Callerton Colliery

Overview

A small landsale colliery at Black Callerton, west of Newcastle, whose Engine Pit was sunk in 1827 and Pawley Letch Pit in 1830; it worked with a handful of men for most of a century and closed in 1948.

History

Callerton Colliery lay at Callerton, six and a half miles west-north-west of Newcastle. Its Engine Pit was sunk and bored in 1827 and 1828 through some 570 feet of strata, meeting the Grove seam, nearly six feet thick, at about 184 feet. The Pawley Letch Pit was begun on 6 May 1830 from a surface 280 feet above sea level: under 114 feet of strong clay it found the Engine or Beaumont seam at about 260 feet, the Hodge at 290 feet, and the Three-Quarter, Main Coal and Splint below. A plan of 1829 names pits on the royalty, among them the Andrew, Ann, Betty, Brass, Charlotte and Dolly.

S. Forster held the colliery in the 1860s and his executors in the 1880s, when it sold landsale coal; W. H. Poole had it in the 1890s. It stayed small, with 15 to 27 men between 1894 and 1915, working the Main Coal and Stone Coal for household coal, and fireclay as well by the 1930s. The Tilley, Stone and Main Coal were abandoned in 1919 and the Tilley again on 28 November 1936. The Callerton Colliery heritage record north of Lough House first appears on the Ordnance Survey's second edition, so that working dates from after 1858; some of its buildings survive on the overgrown site.

In the 1940s Callerton Colliery (Westerhope) Ltd employed 71 in 1945, and the National Coal Board 64 in 1947, raising 15,000 tons of household and manufacturing coal. The colliery closed on 11 September 1948, and the Three Quarter seam was abandoned in December. Four deaths are recorded there, all by falls of stone, among them a hewer of 20 killed in a seam 19 inches thick in 1924.

Geology

Northumberland coalfield: at the Pawley Letch Pit, 114 ft of clay over sandstones and shales; the Engine or Beaumont seam (3 ft 6 in) at about 260 ft, the Hodge (1 ft 8 in) at about 290 ft, the Three-Quarter at about 327 ft, the Main Coal at about 363 ft and the Splint at about 452 ft. The Grove seam (5 ft 10 in) lay at about 184 ft in the Engine Pit. The Main Coal, Stone Coal, Hodge, Tilley and Three Quarter were worked.

Workings

The Engine Pit (1827) and the Pawley Letch Pit (1830); an 1829 plan names others, among them the Andrew, Ann, Betty, Brass, Charlotte and Dolly pits.

Closure

The Tilley, Stone and Main Coal were abandoned in 1919 and the Tilley again in 1936; the colliery closed on 11 September 1948 and the Three Quarter was abandoned in December 1948.

What remains

Some buildings survive on the overgrown site.

Some colliery buildings.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Recorded claims

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

• The Engine Pit was sunk and bored in 1827 and 1828, reaching about 572 feet. ^1,2
• The Pawley Letch Pit was begun on 6 May 1830 and found the Beaumont seam at about 260 feet. ^1,3
• The Callerton Colliery north of Lough House is first shown on the Ordnance Survey second edition and dates from after 1858. ⁴
• Some buildings survive on the overgrown colliery site. ⁴
• The Tilley, Stone and Main Coal seams were abandoned in 1919. ^5,6
• Callerton Colliery closed on 11 September 1948. ^1,7

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Callerton Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (primary) Callerton Colliery: strata in Engine Pit — Durham Mining Museum
3. (primary) Callerton Colliery: strata at the Pawley Letch Pit — Durham Mining Museum
4. (secondary) Callerton Colliery (Tyne and Wear HER 4234) — Tyne and Wear Historic Environment Record (Sitelines)
5. (primary) Callerton Colliery: catalogue of plans of abandoned mines — Durham Mining Museum
6. (primary) BGS mine plan: Callerton / Hopewell, Tilley seam, 1918 — British Geological Survey
7. (secondary) Northumberland Collieries (closure list) — raggyspelk.co.uk

Record created: 6 October 2026 · Last researched: 6 October 2026