Farnacres Colliery

Overview

A colliery at Farnacres in the Team valley, Whickham, whose Wheels Pit was sunk to the Hutton seam in 1840. That October water from old, unrecorded workings burst into the new shaft and drowned the five men below. Worked later by Edward Hogg and by Atherton and Snowdon, it was idle by 1896.

History

Farnacres lay in the Team valley, in the Whickham parish, two miles south-west of Newcastle. Its coal had been worked long before: at the inquest of 1840 the overseer said he had heard the colliery was worked 80 or 90 years earlier. A boring near Lobley Hill in 1837 found the Hutton seam worked out, and in 1840 the Wheels Pit, or Beams Wheels Pit, was sunk from the surface to the Hutton.

The colliery had not been working long when, shortly after midnight on 23 October 1840, water burst into the Wheels Pit, then 21 fathoms deep, and filled the shaft, drowning the five men at work below (see Disasters, below). A 50-horsepower engine could not lower it, and more pumping power had to be brought in. Afterwards four old shafts, unknown to anyone living, came to light, scaffolded over and covered with earth. The underviewer, Mr Forster, concluded that the second seam, 14 fathoms down, had been worked long before without record, and that the shaft had passed through one of its pillars, through which the old water burst; the case was held to show the need for registering plans of workings. In 1842 a staple was sunk to the Hutton behind the pit, and from 4 April sinking resumed below the Hutton towards the Brockwell. A wagonway from Eighton Moor (Team) Colliery to the river Team ran past Farnacres Colliery in 1843, and two men were killed by an explosion in April 1857.

In the 1880s Edward Hogg worked the colliery for landsale coal, and in the 1890s Atherton and Snowdon raised household coal and fireclay with eight men; it was not working in 1896. Later Farnacres workings appear on plans with Dunston and Norwood, the Tilley seam abandoned in November 1933 and the Three Quarter in October 1935.

Geology

Durham coalfield: the Hutton seam, with older shallow workings in the seam above it, and the Brockwell below; later the Tilley and Three Quarter.

Workings

The Wheels (Beams Wheels) Pit, sunk to the Hutton in 1840 and below it from 1842, with a staple behind it to the Hutton; four older shafts found in 1840.

Closure

Not working in 1896. Farnacres workings in the Tilley and Three Quarter seams, planned with Dunston and Norwood, were abandoned in 1933 and 1935.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Dunston Colliery — Farnacres's later Brockwell, Tilley and Three Quarter workings are on the abandonment plans of Dunston (Dunston Garesfield) Colliery.

Disasters & major incidents

• Farnacres Colliery inundation, 1840
  23 October 1840 · Flooding / Inundation · 5 fatalities
  Shortly after midnight on 23 October 1840 water from forgotten old workings burst into the newly sunk Wheels Pit at Farnacres Colliery, in the Team valley near Gateshead, and filled the shaft, drowning all five men below.

Recorded claims

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

• The Wheels Pit was sunk from the surface to the Hutton seam in 1840, and sinking towards the Brockwell began from the Hutton on 4 April 1842. ^1,2
• Shortly after midnight on 23 October 1840 water rushed into the Wheels Pit, then 21 fathoms deep, and filled the shaft, drowning the five men in the workings. ^3,1
• Four forgotten shafts came to light after the inrush; the underviewer concluded that the second seam, 14 fathoms down, had been worked long before and that the water burst through a pillar of it into the shaft. ³
• Edward Hogg worked the colliery in the 1880s and Atherton and Snowdon in the 1890s; it employed eight in 1894 and was not working in 1896. ¹
• In 1843 a wagonway from Eighton Moor Colliery ran north-west past Farnacres Colliery to the river Team. ⁴
• Farnacres workings planned with Dunston and Norwood were abandoned in the Tilley seam on 10 November 1933 and the Three Quarter on 23 October 1935. ^1,5

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Farnacres Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (primary) Farnacres Colliery: account of strata sunk through in the Wheels Pit — Durham Mining Museum
3. (secondary) Mining disasters in Great Britain, 1840–1849 — Coal Mining History Resource Centre
4. (secondary) Team Colliery (Eighton Moor or Ravensworth Ann Colliery) (HER 356) — Tyne and Wear HER (Sitelines)
5. (primary) Farnacres Colliery: catalogue of plans of abandoned mines — Durham Mining Museum

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