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The North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers was established in 1852 under the presidency of Nicholas Wood (a close colleague of George Stephenson), alongside numerous individuals involved in the Coal Trade under the original name of 'The North of England Society, for the Prevention of Accidents, and for other purposes connected with Mining.' In his inaugural address on September 3rd, 1852, the first President of the Institute - Nicholas Wood - outlined the purpose of the institute: 'The object of the Institution is twofold: - First, - By a union or concentration of professional experience, to endeavour if possible, to devise measures which may avert or alleviate those dreadful calamities, which have so frequently produced such destruction to life and property, and which are always attended with such misery and distress to the mining population of the district; and Secondly, - to establish a Literary Institution, more particularly applicable to the theory, art, and practice of Mining, than the Institutions in the locality present, or which are within the reach of the profession in this locality.' The institute was incorporated by Royal Charter in 1876. The Institute's own building, Neville Hall, was completed in 1872 and has served as the home of the Institute ever since. Neville Hall houses the Nicholas Wood Memorial Library and a Lecture Theatre modelled after the Royal Institution's own that was completed in 1902. The mining library is reputed to be the largest in the world, with around 30% of the collections being unqiue, not even held by the British Library.

The motto of the NEIMME is 'Moneo et Munio' - 'I protect and advise'.

As of Febuary 2010, The current President of the NEIMME is Malcolm Richard Tilley, and the current secretary is Dr. Eric Wade. The institute continues to hold meetings, lectures and readings; - a current schedule can be found here. Lectures are free and open to the public. Neville Hall's Library, Lecture Theatre and Drawing Room are also available for hire for the purposes of lectures, presentations, formal lunches and small talks. Transactions of the NEIMME are available online and in hard copy in the Memorial Library.

Membership
Membership to the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers is open to everyone who has a serious interest in mining, mining technology or mining history. Application forms and futher details of membership ranks can be found on the Institute website. Numerous volunteers also work in the Library. Papers published by members of the NEIMME can be accessed here

There are a number of different levels of membership available. Those who join and have official qualifications in the mining field can become Fellows, Honorary Fellows, Members, Associate Members or Students. Those without may join as Associates. Annual fees for membership range from £25 to £30; more detailed information on the levels may be found here. Members may access special online content for no extra fee.

History: Mining Institute
Prior to the foundation of the Mining Institute, a number of events had taken place that would precipitate it's creation. The magnitude of mining-related accidents had long been a pressing concern to the industry; as early as 1835, a specially commisioned committee of the House of Commons chaired by coal-owner Joseph Pease had been unable to offer any workable reccomendations regarding the avoidance of such accidents. It was not until another committee sat in 1839, following the explosion at St. Hilda's Colliery that a series of guidelines were made officially available. The advice included a proposed lessening of reliance upon safety lamps, calling such dependance a 'fatal error '. Ventilation via high-pressure steam was also praised as one of the most valuable techniques. However, despite such recommendations, mining accidents continued to occur at an alarming rate. Between 1840 and 1849, 66 mining accidents were recorded in England, with 15 of these taking place in the North-east. More committees were established in 1845 and 1849, leading up to the establishment of a national inspectorate in 1851 and yet another House of Commons committe in the same year.

Such masses of official advice regarding the safe operation of mining required careful consideration, and a more permanent forum to discuss such considerations in. A union was also beneficial as it allowed individual owners to benefit from the collective experience of the region, without having to resort to potentially dangerous experiments to determine the safest ways to run their operations (for example, Nicholas Wood prepared a paper detailing the results of a number of experiments involving Safety Lamps). Following considerable amounts of interest in the north of England, a meeting was called and the motion to create the NEIMME was passed on the 3rd of July, 1852 at a meeting of 44 Colliery Owners, Viewers and others interested in the Coal Trade in Newcastle Upon Tyne. In his inaugural address, president Nicholas Wood drew member's attention to a number of earlier mining accidents that prompted such concern to warrant the establishment of the institute itself - such as the 1839 explosion at St. Hilda Colliery near South Shields that resulted in 50 casulties. The society, then called 'The North of England Society, for the Prevention of Accidents, and for other purposes connected with Mining 'would meet in the lecture theatre of the Literary and Philosophical Society building until the opening of their own building, Neville Hall and the Wood Memorial Library in 1872. The name 'The North of England Society, for the Prevention of Accidents, and for other purposes connected with Mining' was dropped in favour of 'The North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers' due to an increased number of Engineers joining the Institute around this time.

