Rainton Waggonway, branch to Eden Main Colliery

Richard Wharton, the owner of Rainton Ducks Colliery, died in 1696. His widow, Jane, ran the colliery for the next 30 years. In 1697, she secured a new route for a waggonway from Rainton across Dubmire and Hall Moors and over Sedgeletch from where the line took up an old waggonway route used by Sir John Duck through Newbottle, Penshaw and down Waggon Hill to the south bank of the River Wear. Branches were added to the waggonway from Newbottle Colliery for the Earl of Scarborough’s coal in 1723 and another from Smith’s Colliery in Morton but the route that these branch lines took has not been established. In 1730, following Jane Wharton’s death, the colliery passed by marriage to the Tempest family. Over the middle years of the 18th century, the course of the main way around Dubmires was altered because of wayleave problems and for a time the line became circuitous. By the late 1760s, the line had reverted to its former course. Branch lines were added to deep collieries. Eden Main Colliery, to the east of Shiney Row and west of Philadelphia, was sunk 60 fathoms to the Hutton Seam in the 1790s.