East Pontop Colliery

Overview

A coking colliery north of Annfield Plain in north-west Durham, reopened in 1868, which in 1894 raised 160,000 tons a year from four seams and turned its small coal into coke in eighty ovens; it closed in June 1930.

History

East Pontop Colliery lay north of Annfield Plain, nine miles south-west of Newcastle, among the Pontop and Collierley pits of north-west Durham. Its plans name a long run of older pits on the royalty, among them Bogg, Delight, Loud, Machine and Success. The colliery was reopened in 1868. E. M. Bainbridge and partners held it in the 1880s, and the 1880 list of mines gives East Pontop, Lintz Green, under E. M. Bainbridge; the East Pontop Coal and Coke Company followed, and from the 1890s the East Pontop Coal Co. Ltd.

In 1894 it worked four seams: the Shield Row, 6 feet thick at 10 fathoms; the Brass Thill and Five Quarter at 35 fathoms, separated by a 2-foot band; and the Hutton, 7 ft 6 in thick at 65 fathoms. It raised some 160,000 tons a year with about 250 men and boys, and eighty coke ovens turned the small coal into coke. Employment was 324 in 1894 and reached 422 in 1915, working the Crow Coal, Hutton, Shield Row, Brass Thill and Five Quarter for coking and gas coal.

The Shield Row was abandoned in March 1920, and the Crow and the Big and Little Hutton in September 1924. The workforce fell from 362 in 1921 to 90 in 1930, and the Five Quarter and Brass Thill were abandoned on 28 June 1930, when the colliery closed. The museum's list of those killed holds thirteen names, among them a furnaceman who fell 45 fathoms down the air shaft of the Lower Pit in 1875.

Geology

North-west Durham coalfield: the Shield Row (6 ft) at 10 fathoms, the Brass Thill (5 ft 8 in) and Five Quarter at 35 fathoms with a 2 ft band between, and the Hutton (7 ft 6 in) at 65 fathoms; the Crow Coal and the Big and Little Hutton were also worked.

Workings

Pits on the East Pontop royalty, including the Lower Pit and its air shaft, with eighty coke ovens in 1894.

Closure

The Shield Row was abandoned in 1920 and the Hutton seams in 1924; the Five Quarter and Brass Thill were abandoned on 28 June 1930 and the colliery closed.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Recorded claims

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

• The colliery was reopened in 1868. ¹
• In 1880 East Pontop, Lintz Green, belonged to E. M. Bainbridge. ^2,1
• In 1894 it raised about 160,000 tons a year with about 250 men and boys and had eighty coke ovens. ¹
• The Hutton, 7 ft 6 in thick, was worked at 65 fathoms. ¹
• The Shield Row seam was abandoned in 1920. ^3,4
• East Pontop near Annfield Plain closed in 1930; its last seams were abandoned on 28 June 1930. ^5,3

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) East Pontop Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) List of coal mines UK 1880 — Coalmining History Resource Centre
3. (primary) East Pontop Colliery: catalogue of plans of abandoned mines — Durham Mining Museum
4. (primary) BGS mine plan: Pontop East, Shield Row seam — British Geological Survey
5. (secondary) The North East 1920-1938 (England's North East) — England's North East (David Simpson)

Record created: 6 October 2026 · Last researched: 6 October 2026