Salt Extraction at New Lambton

Much of the following research was carried out by the late Mr Alan Vickers, of Fulwell, Sunderland. I have added to Alan's work as-and-when more information regarding the salt works at New Lambton and the "Old Engine" has come to light.

According to early trade directories and gazetteers, the salt works at New Lambton was established in 1815. It was in operation for approximately thirty years, until 1845, but it is not certain who originally established the works. It had been credited to Messrs Rand and Parkin (or Parkins - the name was later changed to Parkinson) in these early directories, but this has been called into question by a declaration of the dissolution of a partnership in 1820 between James Rand and E. Pletts, so if the date of 1815 is accurate, then it may in fact have been established by these gentlemen.

The European Magazine And London Review, Vol. 78, p. 476, 1820

Dissolutions of Partnerships. From Saturday October 28 to Tuesday November 21, 1820….. Pletts E. and Rand J., New Lambton, Durham, Salt makers.

From an even earlier article of 1807 - see below - we discover that James Rand had been in partnership with William Bates, now deceased, in a salt works which had been established in Birtley. This salt works dated as far back as the early seventeenth century, but it had fallen into disuse until approximately 1780 when an early coal exploration borehole on the Birtley site encountered a strong flow of brine.

Newcastle Courant, 19 September 1807

Mr William Bates’s Creditors

Notice is hereby given that all persons having any Claims or Demands upon the Estate and Effects of William Bates, late Agent at North-Shields Dock, in the County of Northumberland, deceased, are requested to send an Account of the same, with the nature of their Securities (if any) to Mr James Rand, of Birtley Salt Works, at Low-moor in the said County of Northumberland (the acting Executors of his will) or to Mr James Ainsley, of North-Shields Dock aforesaid, on or before the first day of January next, in order that the same may be discharged. And notice is hereby further given that such Claims and Demands as are not sent in within the time above-mentioned will be disallowed; and the said James Rand and George Bates will not hold themselves responsible for the payment of any debt whatever after that time.

27th August, 1807.

The salt works at both Birtley and New Lambton depended upon the treatment of saline water drawn from colliery pumping shafts. It is believed that the shaft at New Lambton was sunk by Cuthbert Parkinson who was a sinker by occupation. He had been engaged in sinking pit shafts and would likely have a good understanding of the geology and hydrology of the area. He owned a mill, connected with Rand & Parkinson and had at one time lived at Portobello, near Chester-le-Street. His father was reputed to be Land Agent for the Earl of Durham. Cuthbert’s son, Robert, was also associated with the salt works and his daughter married William Morris and they lived at Birtley Lane, Chester-le-Street.

“Salt works were established here in 1815, by Messrs Rand and Cuthbert Parkin / Parkinson; the spring having been first discovered to contain salt by the water leaving a quantity of that useful article in the steam boiler at the Dee pit, near New Lambton and afterwards in the boiler at the New Lambton pit, where the works are situated. The brine well is 97 fathoms deep.”

Source: An historical, topographical and descriptive view of the county palatine of Durham, Vol. 1, by E. Mackenzie and M. Ross, 1834.

This salt well and pumping station was located just to the west of the village of New Lambton at a spot where many local people can still remember the ruins of the “Old Engine.” Here, two Newcomen-type steam pumping engines are recorded as having been in use at Lambton, the first from 1757 and the second from 1766 and it is certainly possible that one of these engines, probably the second one, was working at this site.

Additionally, one of the engines was recorded as still being in use at the nearby Lady Ann Pit (sunk 1750) in 1894.

Source: History, Topography and Directory of County Durham, 1894, by William Whellan

All that remains of the Old Engine today is a field at the bottom of Panfield Terrace, the site having been cleared in the 1970s. The modern-day location can be found here

Above: A rare find - a map of 1843 with the Salt Works clearly marked. Map by John Thomas William Bell

Above: 1895 OS Map with The "Old Engine" / Salt Works site and buildings circled at centre

Above: The same 1895 OS map as further above, with modern map overlaid

Below is an image of the "Old Engine" at New Lambton, believed to be on the site of the saltworks. The picture is taken looking north-east towards Elba. The railway to the right was known as the Old Mineral Line and ran from Sixth Pit to Elba. The row of houses just visible to the right is Old Engine Row. The second image below is a colourised version of the same scene.

