Chatton Colliery

Overview

A small north Northumberland colliery near Belford and Chatton, working the Cooper Eye seam of the Scremerston coals from the 1840s; reopened in 1897 by Robert Brown, it was abandoned in January 1903 when a fault cut off the coal.

History

Chatton Colliery lay in the north Northumberland coalfield near Belford, working the Cooper Eye seam of the Scremerston Coal series. It opened in the 1840s under S. Dryden. In 1871 a young hewer, Thomas Green, was killed there by a fall of coal. Through the 1880s it was a landsale colliery, selling coal to the district, under the Chatton Coal and Lime Company and, in the same decade, Joseph Henderson.

By 1893 the Chatton Coal and Lime Company owned it, and it then closed; in 1894 the coal was recorded as exhausted. Robert Brown reopened it in 1897, and in 1902 it raised household coal with seven men, five of them underground. Only a handful of people ever worked there. On 20 January 1903 the Cooper Eye seam was abandoned, the coal cut off by a fault, and the colliery closed. Its spoil heap still stands in farmland.

Geology

The Cooper Eye seam of the Scremerston Coal series, cut off by a fault in the last workings.

Workings

Workings in the Cooper Eye seam; the abandonment plans are filed as Chatton New.

Closure

The coal was recorded as exhausted in 1894; after reopening in 1897 the Cooper Eye seam was abandoned on 20 January 1903, the coal cut off by a fault.

What remains

The spoil heap survives in farmland.

Spoil heap.

Recorded claims

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

• Chatton Colliery opened in the 1840s under S. Dryden, working the Cooper Eye seam of the Scremerston Coal series. ¹
• In the 1880s Chatton Colliery was owned by the Chatton Coal and Lime Company and by Joseph Henderson; R. Brown owned it in the 1900s. ²
• Robert Brown reopened Chatton Colliery in 1897 and worked it until January 1903. ¹
• The Cooper Eye seam at Chatton was abandoned on 20 January 1903, the coal cut off by a fault. ^2,3
• The Chatton Colliery spoil heap survives in farmland. ⁴

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Chatton Colliery — North East Heritage Library (Coals Archive)
2. (primary) Chatton Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
3. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan 21911272: Chatton New, Cooper Eye, abandoned 20 January 1903 — British Geological Survey
4. (observational) Chatton Colliery bing (Richard Webb, 2017) — Geograph

Record created: 22 October 2026 · Last researched: 22 October 2026