The NEIMME joined with several other mining institutions - the Chesterfield and Midland Counties Institution of Engineers, the Midland Institute of Mining, Civil, and Mechanical Engineers and the South Staffordshire and East Worcestershire Institute of Mining Engineers - as a part of the Federated Institute of Mining Engineers from July 1st, 1888 under the Presidency of the current NEIMME President, Mr. John Marley. Such a union of Institutes had been recommended on multiple occasions by several members of the NEIMME (such as Presidents Sir George Elliot and Mr John Daglish), and even forcast by Nicholas Wood in his first presidential address. Transactions of the NEIMME were published together with the other institutes from this point onwards to allow each institution to benefit from having permanent records of the individual papers read. The offices of this Federated Institute of Mining Engineers were located at Neville Hall for around 20 years before moving to London in 1908.

At its highest, the NEIMME totalled around 792 ordinary members in 1877. Membership grew steadily each year from the 1850s until the late 1870s, when numbers began to waver. With the decline of the mining industry in the UK in modern times, the Mining Institute now plays a role as a heritage centre and a monument to the central role that the industry took in the development and wealth of the British Empire. Today the NEIMME runs educational programs such as the Young Engineers< while continuing to be a forum for mining discussion.

The institute also has a history of making charitable donations; for example, in 1916, the Institute donated around £700 to a Captain Dennis Bayley, a coal-owner who had organised an ambulance service in France after taking his own cars to the front lines to move wounded soldiers, to help fund developments to his service.

Neville Hall
Opening in 1872, The hall was designed by famed architect Archibald Matthias Dunn in a high Victorian Gothic style, and constructed neighbouring the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne building on the site of the 14th century home of the Neville family. Funding for the project came from multiple sources; a substantial amount (£2000) being donated to the Institute by Robert Stephenson upon his death in 1859. Stephenson had previously been apprenticed to Nicholas Wood, owing to Wood's relationship with George Stephenson. The Hall was originally intended to open on the 5th of August 1871, but due to a Joiner's strike it was found impossible to open at the appointed time. Successfully opening on July 2nd, 1872, Neville Hall and the Wood Memorial Library became the base of operations for the NEIMME. A bridge linking the Wood Memorial Hall and the Library of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne was constructed at the same time to provide mutually beneficial access. Up until the opening of Neville Hall, the NEIMME had held their regular meetings in the Literary and Philosophical Society's library.

A lecture theatre was constructed below the Wood Memorial Hall in 1902 to hold around 100 people. Today the lecture theatre walls are adorned with the portraits of past presidents and secretaries, a practice begun in 1908. Two rooms adjoining the lecture theatre were made available as 'reading, writing and smoke rooms' in 1909 ' after proposals were made the previous year. The theatre is still in use by the Institute, as well as being available for hire. Today, Nevile Hall is recognised as a Grade II* listed building. Although the building is divided into two parts, the northern Neville Hall and the southern Wood Memorial, they are commonly regarded as a single composition. While the Memorial Hall remains one of the best examples of 19th Century architecture, Neville Hall has undergone some notable changes to suit new requirements. Much of the interior was sold to the Northumberland Masonic Property Trust in 1972 including the old Coal Trade offices.

Neville Hall is located only a two minute walk away from Newcastle Central Station. - More access information is available here

Nicholas Wood
Born April 24, 1795, Wood would go on to become a key member of the NEIMME. Attending the village school of Crawcrook on the south bank of the river Tyne, Wood's early progress attracted the attention of [Thomas Liddell, 1st Baron Ravensworth]; and through Sir Thomas' influence, the young Wood was sent to Killingworth Colliery to be educated as a viewer - a manager. It was here that Wood met George Stephenson, who was also working at Killingworth as a directing engineer. The two become familiar, with Stephenson sharing numerous ideas and Wood acting as an assisstant in multiple experiments. Wood was one of the witnesses to the first perilous test of Stephenson's safety-lamp at the Killingworth Colliery. Stephenson would later apprentice his son, Robert Stephenson, to Wood due to his experience as a colliery viewer and engineer.

