Craghead Colliery

Overview

A north Durham colliery in the Holmside royalty, begun in January 1839 with the sinking of the William Pit to the Hutton seam and worked until April 1969 — a hundred and thirty years, and one of the last pits of its district to go. It grew into a group of six shafts under the Hedley family and then Holmside & Southmoor Collieries Ltd, employing 1,318 people by 1915 across two pairs of pits, and raised gas, household and steam coal with fireclay alongside.

History

The William Pit was sunk from the surface to the Hutton seam from 14 January 1839, and the colliery that grew from it took the name of the village of Craghead, though the royalty and the older name for the concern were Holmside. Whellan's 1894 Directory of County Durham found 'the Holmside or South Moor Collieries' in the parish of Holmside, worked by Messrs Hedley & Co., and described the royalties as only just being opened out and likely to cause the rapid development of the district. It did. By 1894 the colliery was working three pits — the George, the Oswald and the Thomas — for a combined 879 people, and by 1896 for 1,069. The Oswald, sunk in 1878, went down 487 feet through the Holmside royalty. Two more, the Edward and the Busty, followed, so that by 1915 the returns record the colliery as two pairs, Edward and Oswald with 669 and George and Thomas with 649, employing 1,318 between them. The Hedleys gave way to Hedley Bros. & Partners in the 1860s and to Holmside & Southmoor Collieries Ltd by the 1910s, and the colliery passed to the National Coal Board at nationalisation in 1947. Gas, household and steam coal were raised throughout, with fireclay from the George and Thomas pits in the 1890s. The workings moved down through the sequence over the colliery's life — Five Quarter and Main Coal in the upper pits, Hutton, Low Main and Maudlin in the lower, Shield Row and Busty added later, and finally Brockwell, Busty and Harvey in the 1960s. Craghead closed on 11 April 1969.

Geology

The colliery worked the Coal Measures of north-west Durham in the Holmside royalty. The 1878 sinking log for the Oswald Pit records 487 feet of strata. Over its life the colliery took coal from most of the local sequence — Five Quarter, Main Coal, Shield Row, Hutton, Low Main, Maudlin, Busty, Brockwell, Towneley and Harvey — the upper pits on the higher seams and the lower pits on the deeper ones, which is why the returns list different seams against different shafts in the same year. Seatearth fireclay beneath the coals was raised as a product from the George and Thomas pits.

Geological setting: Sedimentary Beds and Seams (well documented example)

Workings

Six named shafts over the colliery's life: the William of 1839, the George, the Thomas, the Oswald sunk in 1878, the Edward and the Busty. They were worked in pairs from at least 1915, the Edward with the Oswald and the George with the Thomas, each pair returned as a unit. The William was standing by 1900 and not worked at all by 1905. The colliery's abandonment plan, catalogued in 1928, covers the Craghead, George and William workings in the parish of Craghead.

Closure

The Oswald's seams were discontinued in May 1934 and the pit's returns fold into the others thereafter. The colliery worked on into the 1960s on the Brockwell, Busty and Harvey and closed on 11 April 1969, a hundred and thirty years after the William Pit was begun.

What remains

No description of what survives on the colliery site has been found. The village of Craghead remains, north-west of Durham.

None identified in the sources consulted.

Redevelopment

None recorded in the sources consulted.

Nearby mines

• Beamish Colliery — 2.9 km N
• West Stanley Colliery — 3.2 km NW
• Sacriston Colliery — 3.7 km SE
• Bearpark Colliery — 8.0 km SE
• Harraton Colliery — 8.6 km E, Tyne and Wear

Straight-line distance, within 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.

• The William Pit was sunk from the surface to the Hutton seam from 14 January 1839. ¹
• The Oswald Pit, sunk in 1878, was logged through 487 feet of strata in the Holmside royalty. ²
• Whellan's 1894 Directory describes the Holmside or South Moor Collieries as worked by Messrs Hedley & Co. and the royalties as only just being opened out. ¹
• Employment across the pits totalled 879 in 1894, 1,069 in 1896 and 1,318 in 1915, when the colliery was returned as two pairs — Edward and Oswald, and George and Thomas. ¹
• The colliery closed on 11 April 1969. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Craghead Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (primary) Account of Strata sunk through in the Oswald Pit, Holmside Royalty, 1878 — North of England Institute of Mining & Mechanical Engineers, via the Durham Mining Museum

Record created: 3 September 2026 · Last researched: 4 September 2026