Blackhouse Colliery

Overview

The Birtley Iron Company's Wash House Pit at Birtley, opened in 1913, later a pit of Pelaw Main Collieries with up to 290 men in the Main and Maudlin seams; it closed in May 1932.

History

Blackhouse Colliery, also called the Wash House or Wash Houses Pit, lay at Birtley, about five and a half miles south-south-east of Newcastle; Historic Ordnance Survey maps show the position of the Wash House Pit. The shaft, from about 324 feet above sea level, was sunk and bored through the Five Quarter, Main Coal, Maudlin, Low Main and Hutton seams to the Towneley Main or Beaumont, to a depth of 811 feet. The Birtley Iron Company opened the colliery in 1913, but it closed in July 1914 and was standing in 1915.

It reopened in 1920 and passed to Pelaw Main Collieries in the 1920s, working the Main Coal and Maudlin for gas, household, manufacturing and steam coal. Employment rose from 123 in 1921 to 276 in 1924 and 290 in 1925, when the pit was temporarily closed on 19 June; it then employed 195 in 1927, 169 in 1929 and 83 in 1930. George Turner was manager from 1915 to 1925. Joseph Forster, a hauler of 14, was crushed between two tubs in 1923, and Thomas Henry Elgy, a stoneman, was electrocuted in 1927.

The Towneley seam was abandoned on 17 July 1930, the colliery closed in May 1932, and the Main and Maudlin workings were abandoned on 13 June 1933. Their plan takes in a string of old shafts on the ground, the Ash, Bounder, Clover, Dayhole, Engine, Good Luck, Godspeed, Lucky, Prosperous, Stubble, Toft Hill and Well among them. The site has been redeveloped.

Geology

The shaft section passes the Five Quarter, Main Coal (six feet at about 203 feet), Maudlin, Low Main, Hutton and Towneley Main or Beaumont seams; the Main Coal and Maudlin were worked.

Workings

The Wash House Pit shaft, sunk and bored to 811 feet.

Closure

Closed in July 1914 and reopened in 1920; temporarily closed in June 1925; the Towneley seam was abandoned in July 1930, the colliery closed in May 1932 and the Main and Maudlin were abandoned on 13 June 1933.

What remains

The site has been redeveloped.

Related mines

• South Birtley Colliery — The abandonment plans of both name the same old shafts on the ground, among them the Bounder, Clover East and West, Dayhole, Lucky, Prosperous and Stubble.

Recorded claims

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

• The Birtley Iron Company opened Blackhouse Colliery in 1913; it closed in July 1914 and reopened in 1920. ¹
• Blackhouse Colliery employed 290 people in 1925, the year it was temporarily closed in June. ¹
• The Wash House Pit was sunk and bored to 811 feet, to the Towneley Main or Beaumont seam. ²
• Blackhouse Colliery, later owned by Pelaw Main Collieries, closed in May 1932. ^1,3,4
• The Main and Maudlin seams at Blackhouse were abandoned on 13 June 1933. ⁵

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Blackhouse Colliery (Wash Houses Pit) — Durham Mining Museum
2. (primary) Blackhouse Colliery: strata sunk and bored in the Wash House Pit — Durham Mining Museum
3. (secondary) Blackhouse Colliery (Wash Houses Pit) — North East Heritage Library (Coals Archive)
4. (secondary) Wash House Pit (Blackhouse Colliery), Tyne and Wear HER 3916 — Tyne and Wear Sitelines
5. (primary) Blackhouse Colliery: catalogue of plans of abandoned mines — Durham Mining Museum

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