In the same year, with a view to easier transporting of local coal, Dixon and other colliery operators, excavated a stretch of canal on Cockfield Fell, hoping eventually to join the River Tees at Barnard Castle or to reach the sea, and dispense with the time-consuming practice of hauling coal over 40 miles to the nearest port - he leased a colliery on Cockfield Fell, from Sir Henry Vane, 2nd Earl of Darlington of Raby Castle, where coal and iron had been worked since medieval times.