Blackhall Colliery

Overview

A Durham coastal colliery whose conveyor once tipped tons of waste straight onto the beach below it, staining the sand black enough to serve as the setting for Get Carter's climactic chase — and whose closure triggered one of the North East's most thorough beach clean-up operations.

History

Blackhall Colliery was sunk from 1909 by Horden Collieries Ltd on the County Durham coast, with coal drawing beginning in 1914 and output eventually exceeding 3,350 tons a day. Its twin shafts, each 22 feet in diameter, reached 193 fathoms (roughly 1,158 feet); the colliery worked the Main, Low Main, Hutton, Five Quarter and, later, Harvey and Yard seams at different periods, producing household, gas, coking, manufacturing and steam coal. Employment grew rapidly from 240 (mostly still sinking) in 1910 to a peak of 2,490 in 1950, before a long, slow decline to 1,353 by 1980. The colliery passed to the National Coal Board at nationalisation in 1947 and closed on 16 April 1981. For decades, waste from the colliery was carried out along an aerial conveyor and tipped directly onto Blackhall's beach, staining the sand black with colliery spoil; it was this coal-strewn beach, rather than the colliery itself, that gave Blackhall its most famous cultural appearance, as the setting for the climactic beach chase in the 1971 film Get Carter. After closure, around £10 million was spent removing the conveyor and its concrete tower and clearing tons of coal waste from the beach, which has since been restored.

Geological setting: Sedimentary Beds and Seams (well documented example)

Workings

Worked from twin shafts, each 22 feet in diameter and 193 fathoms deep, through a sequence of seams that changed over the colliery's working life: Five Quarter and Low Main from 1915; Hutton, Main and Low Main added through the 1920s-30s; Harvey introduced by 1965; narrowing back to Hutton and Low Main alone by the colliery's final years.

Closure

Closed on 16 April 1981.

What remains

The colliery site and its former waste conveyor were cleared after closure; around £10 million was spent removing the conveyor's concrete tower and clearing coal waste from the beach, which has since been restored.

No specific surviving colliery structures were established from the sources checked for this pass; a preserved pit wheel from the colliery is documented in a public photograph.

Abandoned workings can be dangerous — unstable ground, uncapped shafts, flooding and bad air are common even where a site looks safe from the surface. This entry describes history and general location only; it is not an access guide.

Recorded claims

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

• Blackhall Colliery was sunk from 1909 by Horden Collieries Ltd; its twin shafts, each 22 feet in diameter, reached 193 fathoms, and coal drawing commenced in 1914 with output eventually exceeding 3,350 tons a day. ¹
• Wikipedia's account states that the first coal was drawn in 1913, a year earlier than the Durham Mining Museum's own 1914 commencement date. (disputed) ²
• Employment grew from 240 (mostly sinking) in 1910 to a peak of 2,490 in 1950, before declining to 1,353 by 1980. ¹
• Blackhall's coal-blackened beach, fed by the colliery's own waste conveyor, was used for the climactic beach chase in the 1971 film Get Carter. ²
• Around £10 million was spent after closure removing the waste conveyor and its concrete tower and clearing tons of coal waste from the beach, which has since been restored. ²

Images

Sources

1. (secondary) Durham Mining Museum - Blackhall Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) Blackhall Colliery — Wikipedia

Record created: 27 August 2026 · Last researched: 27 August 2026