The North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers (NEIMME), commonly known as The Mining Institute, is a British Royal Chartered learned society and membership organisation dedicated to advancing engineering, science and technology in the North and promoting the research and preservation of knowledge relating to mining and mechanical engineering. The membership of the institute is elected on the basis of their academic and professional achievements with Members and Fellows entitled to the postnominal MNEIMME and FNEIMME. The Institute's membership is predominantly from local industry and from academics at Durham and Newcastle Universities, though members are also located further afield across the UK.
The institute was founded in 1852 in Newcastle upon Tyne, and was granted a Royal Charter by Queen Victoria in 1876. The Institute developed one of the largest collections of mining information in the world. Its library, named after the first President Nicholas Wood contains more than twenty thousand volumes of technical literature,North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers The Mining Institute Renaissance - Anniversary Celebrations 1852–2002. 2002. in the fields of mining, geology, mechanical engineering, government blue books, mine rescue, mineralogy, mineral chemistry, mining statistics, mining law, seismology and other related topics.
In 2019 the assets of the Institute – building, library and archive collections and staff – were transferred to a separate charity, The Common Room of the Great North, established to "celebrate the region's engineering history through education and engagement, with a vision to inspire the next generation of innovators and engineers". Neville Hall, the Institute building, was closed for refurbishment in 2019.
The Institute itself continues as an independent professional membership organisation for engineers, and is currently developing a new strategy that aims to increase its activities.
History Origins and formation
The origins of the Institute stem from William Turner, minister of the Hanover Square Chapel,'Protestant Dissent: Chapels and meeting-houses', Historical Account of Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Including the Borough of Gateshead (1827), pp. 370-414. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=43362 Date accessed: 7 February 2014 just behind the position of Newcastle railway station. He began Newcastle's first Sunday School, 'a focus of light and learning' for the town. One of his students, John Buddle, became a viewer (mining engineer) and wealthy mine owner, and member of the Literary and Philosophical Society and the Natural History Society of Northumberland, Durham and Newcastle upon Tyne (now the Natural History Society of Northumbria). Buddle became a major influence on the Durham and Northumberland Coalfield, "the King of the Coal Trade". In 1816, Buddle devised a system of diverting underground ventilating currents that is in use today. He did not live to see the impact of his legacy, as he died in 1843, nine years before the founding of the institute.Hiskey, C.E. John Buddle (1773–1843): agent and entrepreneur on the North-East coal trade. MLitt thesis, University of Durham, 1978. Available online His papers and 'place books' were deposited at the institute.
Following an explosion at Felling in 1812, the Sunderland Society was set up to improve safety where gas was present in mines.The first report of a society for preventing accidents in coal mines consisting of a letter to Sir Ralph Milbanke, Bart. Author: Buddle, John Milbanke, Ralph (Sir) Society for Preventing accidents in Coal Mines. (Sunderland) Newcastle upon Tyne : Printed by Edward Walker, 1814. NEIMME In: Tracts 3, p. 15-62; 53, p. 93-140; 60, p.1-48; 94 p. 61-108; Bell collection, 4, p. 71-107. With list of members. The committee secured the services of Sir Humphry Davy, inventor of the safety lamp, in 1815. Despite changes, explosions continued, culminating in a devastating explosion at St Hilda Colliery in which 52 persons were killed. The South Shields Committee recommended the introduction of government inspections of mines the education of mechanical engineers, leading to the Coal Mines Inspection Act 1850 (13 & 14 Vict. c. 100)., Extracts from the North and South Shields Gazette A coroner's court held at the Mill Inn at Seaham in 1852 suggested it would be advantageous to form a society to consider the prevention of accidents in coal mines.
At a meeting of “colliery owners, viewers, and others interested in the Coal Trade” on 3 July 1852, it was proposed to form a society to discuss the ventilation of coalmines, prevention of accidents and other items connected with the general working of coalmines. It was to be called "The North of England Society for the Prevention of Accidents and for other purposes connected with mining", and Nicholas Wood would be chairman.Anderson, Wm. Meeting of Colliery Owners, Viewers, &c Transactions - North of England Institute of Mining Engineers 1 1852-3,1-2 The title actually adopted was the North of England Institute of Mining Engineers, changed in 1870 to North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers.Report of the Rules Committee Transactions - North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers 19 1869-70, 99-100 A committee was appointed to draw up rules and the inaugural meeting was held on 3 September 1852 at which Wood delivered the inaugural address at the lecture theatre of the Literary and Philosophical Society. In this address he gave the aims of the Institute:
Wood was president from the institute's inauguration in 1852 until 19 December 1865 when he died aged 70.
