Benwell Colliery

Overview

One of the oldest collieries on the Tyne, at Benwell west of Newcastle: worked in the 17th century, re-won to the Beaumont seam in 1789 from pits begun in 1766 and 1809, and still employing hundreds under W. Cochrane Carr Ltd and the Elswick Coal Company into the late 1930s.

History

Benwell Colliery lay at Benwell, nearly three miles west of Newcastle, where the seams from the High Main down to the Bensham crop out on the north bank of the Tyne. Benwell and Elswick were a coal-mining centre in the 17th and 18th centuries, with pits strewn down the valley to the river. Up to 17,000 chaldrons were shipped from Benwell staith in 1709, and in the 1720s the workings were brought together with water-powered machinery and "coal ways" running to the Meadow Heads staith; a plan of 1720 names the Fortune, Lead and Legar pits among them.

In the 17th century the colliery was won to the Low Main seam. Those workings ran under the haugh west of the manufactory at Paradise, and in a great flood about the middle of that century the river broke in and drowned the colliery; the water was later drawn off and the seam finished. The uppermost seam, the Main Coal, caught fire by accident and burned for some thirty years, the fire spreading north into Fenham, where it broke out in nearly twenty places. The colliery then lay idle until 1789, when it was won again to the Beaumont seam at 60 fathoms.

The Charlotte Pit was begun in April 1766, from about 305 feet above sea level, and reached the Beaumont seam at about 569 feet; the Edward and Beaumont Pits were sunk in 1809, the Edward reaching the Beaumont at 94 fathoms, and the Beaumont Pit was deepened to the Brockwell in 1821. In 1830 John Buddle described to the Natural History Society of Newcastle a whin dyke that lay on the Beaumont seam here and pressed it down to an extreme thinness. A shot manufactory at one of the pits poured molten lead down the shaft. Witnesses from the colliery, among them its under-viewer, gave evidence to the Children's Employment Commission in 1841.

W. Cochrane Carr held the colliery by the 1880s, later as W. Cochrane Carr Ltd, raising household and manufacturing coal with fireclay. It employed about 300 in the 1890s, 683 in 1910 and around 600 in the early 1920s. Four men were killed in a firedamp explosion in March 1907. In the 1930s the Elswick Coal Company Ltd worked it, with 374 people in 1938, raising coal, fireclay and clay.

Geology

The Beaumont, Brockwell, Five Quarter, Three Quarter, Main and Benwell Main seams, with fireclay; a whin dyke resting on the Beaumont.

Workings

The Charlotte Pit (1766), the Edward and Beaumont Pits (1809) and the West Pit, earlier the Fortune, Lead and Legar pits on the 18th-century coal ways.

Closure

Still employing 374 in 1938 under the Elswick Coal Company; a closing date is not recorded.

What remains

The colliery ground at Benwell and Elswick has been redeveloped.

Related mines

• Delaval Benwell Colliery — The 1934 catalogue lists Delaval's Low Main, Beaumont and Brockwell workings on the same plans as Benwell Colliery's.
• Paradise Colliery — Paradise's Beaumont workings are catalogued with Benwell's plans, and the Brockwell beyond them was afterwards worked from Benwell's Charlotte Pit.

Disasters & major incidents

• Benwell Colliery explosion, 1907
  19 March 1907 · Explosion · 4 fatalities
  An explosion of firedamp at W. Cochrane Carr's Benwell Colliery, on the west side of Newcastle, at 5.40 in the evening of 19 March 1907 killed two deputies and two boys.

Recorded claims

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

• Up to 17,000 chaldrons of coal were shipped from Benwell staith in 1709. ^1,2
• Benwell's 17th-century Low Main workings ran under the haugh west of Paradise and were drowned when the river broke in during a great flood. ³
• Benwell's Main Coal caught fire by accident and burned for about thirty years, the fire spreading north into Fenham. ³
• The Charlotte Pit of Benwell Colliery was begun in April 1766 and reached the Beaumont seam at about 569 feet. ^3,4,5
• The Edward and Beaumont Pits were sunk in 1809; the Edward reached the Beaumont seam at 94 fathoms. ^6,7,8
• W. Cochrane Carr Ltd owned Benwell Colliery, and the Elswick Coal Company Ltd from the 1930s. ^3,5,7
• Benwell Colliery employed 683 people in 1910. ³
• Benwell's under-viewer and two others gave evidence to the Children's Employment Commission in 1841. ⁹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Benwell Colliery (Legar Pit) — North East Heritage Library (Coals Archive)
2. (secondary) Benwell Colliery (Fortune Pit) — North East Heritage Library (Coals Archive)
3. (primary) Benwell Colliery (DMM b061) — Durham Mining Museum
4. (primary) Benwell Colliery: Charlotte Pit section — Durham Mining Museum
5. (secondary) Benwell Colliery, Charley/Charlotte Pit (HER 4081) — Tyne and Wear HER (Sitelines)
6. (primary) Benwell Colliery: strata sunk and bored in the Edward Pit, 1809 — Durham Mining Museum
7. (secondary) Benwell Colliery, West Pit (HER 4083) — Tyne and Wear HER (Sitelines)
8. (secondary) Benwell Colliery, Beaumont Pit (HER 4107) — Tyne and Wear HER (Sitelines)
9. (primary) Benwell Colliery: Children's Employment Commission witnesses, 1842 — Durham Mining Museum

Record created: 22 October 2026 · Last researched: 22 October 2026