Elsdon Colliery

Overview

A small Redesdale colliery on the western edge of Elsdon, opened as a shaft mine in the 1880s with a drift added about 1900, which worked the Elsdon seam with never more than 31 people and carried on as a licensed mine until 1972.

History

Elsdon Colliery lay on the western outskirts of Elsdon in Redesdale, about eighteen miles north-north-west of Hexham. It opened in the 1880s as a shaft mine, with No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 shafts and a level, and a drift mine was opened nearby in about 1900. G. Dowson owned it in the 1880s, John F. Wake in the 1890s and the Elsdon Colliery Company in the 1910s. Its coal was sold at the pit as landsale in the 1880s and as household coal from the 1890s.

The No. 1 Shaft started at about 536 feet above sea level and went through clays, a little freestone and 24 feet of fossiliferous blue plate to the Elsdon and Fourlaws seam, four feet of coal at 52 to 56 feet. The colliery employed 12 people in 1894 and nine or ten from then until 1925, working the Limestone Coal. G. Dent managed it from 1894 to 1910 without a certificate, E. Dent in 1915 and J. Smurthwaite from 1921. The workings of Nos 1, 2 and 3 in the Limestone Series were abandoned on 28 August 1930.

By 1935 the colliery was at work again with nine people, under the agent J. Cummings and the manager A. H. Smith, and from 1940 it worked the Elsdon seam for household and steam coal. It employed 15 in 1950, 24 from 1955 and 31 in 1965. After nationalisation it carried on as a licensed mine, managed in 1970 by H. Snaith, and it closed in 1972; the plan of the licensed mine is dated 7 August 1972. Michael Storey died at the colliery in 1953, and on 4 June 1957 Matthew Hall, a 47-year-old coal filler from the village, was killed by a fall of roof.

Geology

Coal of the Limestone Series: the No. 1 Shaft passed through stony clays, freestone, fossiliferous blue plate and shale to the Elsdon and Fourlaws seam, four feet thick at 52 to 56 feet.

Workings

Three shafts (Nos 1, 2 and 3) and a level, with a drift mine opened nearby about 1900.

Closure

The Limestone Series workings were abandoned on 28 August 1930; the colliery reopened by 1935 and, as a licensed mine after nationalisation, closed in 1972.

What remains

The site has been redeveloped.

Recorded claims

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

• Elsdon Colliery opened in the 1880s as a shaft mine, and a drift mine was opened nearby in about 1900. ^1,2
• The No. 1 Shaft at Elsdon reached the Elsdon and Fourlaws seam, four feet thick, at 52 to 56 feet. ³
• The Elsdon Nos 1, 2 and 3 workings in the Limestone Series were abandoned on 28 August 1930. ^4,5
• Elsdon Colliery employed 31 people in 1965, 25 of them below ground. ¹
• Elsdon carried on as a licensed mine after nationalisation and closed in 1972. ^1,2,6

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Elsdon Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) Elsdon Colliery (No. 1 Shaft) — North East Heritage Library (Coals Archive)
3. (primary) Elsdon Colliery: strata sunk through in the No. 1 Shaft — Durham Mining Museum
4. (primary) Elsdon Colliery: catalogue of plans of abandoned mines — Durham Mining Museum
5. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan 21944346: Elsdon Nos 1, 2, 3, Limestone Series, 28 August 1930 — British Geological Survey
6. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan 21877937: Elsdon (licensed mine), Elsdon seam, 7 August 1972 — British Geological Survey

Record created: 23 October 2026 · Last researched: 23 October 2026