Etherley Dene Colliery

Overview

Coal workings in Etherley Dene, west of Bishop Auckland, where a drift was driven into the Main Coal in 1850 and pits followed in 1856-57. The last of them, Quarry Drift, was opened in 1925 by R. Atherton and worked by the National Coal Board until September 1955.

History

Etherley Dene, a wooded valley west of Bishop Auckland, was worked for coal from the mid-nineteenth century. On 13 June 1850 a working drift was driven out of the dene into the Main Coal; the Etherley Dene Engine Pit, known locally as Dabble Ducks, was sunk in 1856, and the No. 2 shaft was sunk from the surface to the Main Coal in 1857. Borings were made nearby in 1870 and again in 1901 for Colonel S. A. Sadler. The old Etherley Dene workings, in the Three Quarter, Bandy, Five Quarter and Main seams, were abandoned on 23 April 1927, and part of them was taken into the Woodhouse New workings in the Hutton seam, abandoned in 1930.

Quarry Drift, the twentieth-century colliery, was opened in 1925 and owned in the 1920s by R. Atherton and then by the Quarry Drift Colliery Company; it began with nine men. Its Three Quarter, Five Quarter and Bandy seams were given up in 1944. Under the National Coal Board from 1947 it employed 51 and raised 9,307 tons of gas, household and steam coal, rising to 81 men in 1951-52 from its Hall Drift. The Main seam was discontinued in March 1950, and the colliery closed in September 1955, when the remaining plans of the Etherley Dene workings, from the Low Main to the Maudlin, were deposited.

Geology

Durham coalfield: the Main, Low Main, Maudlin, Hutton, Five Quarter, Three Quarter and Bandy seams.

Workings

A drift of 1850 into the Main Coal; the Engine Pit (Dabble Ducks, 1856) and No. 2 shaft (1857); Quarry Drift and its Hall Drift from 1925.

Closure

Quarry Drift closed in September 1955, and plans of the Etherley Dene Main, Low Main, Maudlin, Hutton, Five Quarter and Three Quarter and Bandy workings are dated that year. The older workings were abandoned on 23 April 1927.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Ramshaw Colliery — Neighbouring small collieries west of Bishop Auckland, closed in the 1950s; both listed together by the NMRS and on the same railways.
• Woodhouse Close Colliery — Collieries of R. Atherton & Co. near Bishop Auckland in the 1920s.

Recorded claims

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

• A working drift was driven out of Etherley Dene into the Main Coal on 13 June 1850; the Etherley Dene (alias Dabble Ducks) Engine Pit was sunk in 1856 and No. 2 shaft to the Main Coal in 1857. ¹
• The Etherley Dene Three Quarter, Bandy, Five Quarter and Main workings were abandoned on 23 April 1927. ^2,3
• Etherley Dene, Bishop Auckland, worked from 1925 to September 1955 as Quarry Drift. ^4,5
• Quarry Drift employed 9 in 1925, 51 in 1947, when it raised 9,307 tons, and 81 in 1951-52. ¹
• Quarry Drift closed in September 1955, and plans of the Etherley Dene Main Coal workings are dated that year. ^1,6
• Etherley Dene is recorded as a mine location on the railways around Bishop Auckland, near Ramshaw and West Auckland collieries. ⁷

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Quarry Drift (Etherley Dene) — Durham Mining Museum
2. (primary) Quarry Drift: catalogue of plans of abandoned mines — Durham Mining Museum
3. (primary) BGS mine plan: Etherley Dene, Main, abandoned 1927 — BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans
4. (secondary) NCB Collieries - England (Northern Mine Research Society) — Northern Mine Research Society
5. (secondary) Bishop Auckland Area — Northern Mine Research Society
6. (primary) BGS mine plan: Etherley Dene, Main Coal, abandoned 1955 — BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans
7. (secondary) Etherley Dene — RAILSCOT

Record created: 5 October 2026 · Last researched: 5 October 2026