Abbots Close Colliery

Overview

A small colliery near Crook, on the site of a clay pit, worked by Thomas Wailes and Wailes Brothers for over thirty years and later by the Steels House companies; its three pits closed in 1928.

History

Abbots Close Colliery lay near Crook, about nine and a half miles west-south-west of Durham, in North Bedburn parish. It was a modest working, never connected to a railway and isolated from the larger collieries around; before coal, the site had been a clay pit. The 1890s maps show two buildings with a drift and an old shaft, and a waste heap to the west. A plan of the Yard and Main workings of Bitchburn, Abbot's Close and Greenhead was abandoned on 21 April 1877, and in 1883, with Henry J. Mein as manager, the colliery employed 126.

Thomas Wailes owned it in the 1880s and managed it from 1888 until 1921; Wailes Brothers held it in the 1890s. The section of strata at Greenhead and Abbot's Close passes the Yard seam at about 30 feet, the Ballarat at 64, the Five Quarter at 82, the Busty at 130 and the Main Coal, nearly seven feet thick, at 176. The Ballarat was worked out in June 1892 and the Yard abandoned in 1915. Employment ran between 20 and 42 from 1894 to 1923, for household and manufacturing coal, in the Main Coal, Harvey, Brockwell, Busty and Yard seams.

In the 1920s the Steels House Coal Company and the Steels House Colliery Company Ltd took it on, with No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 pits. No. 2 was abandoned on 29 January 1927, and No. 1, working the Five Quarter, closed on 2 June 1928; the Main, Yard, Ballarat and Five Quarter seams were abandoned on 17 September 1928, and the last Five Quarter plan is dated 22 September 1932. A wood plantation stands on the site, with no clear remains.

Geology

The Yard (about 30 feet), Ballarat (64 feet, under cannel), Five Quarter (82 feet), Busty (130 feet) and Main Coal (176 feet, nearly seven feet thick) seams, with fireclay and the Harvey, Brockwell and Victoria also worked.

Workings

A drift and an old shaft on the 1890s maps; No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 pits in the 1920s.

Closure

The Ballarat was exhausted in 1892 and the Yard abandoned in 1915; No. 2 was abandoned in January 1927 and No. 1 closed on 2 June 1928, with the seams abandoned in September 1928 and the last Five Quarter plan dated September 1932.

What remains

The site has been reclaimed and planted with woodland; there are no clear remains.

None clear; a wood plantation covers the site.

Related mines

• Woodifield Colliery — Both were worked by the Steels House Colliery Company Ltd.

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each attached to the source(s) that support it below. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

• Before coal was worked there, the Abbots Close site was a clay pit; the colliery was never connected to a railway. ¹
• Abbots Close Colliery employed 126 people in 1883. ²
• Thomas Wailes owned Abbots Close in the 1880s and managed it from 1888 to 1921. ^2,3,1
• The section at Greenhead and Abbot's Close passes the Yard, Ballarat, Five Quarter, Busty and Main Coal seams, the Main at 176 feet. ⁴
• Abbots Close No. 1 pit closed on 2 June 1928, and its seams were abandoned that September. ^2,5,6

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Abbots Close Colliery — North East Heritage Library (Coals Archive)
2. (primary) Abbots Close Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
3. (primary) Abbots Close Colliery: colliery management — Durham Mining Museum
4. (primary) Abbots Close Colliery: section of strata of Greenhead and Abbot's Close collieries — Durham Mining Museum
5. (primary) Abbots Close Colliery: catalogue of plans of abandoned mines — Durham Mining Museum
6. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan 21910212: Abbots Close No. 2, Main, 1928 — British Geological Survey

Record created: 23 October 2026 · Last researched: 23 October 2026