A Royal Charter was awarded by Queen Victoria incorporating the Institute in the 28th of November 1876.
A School of Medicine founded in 1834, a predecessor of Newcastle University, occupied the site the institute was built on. It was in this building part of the 1838 British Association meeting was held. The College of Physical Science in Newcastle, linked to Durham University, was founded in 1871 following some years of discussion and promotion by the institute. Its classes were taught in the institute's lecture theatre. It was renamed Armstrong College and was for many decades part of the University of Durham, later to become Kings College and then Newcastle University.
Similar institutions to the Institute were set up in other parts of Britain and informal collaboration led to the creation in 1889 of the Federated Institution of Mining Engineers, comprising NEIMME; Chesterfield and Midland Counties Institution of Engineers; Midland Institute of Mining, Civil and Mechanical Engineers; South Staffordshire and East Worcestershire Institute of Mining Engineers and later the North Staffordshire Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers, the Mining Institute of Scotland and the Manchester Geological and Mining Society. The name was changed to the Institution of Mining Engineers in 1898. The constituent societies kept their identity within the national Institution and many, like NEIMME, exist today as local societies of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.
Twentieth century Historically the institute was concerned not just with measures to reduce accidents, but with the theory, art and practice of mining in general. So through meetings, presentation, discussion and publication of research papers, investigations, experimental work, and so on, the Institute tried to fulfil these aims. Working groups were set up, for example on tail ropes;North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers On the haulage of coal: being the report of the committee appointed by the Mining Institute to investigate the subject. 1869 flameless explosives;Kayll, A.C Report of the proceedings of the flameless explosives committee of the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers NEIMME, 1896 mechanical ventilatorsBrown, M Walton Mechanical ventilators: report of the Committee of the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers and the Midland Institute of Mining, Civil and Mechanical Engineers Transactions - North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers 48 1898-99, 171-266; Transactions - Institution of Mining Engineers 17 1898-99, 482-576 and mechanical coal cutting.North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers Report of the committee upon mechanical coal cutting. Part 1 - Longwall machines. 1903North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers Report of the committee upon mechanical coal cutting. 1905 There were research committees on such as strata control, set up in 1924North of England Institute Strata Control Research Sub-Committee Control of the strata in mining: investigations in the Durham and Northumberland Coalfield Mining Engineer 113 1953-54, 83-95 and safety in mines reporting, for example on horse haulage.North of England Safety in Mines Research Committee First report of an investigation into the causes of accidents due to haulage: derailments in horse-haulage operations Transactions - Institution of Mining Engineers 971938-39, 340-359 In the 1900s there was also collaboration with Armstrong/Kings College in areas such as ventilation and mine lighting. The institute also worked with National Coal Board committees such as the Divisional Strata Control Research Committee.North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers Centenary brochure, 1852-1952. 1952
The Common Room of the Great North During the later 20th Century NEIMME's role and importance declined as the coal industry changed and shrank in size. Its finances became precarious and by the beginning of the 21st Century its continued existence was in doubt. A working group of the Institute concluded that a widening of its role was needed and suggested it used its heritage and collections as a basis for a programme of training, conference, debates, etc. about the future engineering, cultural, infrastructure and so on of the North East. A working title for the new body was the Great North Institute.Great North Institute brochure.2017 Heritage Lottery grants enabled the development of the ideas and the creation of a new charity and limited company now named The Common Room of the Great North. and then funded extensive refurbishment of the building. The building now has various spaces for events, family activities, lectures, meetings, weddings and other celebrations.We Explore the North's Industrial Heritage at The Common Room in Newcastle Living North October 2022 Neville Hall and the NEIMME Library collections - books, journals, reports, maps, photographs, archives, etc. - all legally transferred to The Common Room on 1 March 2019. There is a continuing digitisation programme of archives and other resources in the collection and a process to provide online access to digitised material is being developed.
A rejuvenated institute (2020 onwards) For its 170th anniversary the institute developed a new strategy to rejuvenate itself and take it forward to its 180th in 2023. New collaborations with IOM3, the Geological Society, the Institute of Corrosion, IMechE, ICE, IET, IFE, as well as the IMarEst and RINA were forged leading to a series of conferences on 'Northern Energy Transitions Conference' with the Durham Energy Institute and the 'Legacies of Mineral Extraction and Sustainability Opportunities' conferences in 2021, the 2023 'Integrity Engineering for a Sustainable Future' conference joint with the Institute of Corrosion, and the 2024 'Supporting the Future of Northern Semiconductor Industries' with the North East Advanced Materials Electronics cluster.