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of its use. The famous clock was moved to Wylam Hall, and there it remains, a monument of ^the ingenuity of a man, who, had he received the correct training, would have produced, we know not what.

Thus, through cruel circumstances, do wonderful brains go to the grave without being tapped of their wonderful resources.

I had many escapades in Wylam, from being rescued floating on my back down the Tyne, to climbing to the top of the large iron suspension bridge above Wylam; untill I was about 7 years of age, when we moved to South Shields.

1882 South Shields

We lived at the top end of Victoria Road, close to the Sunderland Road, and my father worked at Whitburn, near to Marsden. He started sinking the famous shaft that was finally sunk by the [blank] process as a huge gully was struck that let in large volumes of water from the sea. We stayed here for two years and then moved to Chevington Abbas a farm, whilst my father worked at Stobswood, a mine on the main line north. ^The winters of 1885 and 86 were terrible, snow being level with the hedges, and railways blocked.

We lived here a couple of months and then moved to Stobswood; but only stayed a year all told, and moved to Pegswood.

Feb 1889

My father worked at Ashington, Pegswood not working at the time.

I went to school untill I was thirteen years of age, and then started work at Ashington as a trapper at one shilling a day. After working a week, I didn’t like the mine, and wanted to leave, but my father said I had looked for the job myself and would now stay there. Well that fixed my destiny, but I know I should never have been a miner.

Well at fourteen years of age, I started work at Pegswood which had just opened up after being idle thirteen years.

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William talks about climbing the Wylam Bridge. The bridge was built in 1876 and is also known locally as Points Bridge, Half-Moon Bridge, Hagg Bank Bridge, Bird Cage Bridge, or The Tin Bridge. It is now a Grade II listed building.

The Lawsons, William’s mother’s family, were from Hagg Bank.

1877 – The first successful shaft sunk by the KindChaudron System in England was commenced in this year by the Whitburn coal Company at Marsden, and was completed in two years, it having been found impossible to sink it by ordinary methods, although over 12,000 gallons of water were being pumped.

Old Ordnance Survey maps of the area have been searched but a farm of this name hasn’t been found.

William probably attended one of the Colliery schools, a Church of England school such as that at Amble or one of the hundreds of British Schools. William Forster’s Elementary Education Act 1870 made it compulsory for all children aged 5-13 to attend school.

William was clearly not keen on working as a trapper at Ashington Pit. There is more information on William’s work as a trapper in William’s Early Life.  Children were employed as trappers, whose job was to open and close the trapdoors to allow those pulling or pushing the coal corf (A corf is a large basket used for carrying coals or other minerals in a mine).