William Brown (mining engineer)

William Brown (1717-1782) - or William Brown of Throckley as he was sometimes known - was an English mining engineer, waggonway constructor and steam engine builder who played a major role in the development of the coal mining industry in the North East of England and also elsewhere in Britain and Ireland.

Brown was born at Heddon Pit House, Heddon-on-the-Wall, Northumberland in 1717, the son of William Brown and Ann (or Agnes) Watson, the daughter of Lewis and Jane Watson of Throckley Pit House. William Brown senior was involved with local mines, though exactly how is uncertain. Lewis Watson died in 1732 and around then the Brown family moved the short distance from Heddon to Throckley, where they lived for the next forty or so years. William Brown senior then became the tenant of Throckley Colliery. William Brown the son worked in mines in the 1730s and 1740s, but again his activities are not known. However, he would have served his apprenticeship in the 1730s, perhaps with William Newton, for they were related through their connection to the Watsons or maybe with his father or his neighbour Richard Peck, and by the 1740s was gaining expertise in designing waggonways.

From around 1750 Brown worked as a viewer - the man with the technical expertise to develop a colliery and then to deal with the geological and water problems inevitable in a mine. He was responsible for all the machinery, the waggonways and had to be a competent surveyor He was expected to provide financial advice to the owners and to recruit, manage and retain the workforce needed to operate the mine.

Like many viewers, Brown became a part owner of the collieries in which he worked. Besides Throckley Colliery, in which he owned a half share, Brown later had shares in both Shiremoor and its successor Willington, which were very successful and profitable enterprises.

Over the next 30 years through a combination of his mining skills, the installation of steam engines for pumping and the creation of waggonways to deliver coal to the Tyne for transport he developed a number of new mines and seams at Throckley, Heddon, Hartley, Shiremoor, Walbottle, Willington and Wallsend, though he died a few months before the latter opened.

He was one of those who helped win the High Main Seam, a six foot seam of high quality household coal to the east of Newcastle which was at a much deeper level – around 600 feet - than the same seam to the west of the city and at one time had been thought unreachable because of the presence of water.

His work was not just with coal mines as he had involvement in Yorkshire with copper mines at Middleton Tyas, near Richmond and lead mines at Grassington and in Swaledale.

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