Ford Moss Colliery Project

Forgotten Heritage Uncovered

Visitors to Ford Moss Nature Reserve today can enjoy the wildlife and the beauty of one of Northumberland’s most important raised mires, yet apart from the old mine chimney at the entrance to the site, little has ever been revealed about the colliery which operated there until about 80 years ago.

Now a project is getting under way to look at this forgotten heritage, where once many families lived and worked. Sarah Steer, a post-graduate student from Newcastle University’s International Centre for Cultural & Heritage Studies has been given a placement by Ford & Etal Estates to research the heritage and the archaeology of the site, and offer solutions for its management and interpretation.

“This is a place about which little is known, yet which played an important part in the life of the Estate, perhaps from as early as the seventeenth century”, said Sarah. “The children came down from Ford Moss every day to attend the school built by Lady Waterford, and would have looked up at the faces of their parents and grandparents in her Biblical murals”.

Sarah will be working with Alan Bertram, a retired police inspector whose late father was shepherd at Ford Moss and latterly curator at the Lady Waterford Hall. “I have wonderful childhood memories of the Moss, and am very pleased about the project. I hope people who have memories, or photographs or other records of Ford Moss will come forward to help Sarah. I have offered whatever help I can.”

Ford & Etal Estates was asked by Chris Burgess, archaeologist with Northumberland County Council, to consider a project which would at least allow the current archaeology to be stabilised without further deterioration. “The colliery at Ford Moss has been all but forgotten, and the former village abandoned in the undergrowth,” admits Lord Joicey. “The links with the Lady Waterford murals, and the legacies that the workings have left on the landscape, need to be formally recognised. We are delighted to welcome Sarah Steer, who hails from Ireland, and thereby nicely continues the links with the Waterford family who owned Ford Estate in the nineteenth century.”

Sarah and Alan would be delighted to hear from any reader who may have old photographs, records or stories from the Ford Moss colliery. Sarah can be contacted at s.m.steer@newcastle.ac.uk or at the Ford & Etal office on 01890 820 224. Alan can be contacted on 01835 823319

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