Edgewell Colliery

Overview

A small colliery near Prudhoe beside the Edgewell brickworks, on the site of an older shaft, reopened in the late 1880s; it raised landsale coal and fireclay until the coal was exhausted in November 1904.

History

Edgewell Colliery lay near Prudhoe, in Ovingham parish, beside the Edgewell brickworks, to which a tramway linked it. The Ordnance Survey map surveyed in the 1850s shows an old shaft on the site, so coal had probably been worked there before 1850. John Johnson owned the colliery in the 1880s, raising landsale coal and fireclay, and in 1889 an advertisement in the Chronicle from James Telford sought a hewer for the pit, 'preferably single'.

Johnson and Murton held it in the 1890s, with C. J. Murton as manager, and William Wilkinson in the 1900s. It employed nine to eleven men in the mid-1890s and 22 or 23 in 1900 and 1902, raising household coal. The coal was exhausted and the workings abandoned in November 1904. The site later became an infectious diseases hospital, which had been demolished by the 1940s.

Geology

Coal and fireclay; the seam's name is not recorded.

Workings

A shaft beside the Edgewell brickworks, linked to it by a tramway.

Closure

Abandoned in November 1904, the coal exhausted.

What remains

The site later held an infectious diseases hospital, demolished by the 1940s.

Recorded claims

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

• The Ordnance Survey map surveyed in the 1850s shows an old shaft on the Edgewell Colliery site, beside the Edgewell brickworks. ¹
• Edgewell Colliery was owned by John Johnson in the 1880s, Johnson and Murton in the 1890s and William Wilkinson in the 1900s. ²
• In 1889 an advertisement in the Chronicle sought a hewer for Edgewell, 'preferably single'. ¹
• Edgewell's coal and fireclay workings were abandoned on 1 November 1904, the coal exhausted. ^2,3
• Edgewell employed 22 people in 1900 and 23 in 1902. ²

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Edgewell Colliery — North East Heritage Library (Coals Archive)
2. (primary) Edgewell Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
3. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan 21913703: Edgewell, coal and fireclay, abandoned 1 November 1904 — British Geological Survey

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