The Dawdon pit pinched its name from Dawdon Hill Farm which stood close to the site near the Chemical Works, predating this place by some time. As noted in this mornings post this was a very late pit by all standards. The Marquis acquired rights to sink coal here in 1896 after costly issues over at Seaham Colliery. Because of this, it was decided to start afresh with modern shafts on this rocky promontory south of Seaham Harbour.

Shaft sinking commenced in 1900 and took 7 years. Enormous volumes of water were confronted, so German engineers were recruited to literally freeze the sand and water they encountered to continue drilling down. By 1903 they reached 484ft down and a year later 552ft, encountering two separate seams. Almost immediately, in fact a month before official opening, 3 out of 5 sinkers were killed due to the collapse of a shaft cradle while walling the shaft. They fell 200ft to their death. Consider this also happened to 3 other men 6 years prior, and 2 other men were killed due to an electric cable falling onto a bucket filled with 6 men - Londonderry didn't care much for suitable working conditions as many know.

Cal here was used for utilities, household use, industrial use as well as the railways, so certainly made for profit despite 7 years sinking. In fact, 647,000 tons were extracted in 1947. By this time too nearly 2,500 people worked here making it a major employer on the Seaham coast. Great housing projects were constructed between the railway lines north. Welfare amenities were established like swimming pools and a Miners Hall to uplift the welfare of the industrial congregation.

It's sizeable operation also led to sheer negligence of the environment. Waste from the pit was simply dumped onto the beach using chutes at the end of the cliff. By the 90s the place looked like it was a sci fi film - perfect for the film industry to film Alien 3 here. The EU provided funding to clean and reclaim this whole landscape so by and large you'd never realise it was here today.

The pit eventually closed in 1991 - a late one given its relatively young age and 1 of only 5 in the region. 1500 jobs were lost, and you can argue Seaham never really recovered from the losses.

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History of the Seaham Iron Works

It's hard to really compute the transition this side of Seaham has experienced over the course of 150 years. Even Dawdon Colliery was opened in 1907, leaving a significant historic footprint before that.

Before the pit, Nose's Point featured an iron works and a small settlement called Watsontown. The foundation stone of the 20 acre works was laid in 1859 by the Marchioness of Londonderry, with the site comprehending 4 blast furnaces, 120 coke ovens and kilns for the ironstone which was sourced from Boulby in Cleveland. A quarry was excavated to the west of the site to obtain the lime required for a constant. This supply was used to produce pig iron. The railway to the bottle works was also extended to reach the site, so in turn with the abundance of coal Seaham made for the ideal site for this industry.

For a period the works were owned by Messrs Watson, Kipling & Co - the same firm who owned the Chemical Works next door. This works already employed 300 men, so a small village was established named Watson Town sometime from 1869. There were 13 tenement houses which will have housed a fair sum of the workers needed at hand.

The Watson's left the site due to insolvency in the 1870s, and henceforth it had multiple owners over the decade. In 1875 it had 18 months of total absence until taken over by Messrs Sample and Cockburn of Seaham, who brought back jobs to 200 men and boys. Operations continued until around 1881, and from there it abruptly closed.

It lie dormant for 15 years until the Marquis of Londonderry acquired a new coal royalty on the south side of Seaham Harbour in 1896. Such led to the demolition of the works in preparation for the sinking of Dawdon Colliery. Due to this, there is no visible trace but the Blast Beach remains named after its furnaces.