Coxhoe Colliery

Overview

A colliery at Coxhoe, south-east of Durham, where coal was worked in the fourteenth century. Leased from the Bishop of Durham, it passed to Henry Blanshard and William Hedley as the Clarence Railway reached Coxhoe; its Engine Pit was begun in 1836, a new winning reached the Five Quarter in 1843 and its first coal was shipped in 1844.

History

Coal was worked at Coxhoe in 1327 and again in 1428. In the early nineteenth century the Coxhoe and Quarrington collieries were leased from the Bishop of Durham by the Misses Hale of Guisborough, who sent their coal to the quayside at Stockton before there was a railway. The lease of Coxhoe colliery was bought by Henry Blanshard of London, a promoter of the Clarence Railway, who had to wait for the railway to reach Coxhoe before he could export; William Hedley, the Wylam railway pioneer, then acquired the colliery and joined his pits to the Clarence railhead at Coxhoe. In 1827 a pit was sunk below the Five Quarter to the Main Coal and a boring put down towards the Brockwell, and the Borehole Pit was sunk on 11 fathoms past the Harvey seam by January 1830 without finding workable coal.

The Engine Pit was begun on 4 April 1836 and sunk through clay and quicksand to the Main Coal at 260 feet, with a boring below. In the late 1830s the colliery was opened as the Joint Stocks or Coxhoe colliery, owned by the Durham County Coal Company; a new winning was put down to the Five Quarter in 1843, and the colliery shipped its first coal in 1844. James Morrison and Co. held it in the 1860s. Accidents were frequent: four sinkers were killed together on 14 February 1870 when they fell down the shaft (see Disasters, below). The Five Quarter, Main, Harvey and Hutton workings of Coxhoe, South Kelloe and Heugh Hall were abandoned on 1 December 1877, and the last Hutton workings in December 1933.

Geology

Durham coalfield beneath the Magnesian Limestone: the Five Quarter, Main, Harvey and Hutton seams.

Workings

The Engine Pit (begun 1836), the Borehole Pit and the 1843 winning to the Five Quarter; rail links to the Clarence Railway at Coxhoe.

Closure

Its Five Quarter, Main, Harvey and Hutton workings were abandoned on 1 December 1877; Hutton workings were abandoned in December 1933.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Byers Green Colliery — Both were recorded under the Durham County Coal Company.

Disasters & major incidents

• Coxhoe Colliery shaft accident, 1870
  14 February 1870 · Winding / Shaft Accident · 4 fatalities
  On 14 February 1870 four sinkers repairing the furnace shaft at Coxhoe Colliery, County Durham, were thrown to the bottom when a piece of iron knocked down the shaft broke two chains of the cradle they stood on.

Recorded claims

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

• Coal was worked at Coxhoe in 1327 and in 1428. ¹
• The Coxhoe and Quarrington collieries were leased from the Bishop of Durham by the Misses Hale; the Coxhoe lease was bought by Henry Blanshard, and William Hedley later acquired the colliery and connected it to the Clarence railhead. ¹
• A new winning at Coxhoe Colliery was put down to the Five Quarter in 1843, and the colliery shipped its first coal in 1844. ²
• The Engine Pit was begun on 4 April 1836 and reached the Main Coal at about 260 feet. ^2,3
• The Five Quarter, Main, Harvey and Hutton workings of Coxhoe, South Kelloe and Heugh Hall were abandoned on 1 December 1877. ^2,4
• Plans of Coxhoe workings in the Five Quarter and Main are dated 1849, and the Coxhoe and Kelloe South Main, Harvey and Five Quarter workings 1877. ^5,6

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) A brief history of local coal mining (Don Wilcock and Stavros Young) — Bowburn Local History
2. (primary) Coxhoe Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
3. (primary) Coxhoe Colliery: strata bored and sunk through in the Engine Pit — Durham Mining Museum
4. (primary) Coxhoe Colliery: catalogue of plans of abandoned mines — Durham Mining Museum
5. (primary) BGS mine plan: Coxhoe and Kelloe South, Main, abandoned 1877 — BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans
6. (primary) BGS mine plan: Coxhoe, Five Quarter and Main, abandoned 1849 — BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans

Record created: 5 October 2026 · Last researched: 5 October 2026