Birkby Colliery

Overview

A colliery and drift at Birkby, near Maryport, worked by the Birkby Coal Company from the 1910s and with the Allbright Drift from 1928; it employed about 250 under the National Coal Board before it was abandoned in March 1950.

History

Birkby Colliery lay at Birkby, near Dearham and Maryport. The Birkby Coal Company worked it from the 1910s, becoming a limited company in the 1920s; in 1921 it employed 96 in the Low Main, raising coking, gas and household coal and fireclay, and by 1925 119 in the Upper Three Quarters, under the manager A. B. Cunningham.

The Allbright Drift was opened in 1928, and from 1930 the two were returned together as Birkby and Allbright Drift, with Walter Knox as manager. On 5 February 1938 two men were electrocuted at the colliery. By 1940 it employed 240, 200 of them underground, and raised 75,000 tons of coking, gas, household and steam coal from the Allbright and Upper Three Quarters seams.

The National Coal Board took it over in 1947, with 240 men under the manager William Jack. Employment peaked at 251 in 1948 but had fallen to 134 when the colliery was abandoned in March 1950, its Upper Three Quarters, Allbright, Lower Three Quarters and Lickbank seams all given up.

Geology

The Low Main, Upper and Lower Three Quarters, Allbright and Lickbank seams of the West Cumberland coalfield, with fireclay.

Workings

The Birkby pit and, from 1928, the Allbright Drift, returned together from 1930.

Closure

Abandoned in March 1950 with the Upper Three Quarters, Allbright, Lower Three Quarters and Lickbank seams.

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.

• Employed 96 people in the Low Main in 1921. ¹
• The Allbright Drift was opened in 1928. ²
• Employed 240 and raised 75,000 tons in 1940. ¹
• Two men were electrocuted on 5 February 1938. ¹
• Walter Knox was manager from 1929 to 1936 and William Jack from 1945 to 1950. ³
• Abandoned in March 1950. ^2,4
• The Birkby, Allbright, Florence and Orchard Upper Three Quarters workings were abandoned on 16 September 1938. ⁵

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Birkby Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) NCB Collieries - England (Northern Mine Research Society) — Northern Mine Research Society
3. (primary) Birkby Colliery: Colliery Management (prior to 1970) — Durham Mining Museum
4. (primary) Catalogue of Plans of Abandoned Mines: Birkby Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
5. (primary) Birkby, Allbright, Florence and Orchard Mine Plans (Mining Remediation Authority plan 12442, Upper Three Quarters, abandoned 16 September 1938) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority

Record created: 9 October 2026 · Last researched: 9 October 2026