Below is another view the Old Engine with Old Engine Row centre-right and also a colourised version. The embankment to the left supported the Mineral Railway Line and crossed the Lumley Park Burn

Above: The original - and a colourised view - of the Old Engine on the left, with Old Engine Row in the centre and Cross Row just visible to the right.

On the "Old Engine" Alan Vickers states as follows:

The Morton pumping-engine, about 200 yards from the D Pit, has been in action about 80 years and was one of the first engines made by Boulton and Watt, at Soho Works. The engine-house is built entirely of ashlar stone. The cylinder is 60 1/2in. diameter, 6 ft. 9 in. stroke, with separate condenser, it has single beam, three valves, worked by air-pump rod, the steam acts on the top side of the piston only. Water is raised from the Maudlin seam, 73 fathoms depth, in two lifts; the lower lift is 40 fathoms, 15-in. bucket, the upper lift is 33 fathoms, 14-in. bucket. The engine makes six strokes per minute for twelve hours each day. The boilers were formerly of the haystack form, these have been replaced by two plain, cylindrical boilers of 5 and 6 ft. diameter respectively; steam pressure is 5lbs, a vacuum of 12 lbs. is maintained. The boiler feed is supplied to the kettle on the top of a pipe fixed to each, and 8 ft. above the boiler. The supply being regulated by a float on the water and a valve at the top of each pipe.

From: The Mining Journal, Saturday 4th March 1871, page 185.

A search of early trade directories / gazetteers and newspapers resulted in the following finds to do with the Salt Works:

• BOURN-MOOR, a township, in the parish of Houghton-le-spring, union of Chester-le-Street, Northern Division of Easington ward and of the county palatine of Durham; containing 938 inhabitants. At New Lambton, in this township, is a brine well, 97 fathoms deep, where salt-works were established in 1815. There is a' place of worship for Wesleyan Methodists, with a Sunday school for about 200 children attached.

Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England, 1815, Samuel Lewis

• Rand and Parkinson, Lambton Salt Works, New Lambton.

Source: Pigot and Co.'s National Commercial Directory, 1828

• Rand & Parkinson, wine and spirit merchants & salt manufacturers

Source: The History, Directory and Gazetteer of the Counties of Durham and Northumberland. Wm Parson & Wm. White, 1828

• BOURN-MOOR, a township in the parish of Houghton-le-Spring, northern division of Easington ward, county Palatine of Durham, containing 1139 inhabitants. At New Lambton, in this township, is a brine well ninety-seven fathoms deep, where salt-works were established in 1815

Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England', Samuel Lewis & R. Creighton, 1831

• BOURN-MOOR, DURHAM, a township in the parish of Houghton-le-Spring, northern division of Easington ward: … At New Lambton, in this township, there is a brine well 97 fathoms deep, where salt works were established in 1815. Contains 450 acres. 194 houses, Population in 1841, 1079. Probable population in 1849, 1240. Poor rates in 1837, £552

Source: The British Gazetteer, Political, Commercial, Ecclesiastical and Historical. Benjamin Clarke, 1852.

A number of interesting newspaper articles give an insight into the timeline of the salt works during its period of operation:

Newcastle Courant, 29 January 1820

Great and Little Lumley Association, for Prosecuting Felons, &c., &c., in the Parish of Chester-le-Street, in the County of Durham. At the yearly meeting, holden at the house of Mr Ralph Jackson, Little Lumley, on the 12th day of January, 1820, the following resolutions were agreed to:-

. . . . James Rand, Lambton Salt Works. . . .

Public Ledger and Daily Advertiser, 13 November 1820

Dissolutions of Partnerships…… Pletts and Rand, New Lambton, Salt Makers.

Durham County Advertiser, 11 January 1823

A cart and horse belonging to Lambton Salt Works, having imprudently been left by the driver in the street of Claypath, on Tuesday last, the animal took fright and ran off at full speed. Some scavengers, who were at work sweeping the street, opposed their brooms to the escape of the fugitive. The horse, which was then proceeding up the street, became more alarmed at the sight of these emblems of witchcraft and making a sudden turn he galloped down the hill with greater fury than he ascended it. A woman and a child narrowly escaped being run over and some damage was done to a potter’s laden cart and its contents, as well as to the window of Mr Oliver, at the Black Swan Public House. The horse was finally secured but not until after he had disengaged himself from the cart. We should be glad to see a little more attention paid to the safety of the inhabitants by fining all drivers who leave their carts and horses in the street – it is a nuisance and an extremely dangerous one, which is very generally complained of.

