Good afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen, my name is George Laws and I am Vice Chairman / Secretary of Wallsend Local History Society, and this is my Wife Phyll who is the Archivist and my general keeper in check when allowed out.
My talk today is about the Newcastle Keelmen of Sandgate, I am sure that you are all familiar with the term Keel Boat or Keel, which was a medium sized boat powered by oars and sail as the conditions required and could be used in shallow water.
The word Keel appears to have been derived from the Anglo-Saxon word ‘Coel’ which was the general word for a boat or ship, also the Scandinavian rovers are said to have called their vessels ‘Chuiles’.
The first local account of keels is mentioned under the date 1329 – 30 in the Rolls of the parish of Norham, under the heading ‘expenses and payments’ there is an entry ‘for a keele carrying wool from Newcastle to Wardley’. Wardley being a Manor belonging to the Prior and Convent of Durham near Gateshead.
Keels are also referred to in various other documents as engaged in the coal trade on the Tyne in the Fourteenth Century.
The Keelmen of Newcastle operated on the River Tyne in the 17th & 18th centuries, but there are earlier references from 1329 – 1330 in the Chartuary of Tynemouth Monastery, and the Keelmen are also mentioned in the 14th century as servants of the Priors of Tynemouth, as men who worked barges and are also spoken of as ‘Keelers’. The Priors had been coal owners at Elswick and elsewhere upriver since the early 14th century.
The Keelmen were mentioned in a decree of the Star Chamber in 1516 as the ‘Craft and Fraternity of Keelmen of Newcastle upon Tyne’ and in 1556 they are spoken of as an ‘Independent Society’ although their wish was to become a Trade Company but their petition for this was defeated by the ‘Hostmen’,or coal owners many of whom were their employers.
MacKenzie in his ‘History of Newcastle’ speaks of the Keelmen as being a race apart and ‘more robust than any Tribe in England’ and states that during a strike, Sailors, even with extra hands on board found it impossible to manage the Keels and do the necessary work required of the Keelmen.
It is said that the Keelmen intermarried to a large extent and bred a distinct community of very hard men in the Newcastle area of Sandgate. In the early part of the 18th century the records show that 1600 Keelmen were employed in 400 Keels, and that a quarter of a million Chaldrons of coal were shipped from the Tyne. A Chauldron was a wicker basket into which the coal was loaded in the mine and used for transportation, and was an accepted measure of coals, a Keel held a measure of coals equal to eight Newcastle Chauldrons, or 21 tons 4cwts and even towards the end of the 19th century, vessels were chartered to load coals at a freight rate of so much per Keel, and coals were also sold in this measure.
A Keel Boat was a broad vessel of light draft with stem and stern shaped alike, with a long shallow open hold built amidships, Scantling boards were fixed to the sides of the hold to hold up the coals which were piled in a conical shape.
The dimensions of a Keel Boat were approx. 40’ x 15’6” and they were propelled by a single oar forward, worked by two ‘Keel Bullies’ and a boy. There was another oar at the stern called the Swape with which the Skipper both rowed and steered the boat, and at a later date there was a rudder added which could be unshipped when not required.
The Keels were sometimes pulled along by puoys (tugs), and they had a lug sail set into a Tabernacle box in the centre of the boat which enabled the mast when fitted to be lowered when the Keel went under the old bridge to reach the higher part of the river. The original Keels were Carvel built with wooden pegs or Trinnels used to fasten the planks.
Latterly Wherries, which were not truly Keels were Klinker built, having small cabins of the Keels at the bow and stern which were called the Haddock or Hurrock, and they were to provide shelter for the crew as well as comfort facilities, and they were kept more or less clean by the ‘Keel deeters’ which were usually the wives, or female relatives of the Keelmen; by way of recompense, they were entitled to the sweepings, the word ‘deet’ in their language meant to keep clean.
The Keelmen were employed by the fitters (overseers) of the Collieries adjacent to the Tyne for the purpose of working the Keel boats which belonged to the colliery companies, to transport the coal from the riverside staiths upriver to the ships where they lay in the deeper parts of the river and cast the coals aboard by shovel, which must have required very great strength and endurance.
An annual ceremony known as ‘the binding’ took place when the fitters made a bargain with or ‘arled’ the Keelmen to secure their services for the coming year, and prior to 1820, a gratuity of 21/- was given to each man. The Keelmen were engaged from Christmas to Christmas, and the Keelmen’s supper formed an important part of the binding ceremony. During the time that the Keelmen were bound, they were liable for severe penalties if they left their employment, and public notices were generally exhibited when this occurred giving details of the ‘Wanted man’. If anyone else employed them after this warning, they also became liable for prosecution. In 1872 binding from year to year fell into disuse, and thereafter men were engaged by the fortnight.
The ‘Shipowner’s Manual ‘ printed in Newcastle in 1782 gives a list of rates paid to Keelmen for conveying coals between different places, and shows that for taking a load from Stella to Dents Hole North Shields, the dues were 7s 6d, owners wages 3s 8d, making 11s 2d in all per Chauldron, but there were other benefits as it was agreed ‘every keel that shall cast on board any ship shall have the usual quantity of beer given, and if refused shall be paid 1s 4d extra.’
