Crookhall Colliery

Overview

The colliery of Crook Hall, near Consett, where the Stockerley House Pit was sunk to the Busty seam in 1839 and the village of Red Row and Blue Row grew up. Under the Consett Iron Company its Humber Hill Drift and Woodside workings fed the coke ovens until the colliery closed on 9 November 1963.

History

Boring for coal was in progress near Crook Hall in 1838, and in July 1839 the Stockerley House Pit was sunk from the surface to the Busty seam, about 72 feet down. George Baker, the MP who owned Crook Hall, began to work the coal of his estate, and the village of Crookhall grew from about 1844, with one-up, one-down cottages for the miners in Red Row and Blue Row; ironworks followed in 1845. A new winning, the Carr House Pit, was sunk to the Busty, about 154 feet down, in 1870. In the 1880s the colliery belonged to the executors of Ralph Hedley, and around 1900 its Humber Hill working employed only two to four men raising household coal.

The Consett Iron Company owned it by the 1910s and turned it to coking coal. In the company's returns Crookhall's Humber Hill Drift employed 398 people in 1925 and 406 in 1930, and its Woodside workings about 200 from 1930; with the neighbouring Victory Pit, reported in the same group, the total passed 1,300 in 1925. The Brockwell, Busty and Towneley seams were worked, with fireclay. Under the National Coal Board the colliery raised 234,000 tons of coking coal in 1947 with 814 people and employed 1,010 in 1950, falling to 580 by 1961. It closed on 9 November 1963, and its Towneley workings were abandoned in April 1964.

Geology

Durham coalfield: the Busty, Brockwell, Towneley, Tilley and Hodge seams, with fireclay; coking coal from the 1920s.

Workings

Stockerley House Pit (1839, to the Busty), Carr House Pit (1870), the Humber Hill Drift and Woodside winnings; returns of the 1920s-50s include the Victory Pit (see Delves Colliery).

Closure

Closed on 9 November 1963; the Towneley and No. 1 Ironstone plans are dated 6 April 1964.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Delves Colliery — Neighbouring Consett Iron Company collieries; the Victory Pit (Delves) was reported in the Crookhall group.

Recorded claims

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

• The Stockerley House Pit of Crook Hall Colliery was sunk to the Busty seam in July 1839, and the Carr House Pit in 1870. ^1,2
• Crookhall village grew from about 1844 when George Baker MP began to exploit the coal of his Crook Hall estate, with Red Row and Blue Row cottages for the miners. ³
• Humber Hill Drift employed 398 people in 1925 and 406 in 1930; the colliery employed 814 in 1947 and 1,010 in 1950. ¹
• In 1947 Crookhall raised 234,000 tons of coking coal. ¹
• Crookhall Colliery closed on 9 November 1963. ¹
• Humber Hill, Consett, is listed from 1885 to November 1963. ⁴
• Crookhall's Towneley workings were abandoned on 6 April 1964. ⁵

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Crookhall Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (primary) Crookhall Colliery shaft details — Durham Mining Museum
3. (secondary) Crookhall — Wikipedia
4. (secondary) NCB Collieries - England (Northern Mine Research Society) — Northern Mine Research Society
5. (primary) BGS mine plan: Crookhall, Towneley and No 1 Ironstone, abandoned 6 April 1964 — BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans

Record created: 4 October 2026 · Last researched: 4 October 2026