New Marske| Back
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1. Paid £50 a year by the local mining company to empty the night toilets, the farmer used what he collected to fertilise his fields. His potatoes were said to be the best in the area.
2. About to begin an early shift, a miner accidentally set his blasting powder off and wrecked his home near here. After that no miners were allowed to store their blasting powder at home.
3. Route of the first rail line to the mines. It was known as ‘the black lonnen’ by the Scottish miners and ‘the black lane’ by the English miners because of its covering of cedar ash.
4. During the 1892 Durham coal miners strike the lack of coal forced the local mines into temporary closure, leaving the workers with no income. As Coatham Reservoir had become infected with typhoid, The Cleveland Water Company used the out of work miners as cheap labour to build Marske Reservoir.
5. The strict anti drinking laws of the local mine owners led to many miners turning their back rooms into bars known as ‘Shebeens’. In 1887 the local policeman was injured raiding a Shebeen on this street. He was forced to retire, becoming the town’s postman.
6. Site of the mine workers cricket club. In 1910 they travelled to away matches in the mine company’s horse drawn wagon. The horses were said to be so wild that only the company driver could control them. If he was not offered enough money, the cricket team missed their match.
7. The 1760 Enclosure Act took away common grazing land and allotments (no bigger than a quarter of an acre) were provided in compensation. In 1862 the local mining company provided workers with pig pens as well as allotments.
8. In a patriotic outburst, the local mine company named its ore mines after victories in the Crimean War – Alma, Sebastopol and Inkerman. They had all closed by 1923.
9. In 1944 a fragment of a crashed German bomber was taken and hidden near here by two brothers. The rumour spread that an enemy spy had removed a vital piece from the crashed aircraft. Fearing they would be shot as spies they never retrieved the fragment from its hiding place.
10. By 1871 the local mining company forbade spitting, swearing and drinking both at work and at home and employed a policeman to enforce these rules. Every payday he spent the evening trying to catch miners sneaking back from the pubs in Marske.
11. In the summer of 1865 a local miner was caught returning from the first pub to be built in the area. He was threatened with the sack for breaking company rules, which forbade drinking while employed by the mine company. The pub, situated between Marske and New Marske, was never given a licence.