User:Ttocserp/Industrial revolution on the Tees

Industrial revolution
The Industrial Revolution came late to the Tees, then proceeded with "amazing rapidity". In 1821 there was only one industrial town in the district. Yet by 1876 the district produced as much pig iron as the whole of America. Its meteoric transformation was caused oy an unusual combination of circumstances.

In 1821 the only industrial town was Darlington (pop. 5,750), where the waters of the River Skerne powered a textile industry. There was no other town except Stockton (pop. 5,184).. Middlesbrough had less than 150 inhabitants. Yet, barely thirty miles north, advanced technical methods raised coal from deep mines, transported it on rails, and sold it to shipping moored in the rivers Tyne and Wear — part of an immense coastwise trade that supplied the lucrative London market. Those rivers, however, were on the Great Northern Coalfield, which the Tees was not.

Coal was the industrial revolution's fuel. Its cost depended on how far it was carried, and how. In the Tees valley it was brought by turnpike road, or even pack mule: the trade was purely local. A ton of the mineral, which sold for 4s at Bishop Auckland near the edge of the coalfield, cost double at Darlington just 13 miles away. It was, at that time, about 65 times cheaper to convey bulk goods by sea than by road. Hence, while Newcastle was exporting 1.2 million tons of coal annually, and Sunderland 0.8 million, Stockton was actually an importer. Further, the nearest mines were rudimentary, for they were only supplying a small, local trade.

The region also lacked a good port. The river meandered, and its mouth was beset by sandbars. `From the harbour at Stockton xxx

Yet in half a century the district was transformed with "amazing rapidity" and within a century the population of Tees-side grew 1,000-fold. The first step in its "meteoric" growth was the development of railways. They existed in several parts of Great Britain; but in this district they had to be — and were — made longer; the lie of the land was not suitable for canals. The new railways, by connecting the mines to the flourishing maritime market, incentivised them to adopt modern methods. Production soared. Coal combined with nearby ore and limestone to create the world's largest iron and steel industry.

Darlington, for a small town, was unusual in its human capital.

Railways
The Stockton and Darlington Railway was projected in 1818 to connect those two towns with the coalfield, via Shildon. At that time steam locomotives were experimental, and the best of them was not much more powerful than the strongest horse. Although the S&DR was authorised to use steam, it was primarily conceived as a horse railway, of which a dozen were already running in Tyneside or Wearside, a few used steam too. To export coals via the Tees was, for its founders, no more than a distant dream. Its chief promoter, the Quaker Edward Pease, of Darlington, spoke in favour of local trade and a steady 5% return.

A Stockton merchant with a different vision was Christopher Tennant, who thought that running the railway through Darlington had been a mistake. In his view it should have gone further north of the Tees, connecting the coalfield directly with a good harbour at the mouth of the river — which Stockton certainly was not. Thus, a practical link would be made between the coalfield and the North Sea. The Tees would become an important exporter of coal, like the immensely successful Tyne and the Wear valleys were already. He promoted the Clarence Railway, which became a rival to the S&DR, and attracted the ire of its directors.

By 1830 the result of these two different business models was as follows. The southern line (the S&DR) ran from the unsatisfactory harbour of Stockton-on-Tees, through Darlington, and then, to get to the coalfield, had to cross a hill, with gradients too steep for the horses or locomotives of the day. The problem was overcome by making a pair of inclined planes: carriages were drawn up and lowered by cable, powered by a stationary steam engine.

The northern line (the Clarence) connected with deep water at the mouth of the Tees, and eventually, the purpose built Port Clarence. As Tennant had predicted, it found a good export trade. However, the Clarence had not managed to get parliamentary authorisation to build a line into the coalfield. It got as far as the inclined plane, where it connected to the S&DR. The latter was a public railway, so it was obliged to take Clarence traffic on its line, for payment. Its directors, imposed a steep tonnage charge, which the Clarence paid under protest, saying it was illegal by the S&DR's act of parliament. It was not until 1840 that a court held they were overcharging; it was upheld by the House of Lords. Hence the Clarence was not a commercial success, and it eventually merged with the Stockton and Darlington.

However, the S&DR's directors, realising that Tennant had been right to predict a good coal export trade, made a crucial decision that transformed the area. Building a suspension bridge across the Tees, they took their railway to Middlesbrough. They now had an uninterrupted link from the coalfield to a good port on the North Sea. The increased trade encouraged investment in the coalfield, and the region became a major producer of coal.

xx
Darlington being for many years the exception, since it had a textile industry and made optical glass. In the year 1799 when Newcastle on Tyne exported 1,1,86,720 tons of coal and Sunderland 791,213, Stockton-on-Tees imported its coals from Newcastle.. The harbour at Stockton-on-Tees was a backwater, poorly navigable, beset by shoals. The Tees was many miles from the nearest coalfield. In an era when it was 65 times cheaper to send bulk goods by sea than by land, mines in the Auckland district sent their produce to local consumers by turnpike road, or even by pack mule. The founders of the Stockton and Darlington Railway did so in order to carry this local coal traffic more efficiently; for them, exporting coals was a distant dream. Middlesbrough's population was about 25.

In 1800 not much was shipped from the Tees. There was a harbour at Stockton-on-Tees, but it was poorly navigable, being beset by shoals. The river was many miles from the coalfield. The nearest mines could not tap the lucrative London market, and were not in the cartel. Such coals as they raised went to local consumers by turnpike road, or even pack mule.

The Stockton and Darlington Railway was an enterprise conceived by local businessmen, especially Quakers, to carry on this landside trade more efficiently. At first they had no ambition for an export trade since, although Stockton-on-Tees did have a harbour, the river Tees was poorly navigable, being beset by shoals. Accordingly the Limitation of the Vend did not see the railway as a threat, and did not seriously oppose it in Parliament — a decision they came to regret.