Evictions (From The Northern Echo)

Evictions

5:00pm Monday 13th February 2012 in Letters

REGARDING the story about the eviction of striking miners and their families in Silksworth which was recreated by school children and museum staff at Beamish this week (Echo, Feb 9).

The statue of the man on a horse in Durham Market Place is Charles Stewart, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry, who died in 1854.

While many people consider his treatment of the miners in his colliery empire cruel and unjust, he cannot be held responsible for the 1891 Silksworth evictions.

They occurred during the time of his grandson, 6th Lord Londonderry from 1884 until 1915, whose statue stands in front of the former Londonderry offices in Seaham Harbour.

Norma Neal, Sedgefield.