He worked in most of the local mines including The Victory Pit at Delves Lane most of which were owned by Consett Iron Company prior to nationalisation.
Lyrics by Kel Kilburn
Melody by Alan Myers
Listen on this link The Miner (A Life Denied) Finale LVI.mp3 (dropbox.com)
Rob Moran has done some research
Now I was asked by Christine Thomas to look for a Royal Visit to Consett in the 50s and I found it.
Mary, Princess Royal and Countess of Harewood
She was the only daughter of King George V and Queen Mary, the sister of kings Edward VIII and George VI, and aunt of Elizabeth II. In the First World War, she performed charity work in support of servicemen and their families. She married Henry Lascelles, Viscount Lascelles (later the 6th Earl of Harewood), in 1922. Mary was given the title of Princess Royal in 1932. During the Second World War, she was Controller Commandant of the Auxiliary Territorial Service.
Can anyone remember this visit?
Thanks Kevin for agreeing for this to be shared
“Home “…..
In County Durham lies a place so grand,
Where heritage and history tightly land,
Consett and District, a jewel so rare,
With tales of glory and stories to share.
Amidst the rolling hills, so green and serene,
A land of coal and iron, once so keen,
Where brave men toiled in the depths of the mine,
Their sweat and blood, a testament to time.
The blast furnaces roared with fiery might,
Creating steel that filled the world with delight,
Consett’s foundries burned with a steadfast flame,
Igniting dreams and forging our town’s name.
The railway lines stretched, connecting the lands,
Carrying goods and dreams in steady hands,
Consett’s trains, symbols of progress and change,
Whistling through the valleys, never to estrange.
In every home, the spirit of community,
From generations past, a living testimony,
The warm welcome of the friendly folk,
The heart of Consett, a vibrant, wholesome yolk.
Picturesque landscapes, where nature thrives,
From derelict mines, new life slowly arrives,
The transformation, a tribute to resilience,
Honoring the past with a brave insistence.
Explore the museums, where stories unfold,
Unveiling secrets of heroes so bold,
From local legends, to tales of strife,
Consett’s heritage, the heartbeat of life.
Let not the passage of time erase,
The memories held within this sacred place,
Consett and District, forever we’ll cherish,
In our hearts and souls, we shall not perish.
So raise your voice, with pride let it soar,
For Consett and District, we do adore,
A heritage county, where unity prevails,
Consett’s legacy, in our hearts, never fails
University of Oxford project aims to preserve stories and memories of the Second World War
Millions of us in Britain and across the world have treasured stories and objects that have been
passed down to us by our parents, grandparents and other family members who lived through the
Second World War.
Unfortunately, these wartime stories and objects are inevitably in danger of
being lost as people move house, declutter, pass away, and simply forget.
Their Finest Hour (theirfinesthour.org) is a University of Oxford project that aims to collect and
digitally archive as many of these stories and objects as possible before they are lost to history.
You can help the project in three ways:
1) By organising a Digital Collection Day in your local community. Digital Collection Days are
typically one-day events where members of the public can bring along war-related stories,
memories, photographs, diaries, letters and any other mementos to be digitised (i.e.
photographed) and uploaded to a free-to-access online archive.
2) By attending a Digital Collection Day in your area (see our ‘Events’ page for more details).
3) By submitting WW2 stories and photos of objects directly to our archive from the comfort of
their own home.
We are doing this now because the stories and objects of the men, women, and children who were
part of the 1939-1945 generation are being lost. Very few families in the British Empire and the
Commonwealth were untouched by the war. In what was a truly global conflict, over 8.5 million
people from the Empire and Dominions served in all major theatres of the war. Many of those
affected have since passed their stories and objects onto their children, grandchildren and great-
grandchildren, all of whom now act as custodians of their relatives’ remarkable legacy.
We are interested in collecting all WW2-related stories and objects, from the extraordinary to the
seemingly ‘ordinary’.