Wood later became the owner as well as viewer of a number of collieries, acquiring an increasing influence in the trade. Up until 1844 Wood lived in Killingworth, near the colliery where he had been educated, moving to Hetton Hall in Durham in 1844 where he resided permanently afterwards. Wood took an active part in the Government commissioner's investigations that came about as a result of the 1839 St.Hilda's Colliery explosions in South Shields. As well as leading to the first Mines Inspection Act, leading members of the trade (including Wood) became convinced that futher effort was necessary to improve mining science to avoid such accidents from occuring again; from these concerns the NEIMME was created with Wood established as the first President. During his presidency, Wood would go on to make a number of varied and important contributions that reflected his considerable practical knowledge in the field; as such he was also called to give evidence before the Houses of Parliament on several occasions on matters related to coal mining and managment and was also involved in the early drafting of plans to form a mining college in Northumberland.

Nicholas Wood's later years saw him primarily concerned with the managment of his personal coal-mining buisness; while still attending the NEIMME meetings, his written contributions ceased. His final appearance in the Institute's chair was at the General Meeting of June 3rd,1865. Afterwards, Wood's health declined and he was unable to attend futher meetings, finally passing away on Tuesday 19th December, 1865 while seeking treatment in London. He left four sons and three daughters, one of whom (Mr C. L. Wood) was a contributing member of the NEIMME and was present at the opening of his father's memorial hall.

Mr. Thomas Doubleday read a memoir of the late Nicholas Wood, Esq. on Febuary 3rd, 1866. "...for whether he be viewed as an employer of labour, as a successful man of buisness, as a promoter of knowledge, as a friend to education amongst all classes, as a neighbour, a parent, or a friend, we may safely say that his place in society will not easily be filled."

Nicholas Wood Memorial Library


After Nicholas Wood's death in 1865, it was decided by the Institute that a Memorial Hall would be constructed to serve as both a memorial and a comfortable room to meet in. The Memorial Hall and Institute Offices were furnished at the cost of £950, to fit 156 people. . The library houses a large memorial sculpture of Nicholas Wood.

Messrs. W.C & G.R Cockburn presented an oil painting of Mr. Nicholas Wood to the Institute on Febuary 13th, 1897.

The mining library is reputed to be the largest in the world, with around 30% of the collections being unqiue, not even held by the British Library. The library contains a wide variety of mining related material: an estimated 20,000 volumes and maps. As an article from the Evening Chronicle described it, 'All the lessons learned over the years, all the mistakes made, are carefully recorded in print and handwritten letters and documents. Also housed are the Forster, John Buddle and Bell collections. A copy of the plans for the Eiffel Tower can also be located here as Gustav Eiffel donated them to the institute. A full catalogue of items contained in the Library can be accessed at the NEIMME website. The Transactions of the Institute are also being digitised and uploaded to the website.

The library also houses a number of portraits and tablets. A memorial tablet was unveiled by President Charles Catterall Leach on Febuary 11th, 1922 when it was affixed to the wall of the Library, bearing the names of the 29 members of the NEIMME who fell during [The Great War]. Mr. C.C.Leach praised the fallen members - "These men voluntarily set themselves apart, had clearness of vision, and felt that they must leave all that was dear to them - home, comrades, training, business, and prospects - to go and fight for the sacred cause of freedom, and to keep the world worth living in. One of these, a viewer, said to me: "I would never forgive myself if I did not go,"; and in this spirit they all gained undying renown." Another memorial tablet placed in the library of the Institution of Mining Engineers in London also bears the names. [Tablet Image]

Further Information
Telephone: 0191 2332459

E-mail: librarian@mininginstitute.org.uk

Webpage: http://www.mininginstitute.org.uk