Framwellgate Moor Colliery

Overview

The Old Pit north of Durham, sunk by the Northern Coal Mining Company from 1838 through 120 feet of quicksand held back by tiers of piles, and the colliery around which Framwellgate Moor and Pity Me grew. Owned by the Marchioness of Londonderry from 1859 and later by the Framwellgate Coal and Coke Company, it employed over 700 at its peak and closed in 1924.

History

Framwellgate Colliery, the Old Pit, stood on the edge of the Carrs at Framwellgate Moor, north of Durham, and both Framwellgate Moor and Pity Me owe their existence to it. A first small pit was opened on the site in 1815. The large colliery was begun by the Northern Coal Mining Company, a joint-stock venture with £500,000 of capital, which started sinking on 5 January 1838 and reached a seam 5 ft 7 in thick at 30 fathoms that November. The shaft had to be carried through 120 feet of alluvium and quicksand on successive tiers of piles, narrowing from 30 feet across at the surface to 14½ feet at the stone head; the colliery was completed in 1841, but the cost had bankrupted the company. J. Bell and Hunter held it in the 1850s, and in 1859 it was bought by the Marchioness of Londonderry, with 44 workmen's houses and one for the agent. Jaques, Stevenson and Co. worked it in the 1870s, and from the 1880s the Framwellgate Coal and Coke Company, a subsidiary of the Acklam ironworks at Middlesbrough, whose partners John Stevenson and Richard Machell Jaques leased coal under the Newton Hall estate from Viscount Boyne from 1885.

The colliery worked the Hutton at about 40 fathoms and the Busty at about 80, with the Harvey and Low Main; in 1894 it raised 900 to 1,000 tons a day, more than half of it made into coke in 239 beehive ovens, and firebricks were made from its shale until 1890. The Caterhouse pit, also called Dryburn Grange, was sunk to the Brass Thill in 1894 and joined to the Old Pit underground and by a wagonway across the Great North Road, where a crossing keeper stopped the traffic with a red flag; all its coal was screened at the Old Pit. A wagonway took the coal over the Wear to the Lambton Railway and, from 1857, to the North Eastern line at Frankland. Employment peaked at 715 in 1896 and had fallen to 181 when the seams were exhausted and the pit closed on 7 November 1924. At least sixty-two men and boys were killed there, the youngest an eleven-year-old who fell down the shaft when the winding rope broke in 1863. The site became a county council repair depot and then housing.

Geology

Durham coalfield: the Hutton, about 2 ft 6 in, and the Busty, about 4 ft, with the Harvey, Low Main and Brass Thill; 120 feet of alluvium and quicksand above.

Workings

The Old Pit, sunk 1838-41 on piles through quicksand; the Caterhouse (Dryburn Grange) pit of 1894 to the Brass Thill; 239 beehive coke ovens; wagonways to the Wear and Frankland.

Closure

Closed on 7 November 1924, when the Busty seam was abandoned and the seams were exhausted.

What remains

The colliery site was a county council repair depot and is now housing; the wagonway between the Old Pit and Caterhouse survives as a footpath.

The route of the wagonway between the two pits, and some of the colliery's terraced housing.

Redevelopment

A county council repair depot, then housing.

Related mines

• Boosbeck Mine — Both were worked by Stevenson, Jaques and Co. of the Acklam ironworks in the 1870s.
• Penshaw Colliery — Both were Londonderry collieries.
• Rainton Meadows Colliery — Both were Londonderry collieries.
• Rainton Plain Pit — Both were Londonderry collieries.
• Ryhope Colliery — Both were Londonderry collieries.
• Seaham Colliery — Both were Londonderry collieries.
• Willington Colliery — Both were leased by the Northern Coal Mining Company, formed in 1838.

What's uncertain

Points where sources disagree or the record could not be settled; both accounts are kept. All open questions in the archive.

• Framwellgate Colliery started in 1848 and was finally demolished in 1925. (disputed) ⁴

Recorded claims

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

• Sinking began on 5 January 1838; a seam 5 ft 7 in thick was reached at 30 fathoms that November, and the colliery was completed in 1841 after piling the shaft through 120 feet of alluvial strata. ^1,2
• The colliery bankrupted its original owners and passed to the Marchioness of Londonderry in 1859; by the 1880s it belonged to the Framwellgate Coal and Coke Company, a subsidiary of the Acklam ironworks. ^2,3
• In 1894 the colliery worked the Hutton at about 40 fathoms and the Busty at about 80, raising 900 to 1,000 tons a day, more than half of it coked in 239 ovens. ¹
• The Caterhouse pit, opened in 1894 to the Brass Thill, was connected to the Old Pit underground and by wagonway, and all its coal was screened at the Old Pit. ^2,3
• Employment fell from 715 in 1896 to 181 in 1924, when the seams were exhausted and the pit closed. ^1,2
• Framwellgate Colliery started in 1848 and was finally demolished in 1925. (disputed) ⁴
• Plans of Framwellgate workings in the Brass Thill, Hutton, Busty and Harvey seams are dated 1857, and of its last Hutton, Low Main and Harvey workings 1925. ^5,6

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Framwellgate Moor Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) Our Rich History — Framwellgate Moor Parish Council
3. (secondary) Framwellgate Colliery — Durham City Tales
4. (secondary) Framwellgate Moor Colliery (DR02031) — The Durham Record (Durham County Council)
5. (primary) BGS mine plan: Framwellgate, Busty, abandoned 1857 — BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans
6. (primary) BGS mine plan: Framwellgate, Hutton, abandoned 1925 — BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans

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