Coppycrook Colliery

Also known as	Copy Crooks Colliery
Location	Near Shildon, parish of St Andrew Auckland, County Durham — 54.6309, -1.6754 (approximate)
Commodity	Coal
Type	Coal
Worked	1835-36–after 1940
Maximum depth	About 375 feet (1835-36 sinking, below the Main Coal)
Operators	F. Spoor, Spoor Brothers Colliery Ltd

Overview

A colliery near Shildon in St Andrew Auckland parish, sunk to the Main Coal in 1835-36 and given a new pit in 1895, which the Spoor family worked for household and manufacturing coal with thirty to fifty men into the 1940s.

History

Coppycrook Colliery, also written Copy Crooks or Coppy Crook, lay near Shildon, in the parish of St Andrew Auckland, about eleven miles south-south-west of Durham. It was sunk in 1835 and 1836 from about 470 feet above sea level to the Main Coal or Brockwell, a seam over seven feet thick, at about 359 feet. Viewers' reports on it survive from 1828 to 1847. A man was crushed by the cage there in 1841, and a trapper died of choke damp in 1852.

F. Spoor owned it in the 1880s, his executors in the 1890s and Spoor Brothers Colliery Ltd from the 1910s. A No. 1 Pit was finished in May 1895, sunk from about 380 feet through the Maudlin; its section names it the No. 1 Copy Crooks Pit of West Durham Wallsend Colliery. The colliery raised household and manufacturing coal, and later household and steam coal, from the Five Quarter and Three Quarter seams, with 34 people in 1894, 56 in 1905 and around 30 to 36 thereafter; in 1940 it produced 10,000 tons. Its old workings, Coppy Crook and Coppy Crook Old, appear on a combined abandonment plan with Adelaide and Durham West dated 11 October 1932.

Geology

The Main Coal or Brockwell, over seven feet thick; later the Five Quarter and Three Quarter.

Workings

The first shaft of 1835-36 and the No. 1 Pit of 1895.

Closure

Old workings on a combined plan abandoned 11 October 1932; still producing 10,000 tons in 1940; a closing date is not recorded.

What remains

The site has been redeveloped.

Related mines

Adelaide Colliery — Coppy Crook's old workings share Adelaide's 1932 abandonment plan, and its 1895 No. 1 Pit is recorded as a pit of West Durham Wallsend Colliery.

Nearby mines

Princes Street Drift — 0.7 miles (1.1 km) E
New Shildon Colliery — 0.7 miles (1.2 km) SE
Brusselton Colliery — 0.8 miles (1.3 km) S
Shildon Lodge Colliery — 0.8 miles (1.3 km) E
St. Helen's Colliery — 1.0 miles (1.6 km) NW

Straight-line distance, within 9 miles (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.

Coppycrook Colliery was sunk in 1835-36 to the Main Coal or Brockwell seam, over seven feet thick, at about 359 feet. ^1,2,3
Coppycrook was owned by F. Spoor in the 1880s, his executors in the 1890s and Spoor Brothers Colliery Ltd from the 1910s. ^1,3
The No. 1 Pit at Coppycrook, finished in May 1895, is described as the No. 1 Copy Crooks Pit of West Durham Wallsend Colliery. ⁴
Coppycrook produced 10,000 tons of household and steam coal in 1940 with 36 people. ¹
Coppy Crook's old workings appear on a combined abandonment plan with Adelaide and Durham West dated 11 October 1932. ⁵

Photographs & further reading

Coppycrook Colliery (North East Heritage Library) (reference)

Coals Archive record of the colliery, its other name and its owners.

View source

Sources

(primary) Copy Crooks Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
(primary) Copy Crooks Colliery: account of strata, 1835-36 — Durham Mining Museum
(secondary) Coppycrook Colliery — North East Heritage Library (Coals Archive)
(primary) Copy Crooks Colliery: No. 1 Pit, 1895 — Durham Mining Museum
(primary) Copy Crooks Colliery: catalogue of plans of abandoned mines — Durham Mining Museum

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