We want our archive to reflect the diverse experiences of all those affected by the war: men and
women across the British Empire and the Commonwealth who worked in industry, on the land, or in
other roles; ran households and fought a daily battle of rationing; served in or supported the armed
forces; and even those who refused to go to war for political or religious reasons.
We are also interested in preserving children’s experiences of the war and would like to hear about any relatives who refused to talk about their wartime experience.
All digitised stories and objects will be free to access via our website from 6 June 2024, the 80 th
anniversary of D-Day.
For further information, please visit http://www.theirfinesthour.org or email theirfinesthour@ell.ox.ac.uk.
Chris Hegarty writes
Following on from Kieran’s post, our grandad was born on 2 September 1870 in Ballymoney near Kilrea in Northern Ireland.
He travelled with his brother Patrick to Glasgow where he worked in a local steelworks before they both moved to Consett and worked for Consett Iron Company.
I believe he worked at the blast in the days when they tapped the furnaces by hand with a big hammer and spike it would be a team effort with several men required for the job some hammering and some holding the spike for the hammerers.
He was also involved with the Consett Iron company tug of war team.
I then moved on to the locomotives as a fireman, you were handed a long pole with a hook on the end and this was a coupling pole, which was used to attach the locomotive coupling chain links on to various carriages
You were also told what ever you do don’t put your head in between the buffers when attaching the coupling or you will get more than a close shave.
I started off working in the Low Yard just under the Grove Bridge
Then I went to work on the slag and scrap engine in the steel plant.
It was a bit of a dangerous job as the engine had to go under the steel making vessel’s in the steel plant to collect the slag pots, the slag pots were always filled to the brim
If the engine driver came in a bit to fast and you didn’t get the coupling on quick enough the slag would spill over the top of the pot and you had to run out of the way or get burnt
Then you had to take the pots over to the heap to be tipped, you had to walk in front of the locomotive to change the point’s and stop any traffic while crossing the road
On dry days it was okay but wet windy or snowy days if the slag tipped out of the pots which it generally did and hit a puddle on the ground it would explode.
Some occasions when I was on different locomotives the engine driver would let me have a drive of the engine just to get a bit experienc
I then went on to the stripping and casting engine and had a few close calls in the casting bay
You had to move casting bogie’s around the casting bay with mould’s for the steel to be poured into them,then when they had cooled a bit we had to move them to the stripping bay
The problem was the railway lines were always in bad repair and the moulds with the hot steel ingots in would wobble all over the place
There was quite a few occasions I had to jump out of the way of falling moulds or 10 ton hot ingots after the moulds were removed by the over head crane.
Slag “bucket” picture shared by Steve Shields
Low Yard- picture by Craig Dunn
This is my dad James (Jim) Hegarty he started work at the Blast pushing barrows to load the furnaces aged about 15 he eventually drove steam engines and then diesels removing slag from the furnaces and tipped it ,we all know where he did have a break from this when he was called up and joined the Royal Artillery about 1941 till the end of the war some break but he was only wounded once, luckily for me and my siblings .he worked right through to the works closing and was made redundant at age 63 so he chose not to find another career. he died Jan 2003 just shy of his eighty fifth Birthday.
Thanks to Kieran Hegarty for getting in touch and sharing this
James “Jim” Hegarty
This will also be added to our Workers Album
The Steelworks had its own Infirmary and strong links to Shotley Bridge Hospital
Did you or family members work in the Infirmary or drive one of the ambulances?
Did you or a family member have to be cared for by Infirmary or Hospital staff due to injury or an accident?
We would welcome your memories, stories and pictures
Hi Richard,
Further to your post asking for photos and stories about people who worked at the Company, I’ve attached 3 photos as follows:
I hope this might be of some interest to your readers. Some time I mentioned I might be working on the story of the various sides of my family and their connections to the Company. I’ve made a start, but it’s still a work in progress. This might just be the thing that gets me going again.
Kathy Aveyard
These will also be added to the Workers Album with thanks to Kathy
History of Consett Steelworks 