From the 1861 Census of Seaham. Occ: Overlooker at a Colliery
Info from Bill Hepple July 2007.
4 California Row Seaham
Tristram Hepple/H/M/47/Overlooker/Nbl Benton
Dorothy/Wf/M/46/Benton
Tristram/Son/U/18/Blacksmith/Benton
Eleanor/D/U/16/Brnton
George/S/12/Scholar/Benton
Ann/D/9/Scholar/Benton
Mary/D/6/Scholar/Durham New Seaham
John Wm Tarbit/G Son/4/Scholar/Durham New seaham.

TROUBLED SEAMS
by
JOHN E. McCUTCHEON
Chapter 8
THE 1864 EXPLOSION :
WEDNESDAY, 6th APRIL, 1864 — 2 LIVES LOST
This small explosion involving only two people proved at first to be a most elusive and obscure event for the writer of this narrative. One had heard it mentioned in the verbal reminiscences of an old standard of Seaham, but newspaper files v/ere not very helpful in the matter. At last enquiries were rewarded : there was a tombstone in Old Seaham churchyard which confirmed the fact of the explosion, revealed that a forbear of a well-known Seaham family was involved, and was the means of bringing to light certain other interesting information.
On a lovely Sunday afternoon in autumn the writer stood alone in the ancient churchyard of Seaham
and copied the inscription from the tombstone. There was a sense of quiet and serenity about the place that was the very antithesis of the explosion story. The thousand-year old church stood there, unpretentious and yet aware of itself, solid, silent, enduring. From behind the autumn-tinted trees in the grave-yard the ghosts of Blacket, Byron and Miss Milbanke peeped out in mood contemplative. Dead leaves fluttered downwards, mute witnesses of change, yet whispering, so it seemed, of the ever-rolling stream of time , . .
The headstone tells this story :
IN MEMORY OF TRISTRAM HEPPELL WHO
WAS BURNT BY AN EXPLOSION OF GAS AT
SEATON COLLIERY ON THE 22nd DAY OF
APRIL, 1864. AGED 50 YEARS.
Underneath the inscription is the following pathetic verse:
"A tender father lieth here
That loved his children most dear,
Weep not for me nor trouble take
But love my children for my sake."
The explosion took place at the High Pit on the 6th April, 1864, severely burning the two men Tristram
Heppell and William Fairley, so that both died some days later in consequence. Heppell's funeral appears to have been quite a public event, for he was a member of the military "Volunteers" and 200 Volunteer colleagues marched in the funeral procession. It was a fairly long march from the "High Colliery," turning to the right at the "Lodge" and going down that lovely tree-lined road towards Seaham Hall and the sea. It was the same road over which Byron passed in his horse-drawn coach when he came awooing Miss Milbanke fifty years before. A Press cutting about the funeral (much cherished by a grandson of this Tristram Heppell, who with his brothers recently retired after many years at the Seaham pit) speaks of the great crowd which assembled to witness Heppell's funeral. "Probably the quiet of that ancient grave-yard was never before so rudely disturbed," says the report. The procession was headed by the band of the Seaham Volunteer Artillery Corps. The 200 Volunteers
were under the command of Captain D. Mann, and the firing party marched in front. The report goes on:—
The day was bright and sunny and as the cortege advanced along the lane, keeping time to the
measured strains of the "Dead March" played by the band, the scene was most impressive, and forcibly
recalled the words of Longfellow :
"Time is fleeting, And our hearts, though stout and brave, Still, like muffled drums, are beating Funeral marches to the grave."
The Rev. A. Bethune conducted the service, and the church, though crowded, could not accommodate a
quarter of those present. A local newspaper felt obliged to comment upon the behaviour of a portion of
the crowd : "We were sorry to remark that among the crowd outside several persons were spending the
time smoking, scarcely a decent practice in such a place, at such a time." The firing party having fired
three volleys at the graveside "with great precision," the solemn ceremony was terminated.
This little story of the 1864 Explosion and Tristram Heppell in particular, which was so elusive at first,
proved to have interesting revelations as it was further unfolded. Tristram (or "Kit") Heppell came from
"West Moor, Northumberland, to help in sinking the shafts of the Seaham pit. At West Moor his father was a master sinker of pits and a close friend of George Stephenson. Indeed, Kit Heppell (senior) was the means of giving Stephenson an important chance in his career—a chance, that is, of demonstrating his growing mechanical powers. Locomotives owed much of their initial development to the evolution of the engine power needed for pumping water out of coal-pits. Stephenson was a winding engineman at West Moor Colliery, and not far away from him (at Killingworth) Kit Heppell and his men were sinking a new pit—or rather trying to sink, for at that time (and for the previous twelve months) they had made no progress at all.
They met a problem to which we have already referred—the problem of water. The Newcomen-Smeaton
pumping engine could not cope with the flood waters in the shaft. The men were, as they said, "clean bet." Then Stephenson came to the rescue. Smiles tells the story in his "Lives of the Engineers." Stephenson used to slip over to have a look at the engine now and again, and one Saturday afternoon he began to examine it more carefully than usual. Kit Heppell noticed this and said : "Weel, George, what do you mak' o' her ? Do you think you could do anything to improve her ?" To which George replied : "I could alter her, man, and make her draw; in a week's time I could send you to the bottom."
Forthwith Kit Heppell reported this to Mr. Ralph Dodds, the Manager, who being now quite in despair
decided to let George have a go. George took the engine to pieces, altered and rebuilt it in about three days; then the pumping started and within a week all told, as he had previously promised,
the flooded shaft was cleared and the sinkers able to resume their work.
Thereafter, George Stephenson's name was made. He was in great demand as an "engine doctor," for
there were just then many wheezy old engines trying to cope with massive new problems. But let us not
forget the small but important part played by Kit Heppell, master sinker, nor that of his son who came to Seaham to play his part in the battle for coal and eventually sacrificed his life in the course of it.
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The headstone is now broken, lying beside the churchyard wall. Without prior knowledge I would not have known who the monument was dedicated to, only fragments of the inscription remain. wbp.

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