Ferneybeds Colliery

Overview

A short-lived steam-coal colliery near Widdrington Station, opened by the Widdrington Coal Company in 1910 in the Yard seam; it employed 278 people by 1914 and was abandoned in 1924.

History

Ferneybeds Colliery, also called Ulgham Colliery, lay near Widdrington Station in Northumberland, about thirteen miles south-south-east of Alnwick. A section of the strata at the 'Ulgham or Ferney Beds Colliery', published by the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers in 1897, records a Top Seam 3 feet 6 inches thick at 77 feet 10 inches and a Bottom Seam 3 feet 5 inches thick at 88 feet 3 inches, under 26 feet of blue clay.

The Widdrington Coal Company Ltd opened the colliery in 1910 to work the Yard seam for steam coal, with John Rogers as manager. It employed 133 people in 1910 and 278 by 1914, 237 of them underground; there were 258 in 1921 and 225 in 1923, by when it was also selling household coal. William English managed it from 1915 to the end, with Jackson Storey as under-manager. In May 1915 a fourteen-year-old putter was killed when his tub struck a timber supporting some iron girders and a girder fell on him. The Yard seam was abandoned in 1924. Opencast sites named Ferneybeds later worked the Yard and Top seams, one of them finished in 1947.

Geology

The Yard seam; the 1897 section shows a Top Seam and a Bottom Seam under blue clay, with fireclay and ironstone.

Workings

A shaft; the strata section records about 106 feet above sea level at the surface.

Closure

The Yard seam was abandoned in 1924.

What remains

The site has been redeveloped.

Related mines

• Widdrington Colliery — Both were worked by the Widdrington Coal Company: Widdrington Colliery from the 1880s and Ferneybeds from its opening in 1910.

Recorded claims

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

• Ferneybeds Colliery was opened in 1910 by the Widdrington Coal Company Ltd and abandoned in 1924. ^1,2,3
• In 1914 Ferneybeds employed 278 people, 237 below ground and 41 on the surface. ²
• Ferneybeds worked the Yard seam for steam coal throughout its life. ¹
• The 1897 strata section of the 'Ulgham or Ferney Beds Colliery' records the Top Seam at 77 feet 10 inches and the Bottom Seam at 88 feet 3 inches. ⁴
• William English managed Ferneybeds from 1915 until 1924, with Jackson Storey as under-manager. ⁵
• An opencast site named Ferneybeds I and II worked the Yard and Top seams until 1947. ⁶

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Ferneybeds Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) Ferneybeds Colliery (1910 - 1924) — Co-Curate (Newcastle University)
3. (secondary) Ferneybeds Colliery — North East Heritage Library (Coals Archive)
4. (primary) Ferneybeds Colliery: section of strata of Ulgham or Ferney Beds Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
5. (primary) Ferneybeds Colliery: colliery management — Durham Mining Museum
6. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan 21873973: Ferneybeds I & II (opencast), Yard and Top, 1947 — British Geological Survey

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