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I worked here untill I was sixteen years, when my best friend, my mother died at 40 years of age in 1892 January, she is buried at Bothal. We then moved to Seghill for a year, where we did drifting in stone. Then to Ravensworth  in the Co Durham where we did sinking and rising in stone. We lived at Gateshead with my aunt Meggie ^Wright and travelled by train to and from work. At seventeen eighteen years of age I went to work at Victoria Garesfield (coalmine) Co Durham, and lived with my aunt Jane Leyburn [Laybourn] ^coal mining at The Spen

1894

I started work on stonework receiving men’s pay, (although I wasn’t supposed to do men’s work untill I was 21 years) and in a couple of weeks got a contract on couch work, as it is called there; that is, taking down hanging wall to make height for the tubs to get near to the working face. This brought me good pay about £2.10.0 a week.

1893

Reverting back to Gateshead, whilst living there I became a member of the Empire Rowing Club Newcastle. Mr Moss of the Empire Theatre was President, and the Headquarters were at the Cannon Inn, Jimmy Cook being proprietor, the landing stage was immediately above the High Level Bridge.
I was a good boatpuller although I wasn’t yet 18 years of age. I was tremendously strong, being able to lift a weight of 600 lbs with both hands, and nearly 11 stone, and naturally very active.
I started training in the evenings after coming from work, and I remember once whilst pulling up the river and approaching the Red Heugh Bridge, I was just letting myself out a bit, when I crashed into a pleasure boat

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William’s mother was buried on 18 Jan 1892, at St Andrew’s Church in Bothal, a village near Morpeth. Curiously, the ceremony was performed not by the vicar or curate of the parish church at Bothal but by D Clarke, curate of Choppington, South East of Morpeth whereas Pegswood is North East of Morpeth (Bothal). Choppington was one of the three big mid-Northumberland collieries.

Seghill  is a village on the Northumberland/Durham border (a boundary village). There are many coal mines here. Presumably William’s reference to ‘drifting in stone’ means a stone drift, which is excavated in rock, such as from the surface down to a coal seam. This means that William might not be actually mining coal.

Ravensworth  is 4 miles south of Newcastle, William describes ‘sinking and rising in stone’. Rising is excavating a shaft upwards from the mine workings. Sinking is the drilling of a round of holes, blasting, removing broken rocks, trimming the shaft to form, placing the sets or concrete in position, preparing to drill next round.

Aunt Meggie was William’s father’s sister Margaret.

Victoria Garesfield Colliery  is situated about 7½ miles  West South West of Newcastle and 6 miles from Wylam, where William was born.

Jane (nee Lawson) was William’s mother’s sister. In the 1891 Census Jane Laybourn was living at Ramsey’s Cottages, Spen, Chopwell.

During the early 19th Century, rowing offered opportunities for both professional and amateur rowers and at one time there were approximately 20 rowing clubs on the banks of the River Tyne. In 1946, Tyne United Rowing Club was originally founded after several professional rowing clubs in Gateshead merged; these were Empire RC, Hawthorn RC, Gateshead and District RC, Walker RC and Wallsend RC.

The Empire Palace Theatre was situated on Newgate Street, Newcastle, and was known locally as simply The Empire. It originally opened as the Empire Variety Theatre on Monday the 1st of December 1890. The Theatre was constructed for the proprietor Farquhar M. Laing by Alex. Pringle of Gateshead, and leased to Thornton and Moss. Mr. (later Sir Edward) H. E. Moss was the founder of the great chain of theatres that bear his name. In 1903 it was completely refurbished by Frank Matcham.

Ward’s Directory of Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1898 has James Cook at the Cannon Inn, The Close. The Close was a road that ran parallel with the River Tyne.

Ward's Directory of Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1898
Ward’s Directory of Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1898

Over Pages 7, 8 and 9 William describes his involvement with rowing on River Tyne.

Leisure and Recreation in a Victorian Mining Community: The Social Economy  gives a very  good description of the development of rowing as a spectator sport in the second half of the 19th century.

North East Rowing Online  provides detail of the variety of races that took place and some of the well-known rowers.