Tubway
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The Victoria Garesfield Colliery Tubway
Coal was mined in and around Chopwell Wood for about 500 years. Although some coal was used locally, most of it had to be transported to the River Tyne where it could be put on ships and taken to London or elsewhere. This was done using wagonways or tubways, which carried coal wagons or smaller coal tubs. These were the first railways and were in use from about 1650 in North East England. The wagonways were first made of wood and the wagons and tubs were drawn by horses or could go down hill under their own weight controlled by a brake worked by the driver, called the waggoner. The building of the wagonways often involved considerable engineering works, such as Causey Arch built in 1725/26 at Tanfield, which is the oldest railway bridge in the world.
As technology developed wooden rails were replaced with iron rails and mechanical haulage systems replaced horses. A tubway with iron rails was used in the tunnels of the drift mine that was at Victoria Garesfield. Starting in 1860, eventually three main tunnels were dug together with two remote access drifts. One of these tunnels, called the "The Coronation Drift" or “West Way”, went right under Chopwell Wood, from Victoria Garesfield coming to the surface in a cutting close to Chopwell. Men returning to the area after the First World War found work in this drift mine tunnel, and it became known locally as "The Barracks". Once the coal had arrived in the tubs at Victoria Garesfield Colliery, it was loaded into coal wagons on the railway, which connected the colliery to the London & North Eastern Railway near Rowlands Gill. The Coronation Drift was officially closed on 1st March 1934, and the track was lifted and the cutting near Chopwell just became overgrown. Other parts of Victoria Garesfield Colliery continued until it finally closed on 13th July 1962.
In 2003, the local community group, the Friends of Chopwell Wood, cleared the undergrowth out of the cutting and restored a section of track. Four former coal tubs were obtained and placed on the track. They were painted black and the letters VGC together with some coal tub identification numbers were painted in white on the tubs.
Link to Alan J. White's History SiteQuestions
- In what century did coal mining start in Chopwell Wood?
- What do the letters VGC stand for?
- Why were tubways and wagonways built?
- How did the tubs get uphill?
- What was the worlds first railway bridge called?
- What did the miners call the Coronation Drift tunnel?
Answer the 16th century
Answer Victoria Garesfield Colliery
Answer to transport coal to a river
Answer they were drawn by horses
Answer Causey Arch
Answer The Barracks
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