Elvet Colliery

Overview

A small landsale colliery on Elvet Moor, south of Durham city, worked in the 18th century, restarted in 1828 and worked from the South Engine Pit of 1858 in the Hutton seam until 1908.

History

Elvet Colliery worked coal on Elvet Moor, on the southern edge of Durham city, about half a mile south-south-east of the centre. Mining there is old: boring from the surface was going on at Stone Bridge, in the township of Elvet, in 1740, and the enclosure award for Elvet Moor in 1772 refers to mines. The early colliery was sold in 1815 and probably abandoned in 1816, the date of its abandonment plan, and a new Elvet Colliery was started in 1828.

Backhouse, Mounsey and Co. owned it in the 1840s. In 1858 the South Engine Pit, also called the Elvet Landsale Pit, was sunk to the Hutton seam, which it reached at 198 feet 6 inches; the colliery sold its coal locally as landsale. A plan of the Elvet and Houghall workings in the Hutton is dated 1872. T. Crawford owned the colliery in the 1860s, and by the 1880s it belonged to "the Owners of Elvet Colliery", with J. Golightly, then T. Crawford junior and from 1888 R. Pearson as manager. Employment rose from 49 in 1883 to 91 in 1896.

In the 1900s the Elvet Colliery Company Ltd worked the Hutton for household and manufacturing coal, with 83 people in 1900 and 64 in 1905, under the manager Simpson Crombie. The Hutton seam was abandoned on 25 January 1908, and the colliery closed.

Geology

The South Engine Pit passed through grey shales and sandstones to the Hutton seam, 3 feet 7 inches thick at 198 feet 6 inches.

Workings

The South Engine Pit, or Elvet Landsale Pit, sunk in 1858 to the Hutton seam; the colliery sold its coal locally as landsale.

Closure

The Hutton seam was abandoned on 25 January 1908.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Houghall Colliery — Neighbouring Hutton-seam collieries south of Durham whose workings are on one 1872 Elvet and Houghall plan.

Recorded claims

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

• Boring from the surface was going on at Stone Bridge, in the township of Elvet, in 1740. ¹
• Sold in 1815 and probably abandoned in 1816; a new Elvet Colliery started in 1828. ²
• The South Engine Pit was sunk in 1858 to the Hutton seam, reached at 198 feet 6 inches. ³
• Employed 91 people in 1896. ¹
• R. Pearson was manager from 1888 to 1896 and Simpson Crombie in 1900 and 1905. ⁴
• A plan of the Elvet and Houghall workings in the Hutton seam is dated 1872. ⁵
• The Hutton seam was abandoned on 25 January 1908. ^6,7

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Elvet Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) Site of Elvet Moor coal mine, Elvet Moor, Durham City (HER D70621) — Keys to the Past (Durham and Northumberland HER)
3. (primary) An Account of Strata sunk through in the South Engine Pit, Elvet Landsale Colliery, in 1858 (An Account of the strata of Northumberland & Durham as proved by Borings & Sinkings, Vol. C-E, 1881, no. 0803) — North of England Institute of Mining & Mechanical Engineers, via the Durham Mining Museum
4. (primary) Elvet Colliery: Colliery Management (prior to 1970) — Durham Mining Museum
5. (primary) Elvet and Houghall Mine Plans (Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan, Hutton seam, 1872) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
6. (primary) Catalogue of Plans of Abandoned Mines: Elvet Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
7. (primary) Elvet Mine Plans (Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan, Hutton seam, abandoned 1908) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority

Record created: 9 October 2026 · Last researched: 9 October 2026