Burradon Colliery

Overview

A Northumberland colliery north of Newcastle, worked into the 1970s but remembered for one afternoon. On 2 March 1860 seventy-six men and boys were killed by an explosion of firedamp in the southern workings (see Disasters, below). The pit had been connected underground to Seghill Colliery and shared its ventilation until the two were sold to different owners in July 1858 and had to be separated; from then it was pushed hard for output, and its men had been complaining of firedamp for weeks. The colliery closed in November 1975.

History

Burradon was for some years connected underground to Seghill Colliery, the air passing down the Burradon shaft and through to the Seghill mine. In July 1858 the two collieries were sold to different owners and had to be separated — a change in the ventilation arrangements that matters to what followed. From 1858 the colliery was pressed to increase production against heavy demand for coal, and for several weeks before March 1860 the miners had been complaining about a build-up of firedamp. The colliery was the property of Joshua Bower of Hunslet, near Leeds, who had bought it only recently when the explosion came. It was also, by 1860, at the forefront of a campaign to improve mineworkers’ conditions: the radical journalist Baxter Langley, taken underground here before the disaster, wrote of the Burradon men’s representatives that "for integrity, generosity and general intelligence, we have never met with their superiors among any class of working-men". Three of the men he named — William Urwin the secretary, George Maddox and William Alderson — were killed in the explosion. The colliery went on working for more than a century afterwards and closed in November 1975.

Geology

The Northumberland coalfield north of the Tyne. The workings were gaseous enough in the southern district for safety lamps to be required there.

Workings

A shaft colliery with northern and southern districts, the southern being the gassier and worked with safety lamps. The mine was connected underground to Seghill Colliery, with a door between the two, until the collieries were separated in 1858; the door was opened again in 1860 to help recover bodies. Ventilation was by furnace at the bottom of the upcast shaft.

Closure

The colliery closed in November 1975.

What remains

Burradon is now a village on the northern edge of the Tyneside conurbation with no working colliery.

No colliery structure has been identified as surviving.

Related mines

• Seghill Colliery — Connected underground and owned together: Charles Carr was viewer and part-owner of both, and the air passed down the Burradon shaft into the Seghill mine until the two were sold to different owners in 1858 and had to be separated. In 1860, after the Burradon explosion, Seghill’s manager John Fryer opened the door between them so that bodies could be recovered from that side.

Nearby mines

• Dudley Colliery — 1.3 km NW, Tyne and Wear
• Seghill Colliery — 3.3 km NE
• Backworth Colliery — 3.7 km E, Tyne and Wear
• Hazlerigg Colliery — 4.4 km W, Tyne and Wear
• Seaton Delaval Colliery — 4.6 km NE

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

Disasters & major incidents

• Burradon Colliery Explosion
  2 March 1860 · Explosion · 76 fatalities
  Seventy-six men and boys were killed at Burradon Colliery on the afternoon of Friday 2 March 1860. A first, smaller explosion in the southern workings sent the boys running for the shaft; twenty minutes later, as the overman William Kirkley led a party back in, a far larger one blew debris clean out of the shaft. Twenty-five men and boys were found together three hundred yards in, thirteen of them hand in hand, all dead of suffocation. The inquest ran to 18 April and failed to reach a conclusive verdict.

Recorded claims

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

• For some years before the explosion the colliery was connected to Seghill Colliery, the air passing down the Burradon shaft to the Seghill mine. In July 1858 the two collieries were sold to different owners and had to be separated. ¹
• From 1858 the colliery was pressed to increase production because of the large demand for coal, and for several weeks before the disaster the miners had been complaining about the build-up of firedamp. ¹
• Burradon Colliery was the property of Joshua Bower of Hunslet, near Leeds, who had only recently purchased it at the time of the 1860 explosion. ²
• The journalist Baxter Langley, given an underground tour before the disaster, wrote of the colliery’s workmen’s representatives: "for integrity, generosity and general intelligence, we have never met with their superiors among any class of working-men". Three of those he named — William Urwin, George Maddox and William Alderson — were killed in the explosion. ¹
• The colliery closed in November 1975. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Burradon Pit Disaster 1860 — Burradon History
2. (primary) Colliery Disaster 1860 — Burradon — Durham Mining Museum, reproducing T. Fordyce’s Local Records (1867)

Record created: 8 September 2026 · Last researched: 8 September 2026