Buckhill Colliery

Overview

The Allerdale Coal Company's pit on Broughton Moor, north-east of Workington, sunk in 1873 and worked until November 1932. It sent coking coal down a 1-in-70 railway to the company's ovens at Clifton, employed over 700 in the mid-1920s, and its site was swallowed by the Broughton Moor naval armaments depot in 1939, which kept the colliery railway alive until 1992.

History

Coal had been dug in Broughton township since 1437, and the 1860s brought the pits out onto Broughton Moor; Buckhill opened there in 1873 and belonged throughout to the Allerdale Coal Company, whose registered office and coke ovens were at Great Clifton on the other side of the Derwent. The Cleator and Workington Junction Railway's Northern Extension reached the pit on 24 March 1887, climbing almost the whole way from Calva Junction at 1 in 70 so that loaded coal and coke trains ran downhill to Workington, and an unadvertised workmen's halt at the colliery appears in the 1904 Railway Clearing House handbook. The Lists of Mines record coking, gas, household and steam coal with fireclay, and ironstone in 1910. Employment rose from about 300 in 1894 to 638 in 1921 and 740 in 1924, when the company installed a ropeway with a loading station at the pit that was written up in Colliery Engineering that November. The Durham Mining Museum's index of local newspaper headlines shows a rougher story underneath: a serious inrush of water from old workings in March 1889, the pit closed and the horses brought to bank in a strike of June 1895, another strike in 1903, a threatened closure in 1908, a fresh crisis at the Allerdale pits over dirt in the coal in December 1927 and six hundred men out of work in January 1928. The 1929 list shows 243 employed. The Main Band had been abandoned in 1908; the Three Quarters and Yard seams were given up in August and October 1930, and the Little Main and Lickbank on 27 November 1932, when the colliery closed. The railway north of Buckhill had already gone in 1921, but the line to the pit survived because the Admiralty chose the colliery site and the moor around it for a rail-served armaments depot, opened in 1939.

Geology

The Cumberland coalfield's Coal Measures on Broughton Moor. Seams named in the abandonment record are the Main Band, Little Main, Lickbank, Three Quarters (or Upper Three Quarters) and Yard; the Lists of Mines also record fireclay, and ironstone in 1910.

Geological setting: Sedimentary Beds and Seams (historical documentary reference)

Workings

Shaft colliery. The Lists of Mines give 306 employed in 1894, 401 in 1902, 449 in 1915, 638 in 1921, 740 in 1924, 701 in 1927 and 243 in 1929. The Main Band was abandoned in 1908, the Three Quarters seam on 16 August 1930, the Yard on 28 October 1930 and the Little Main and Lickbank on 27 November 1932. A ropeway with a loading station at the pit was installed in 1924. Shaft depths are not given in the sources read.

Closure

Closed on 27 November 1932 with the abandonment of the Little Main and Lickbank seams, after two years of seam-by-seam retreat and the 1927-28 dispute that put six hundred men out of work.

What remains

Under the former Royal Naval Armaments Depot Broughton Moor, which opened on the colliery site in 1939, passed to the Ministry of Defence, West Germany and the United States Navy in turn and closed on 31 December 1992. The colliery spoil heap remains a prominent feature of the depot site, which Allerdale Borough Council bought for £1 in 2008; a 2018 housing masterplan was refused in 2022.

The spoil heap survives within the fenced depot. A visitor to the depot in May 2026 photographed a small concrete shelter beside the process buildings containing a bolted concrete slab he took for a capped Buckhill shaft; other forum members thought it a machine or pump base and said the capped shaft is not inside a building. Nothing of the pit's own buildings is reported.

Related mines

• Gillhead Colliery — Neighbouring west Cumberland pits either side of the Derwent-Maryport coast; Gillhead is four miles west.

Nearby mines

• Flimby Colliery — 2.6 km NW
• Gillhead Colliery — 2.6 km W
• Risehow Colliery — 4.2 km NW
• Workington Colliery — 7.4 km SW
• Moresby Colliery — 12.6 km SW

Straight-line distance, within 15 km. Show on the map.

Recorded claims

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

• Opened in 1873 and closed in 1932; the museum dates the closure to the abandonment of the last seams on 27 November 1932. ^1,2,3
• Owned by the Allerdale Coal Co. Ltd of Great Clifton, which had coke ovens and a by-products works at Clifton. ^1,4
• 306 employed in 1894, 638 in 1921, 740 in 1924 and 243 in 1929. ¹
• Connected to the Cleator and Workington Junction Railway's Northern Extension from 24 March 1887, with an unadvertised workmen's halt listed in 1904; the extension north of the pit closed in 1921. ^5,6
• A ropeway with a loading station at the pit was installed by the company in 1924 and described in Colliery Engineering that November. ^1,4
• The Broughton Moor armaments depot opened on the colliery site in 1939 according to the depot article, or 1938 according to the halt article; it closed on 31 December 1992 and the spoil heap remains. (disputed) ^5,3
• Newspaper headlines indexed by the museum record the pit closed by a strike in June 1895, a threatened closure in 1908 and six hundred men out of work in January 1928. ⁷

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Buckhill Colliery — Durham Mining Museum — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) Broughton township — Cumbria County History Trust — Cumbria County History Trust
3. (secondary) RNAD Broughton Moor — Wikipedia — Wikipedia
4. (primary) Allerdale Coal Co., Ltd. — Durham Mining Museum company page — Durham Mining Museum
5. (secondary) Buckhill Colliery Halt railway station — Wikipedia — Wikipedia
6. (secondary) Great Broughton railway station — Wikipedia — Wikipedia
7. (primary) Newspaper articles about Buckhill Colliery — Durham Mining Museum index — Durham Mining Museum
8. (observational) Former Buckhill colliery mineshaft? — 28DaysLater, May 2026 — 28DaysLater

Record created: 12 September 2026 · Last researched: 12 September 2026