The Keel men although engaged in a very dirty and hard working environment were a stylish breed of men, for their holiday attire in the 18th century is said to consist of a short Blue Jacket, Yellow Waistcoat and Slate coloured Trousers which were cut tight at the knee and bellied below. They had Black Hats with flat brims, and round them was tied a Black ribbon in two bows with six inches of each left streaming. A Black neckerchief in a reef knot round the neck completed the outfit.
The Keelmen were well known for their ability to enjoy their leisure time after such an arduous way of earning their living and frequented the local Taverns and Hostelries of Sandgate, (after all the Beer was much better for their health than the local water) and entertained themselves with local songs such as Cushie Butterfield who was allegedly a Big Lass and a Bonny Lass who liked hor beer.
The Keelmen were also keen sportsmen, and were particularly keen on rowing, their champion was Harry Clasper the champion sculler of the world in his day, as he was at one time a Tyneside Keelmen, who was the inventor of the outrigger which marked the evolution of the light rowing skiff and he designed these early craft. He and all of his brothers were all noted scullers and Keelmen.
Sometime before 1700, the Keelmen raised a fund for the support of their old or distressed brethren by allowing a deduction of 1s 6d from their wages for this purpose, and were leased a piece of ground between the Carpenters Tower and Sandgate which in 1704 became the Keelmens hospital which you will be aware is at the end of City Road, this was maintained by their levy of 4d per tide known as ‘Keelmens Groats’ this fund was managed by the Hostmens Company as Trustees. The first Governor of the hospital was Matthew White a member of the Hostmans Company. In the early part of the18th Century, the Keelmen complained at various times the money was not properly expended on the hospital, and they wished to manage the hospital themselves and employed their own Governor.
Several petitions to this effect, addressed to the Mayor and Aldermen of Newcastle, can be noted, together with the replies from the Hostmen who state that ‘when the Keelmen did obtain money that they spent it on riots and extravagances, and that they were without religion or manners and unable to govern themselves’. It is perhaps only fair to remark that on a previous occasion, the Keelmen had petitioned the Hostmen to assist them with a Chapel and Minister, but without success.
On the day of the annual general meeting, or ‘Head Meeting Day’; the Keelmen used to march in procession through the town with bands, and afterwards dined together in state.
In 1788 after previous attempts, a permanent fund for the benefit of old Keelmen on the Tyne was established by Act of Parliament, by means of a levy of 1d per chaldron of coal. But in 1872 an Act of Parliament was passed abolishing all levies made by charitable corporations, including Hostmen and Keelmen.
In 1898, the lease of the Hospital which had been renewed, finally fell in, and thereafter the Newcastle Corporation let the fifty eight small rooms as they became vacant, to poor people, so that the Hospital no longer existed as a charity, although the building still stands at the west end of City Road, and is now a listed building which has been used for many purposes, and I believe was being used for Student accommodation between the 1970’s and 1990’s but has been vacant for some time and is suffering structurally as a result.
A rather serious set-back for the Keelmen was the design and building of the Swing Bridge in 1876 by William Armstrong to replace the Georgian Bridge which required the Keels to lower their sails to pass, and was not passable by larger vessels while the new Swing Bridge allowed for much larger vessels to travel further upriver to load coal at a number of Staithes, not least the massive Dunston Staithes which still exist today, this was a devastating blow to the Keelmen
In due time however the coal trade developed to such an extent that the coal owners wishing to improve the delivery of coal to their ships developed rail tracks leading to the river and constructed Loading Spouts to discharge coal from the Waggons directly into the vessels at locations such as Wallsend, Percy Main and Whitehill Point which is beside what is now the Royal Quays Outlet centre. This of course was not a good development for the Keelmen who were never backward in asserting their rights, and one finds records of serious strikes or ‘sticks’ or mutinies among them and on one occasion the mob got so out of hand at North Shields and at Castle Garth that the Riot Act had to be read. Military and Marines were called in and after a time succeeded in maintaining order.
Some seamen employed on the vessels loading coal came out in sympathy, and prevented their ships from going under the spouts for loading, but appear to have been chiefly concerned in attempting to obtain a rise in their own wages, and an increased manning scale. It is interesting to note that at this time over a thousand small sailing vessels were registered in the port of Newcastle, nearly all were engaged in the coal trade.
It is interesting to note that although this talk refers mainly to the Keelmen of Sandgate, Newcastle; there were other communities of Keelmen resident along the river Tyne, particularly locally in Kelemen’s Row in Willington Quay which was a long terrace of houses which ran under the Willington Viaduct and was demolished in 1932 although I think this may have been to serve the needs of R Hood Haggie’s rope works which stood just over the road, as pictures in the Archives of Wallsend Local History Society show boats very distinctly of the design of Keel being used to discharge bales of hemp for rope making at the quayside on the Wallsend Gut alongside Haggies factory, so diversification even in those days.
Thank you very much for your kind attention, and I will be pleased to attempt to answer any questions that you may have.