Thomas Carrington
Thomas Carrington (1841-1896)
1896 Obituary [1]
THOMAS CARRINGTON, born on the 5th of October, 1841, was. the eldest son of the late Mr. Thomas Carrington, J.P., of Holywell House, Chesterfield.
After studying for three years. under Dr. Ashby, with a view of obtaining a thorough knowledge of chemical analysis, he was articled in 1859 to Mr. J. T. Woodhouse, who was in practice as a civil and mining engineer in Derby and in Westminster. He remained eight years with Mr. Woodhouse, during which period he was practically engaged in all branches of mining, including the construction of colliery railways and tramways, the sinking of shafts and the erection of machinery.
In 1865 he proceeded to Nova Scotia, where he surveyed and superintended the laying out of a railway.
It was in 1866 that Mr. Carrington began to practise on his own account, in which year he sank to and eventually proved the Barnsley seam of steam coal on the estate of the Duke of Leeds at Kiveton Park, near Sheffield, and during the rest of his life he was associated with opening out and developing extensive and important collieries at Kiveton Park, West Kiveton and elsewhere.
He was also for some years a partner in the Wingerworth Ironworks, near Chesterfield, and was occupied in the development of large copper mines at Bratsberg in Norway.
In 1873 he was appointed by the Home Office one of the three examiners in the district of Yorkshire of candidates for certificates of competency as managers of mines.
Mr. Carrington was one of the most prominent mining engineers in the Midlands, having been engaged for thirty years as umpire, arbitrator or otherwise in disputes between railway and canal companies and colliery owners, and his ability and sound judgment in highly technical cases were widely recognised. He was specially retained by the Midland Railway Company to advise on questions relating to its large mineral traffic.
Mr. Carrington had been in failing health for more than twelve months before his death, which took place at his residence, Sharrow Hurst, Sheffield, on the 27th of June, 1895. In spite of the disputes which seem inseparable from the coal-mining industry, his relations with the workmen at the Kiveton Park Collieries were always of a cordial nature, and he and his wife took great interest in the extensive schools provided by the Company for the miners' children.
Mr. Carrington was elected an Associate on the 3rd of May, 1870, and was transferred to the class of Member on the 15th of January, 1878.