Durham Chronicle, 24 January 1824

Great and Little Lumley Association. For prosecuting felons, &c., in the parish of Chester-le-Street, in the County of Durham. At the yearly meeting, holden at the house of Mr Ralph Jackson, Little Lumley, on the 14th day of January, 1824, the following resolutions were agreed to. . .

. . . . James Rand and Co., Lambton Salt Works

Historical Account of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne Including the Borough of Gateshead. Originally published by Mackenzie and Dent, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1827

List of Subscribers….. Rand, James. Lambton Salt Works

Newcastle Journal, 19 May 1832

Partnerships Dissolved. J. Rand and R. Parkinson, salt and wine and spirit merchants, New Lambton, Durham.

Note: it is likely that the partnership was dissolved due to James Rand’s ill health. Earlier the same year, he registered his will. A copy of this is available in Durham County Record Office:

9 January 1832

Registered copy of will; James RAND, gentleman, of Primrose Hill in the parish of Chester le Street in the county of Durham with registered copy of codicil, 3 February 1834, estate value £5,000.

http://reed.dur.ac.uk/xtf/view?docId=ark/32150_s1tx31qh68m.xml

Death of James Rand in 1835:

England Deaths and Burials 1538-1991 Transcription, 11 April 1835

Burial record of Mr James Rand at Chester-le-Street, aged 55.

Newcastle Journal, 11 August 1838

Marriages. At Houghton-le-Spring, on the 7th inst., by the Rev R. Shepherd, Philip James Dunn Esq. of that place, to Jane Sarah, only daughter of the late James Rand Esq., of Primrose Hill, Durham.

In the 1851 census for Burnmoor (which includes Lambton) Parkinsons remain. The location looks to be “De Pitt” –

• William Parkinson, 35

• Mary Parkinson, 34

• George Parkinson, 13

• Henry Parkinson, 11

In the 1851 census for Burnmoor (which includes Lambton) the same Parkinson family are still present. The census location is given as "D Pit Village" -

• William Parkinson, Head, 44, coal miner, born at New Lambton

• Mary Parkinson, Wife, 43, born at Ayton Banks

• George Parkinson, Son, Herdsman ?, born at New Lambton

• Henry Parkinson, Son, 21, coal miner, born at New Lambton

The Coal Authority map of the ‘seam plans’ for the area show an ‘old shaft’ at the location of the old engine, mentioned earlier. The depth of the shaft has already been given as 97 fathoms (or 582 feet). Whellan includes much information on County Durham collieries and for Lambton ‘D’ Pit the following information is given for the depth of the coal seams :

The shaft at New Lambton had been sunk to the Hutton seam and would be likely to have been a ‘pumping shaft’ for the two nearby Lambton Collieries and probably also for the somewhat-nearer William Henry Pit, the sinking of which commenced in 1799 and which had closed by 1817, although it continued as a ventilation shaft for Lambton ‘D’. In all probability the second of the two Newcomen steam engines was located at the New Lambton site.

The First Edition Ordnance Survey Map for the area is below and showed a group of buildings at the site, so there was more than just a boiler house and pumping engine here:

A scientific paper published in 1945 (On the chloride-waters of Great Britain, by W. Anderson, published in Geological Magazine, 1945, 82, 267-274) mentions three brine springs which discharged at up to 120 cubic metres per day:

• Great Lumley (NZ 290 500)

• Near Birtley (NZ 275 555)

• Framwellgate, near Durham City

• Butterby (NZ 284 396)

it is recorded that these had ceased to flow by 1870, due to the effects of underground mine water pumping in the county. This would mean that salt extraction at New Lambton and Birtley would certainly have ceased by that date.

A scientific paper published in 1993 (The Historical Use of Mine-Drainage and Pyrite-Oxidation Waters in Central and Eastern England, United Kingdom, by Paul L. Younger and Steve Dumpleton) indicated that the shaft at New Lambton was still in use as one of the pumping stations used for pumping out approximately three million litres of underground mine water per day in the former County Durham coalfield. The mine water, which is ferruginous but of ‘tolerable quality,’ is pumped into the nearby Lumley Park Burn which is a tributary of the river Wear.