Bildershaw Colliery

Overview

A small colliery near West Auckland, in St Helen Auckland parish, worked by the Bildershaw Coal Company from about 1930 through a succession of pits and a drift on the Marshall Green, Brockwell and Harvey seams; it closed in October 1956.

History

Bildershaw Colliery lay near West Auckland, twelve and a half miles south-south-west of Durham, in the parish of St Helen Auckland; a Bildershaw Bank colliery appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1899. In the 1930s the Bildershaw Coal Company worked it. Its No. 1 pit, in the Marshall Green, was abandoned on 3 July 1930, and a No. 2 pit was opened in the Brockwell in December 1930; the Brockwell was abandoned in February 1932.

From the mid-1930s it worked the Harvey seam, with 23 men in 1935 and 21 in 1940, raising household and steam coal. Its first Harvey workings were abandoned in December 1944. The National Coal Board took it over in 1947, and in 1955 it had 54 men in the Harvey, raising coking and household coal. The colliery closed on 16 October 1956; Harvey plans of 1955 and Bottom Busty plans dated 1957 are its last.

Geology

Durham coalfield, south-west: the Marshall Green, Brockwell and Harvey, with Bottom Busty workings in the 1950s.

Workings

No. 1 pit (to 1930), No. 2 pit (from December 1930) and a drift.

Closure

The Marshall Green, Brockwell and first Harvey workings were abandoned in 1930, 1932 and 1944; the colliery closed on 16 October 1956.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Recorded claims

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

• Bildershaw No. 1 pit's Marshall Green was abandoned on 3 July 1930, and No. 2 pit was opened in the Brockwell in December 1930. ^1,2
• The Bildershaw Coal Co. worked the colliery in the 1930s. ^1,3
• In 1955 the colliery employed 54 men in the Harvey seam. ^1,4
• Bildershaw closed in 1956. ^1,5
• A Bildershaw Bank colliery is shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1899. ⁶

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Bildershaw Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (primary) Bildershaw Colliery: catalogue of plans of abandoned mines — Durham Mining Museum
3. (secondary) Durham Collieries: Bildershaw No. 2 [Pit] (West Auckland) — Durham County Record Office
4. (primary) BGS mine plan: Bildershaw, Harvey, 1955 — British Geological Survey
5. (secondary) Durham Collieries: Bildershaw Drift (West Auckland) — Durham County Record Office
6. (secondary) Durham Collieries: Bildershaw Bank Colliery (West Auckland) — Durham County Record Office

Record created: 6 October 2026 · Last researched: 6 October 2026