Frankland Colliery

Overview

A small colliery beside the Wear north-east of Durham, sunk by the Earl of Durham in 1840 as the Frankland Park Pit to the Hutton seam; owned by the Frankland Coal Company from the 1920s, it closed in 1934.

History

Frankland Colliery lay at Frankland, beside the Wear two miles north-east of Durham, in the district of Framwellgate Moor and Brasside, where the monks of Finchale Priory had worked coal by adits in the river banks from 1350. The Earl of Durham sank the Frankland Park Pit near Framwellgate in 1840 to the Hutton seam: the shaft went through some 66 feet of soil, clay and gravel and 48 feet of freestone before boring found the Hutton, 4 ft 6 in thick, at about 168 feet. The colliery's wagonways joined the line from Framwellgate's Old Pit.

The Hutton workings of Frankland and Brasside were abandoned in January 1883. In the 1920s the colliery belonged to the Frankland Coal Company and worked the Low Main, employing 232 men across two pits in 1923, 155 in 1927 and 165 in 1933, with the Hutton again in 1930, for household, steam, manufacturing and coking coal. Around 1920 the miners built a club and community hall on Frankland Lane.

The Low Main and Hutton of Frankland Wood were abandoned on 31 January 1934, and in March 1934 the colliery, by then owned by Frankland Coal Co. (1934) Ltd, was abandoned with seven men left. Three deaths are recorded in the museum's list: a screenman who ran his tub into the shaft and fell 27 fathoms after it in 1857, a shifter who fell from the top of the shaft in 1864, and a switchkeeper crushed by tubs in 1866.

Geology

Durham coalfield: at the Frankland Park Pit, about 66 ft of soil, sand, clay and gravel over freestone; thin coals at 120 ft and 126 ft, and the Hutton, 4 ft 6 in thick, at 167 ft 11 in. The Low Main was the seam worked in the 1920s.

Workings

The Frankland Park Pit (1840) and later Frankland Wood workings; two pits in 1923.

Closure

The Hutton of Frankland and Brasside was abandoned in 1883; Frankland Wood's Low Main and Hutton were abandoned on 31 January 1934 and the colliery in March 1934.

What remains

The miners' club and community hall built on Frankland Lane about 1920 survives as a cottage at the boarding kennels.

The former miners' club on Frankland Lane, now a cottage.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Framwellgate Moor Colliery — The wagonways from Frankland and Brasside joined the line from Framwellgate's Old Pit.

Recorded claims

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

• The Frankland Park Pit was sunk to the Hutton seam in 1840 by the Earl of Durham. ^1,2,3
• From the 1920s the colliery was owned by the Frankland Coal Company. ^1,2
• The Hutton, 4 ft 6 in thick, lay at 167 ft 11 in. ³
• The Hutton of Frankland and Brasside was abandoned in January 1883. ^4,5
• The colliery closed in 1934. ^1,6,2
• Frankland was one of four collieries in the Framwellgate Moor area, with Dryburn, Framwellgate and Brasside. ⁷
• About 1920 the miners built a club and community hall on Frankland Lane, now a cottage at the boarding kennels. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Our Rich History — Framwellgate Moor Parish Council
2. (primary) Frankland Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
3. (primary) Frankland Colliery: strata at Frankland Park Pit — Durham Mining Museum
4. (primary) Frankland Colliery: catalogue of plans of abandoned mines — Durham Mining Museum
5. (primary) BGS mine plan: Frankland and Brasside, Hutton seam — British Geological Survey
6. (secondary) The North East 1920-1938 (England's North East) — England's North East (David Simpson)
7. (secondary) Framwellgate Moor (Keys to the Past D6797) — Keys to the Past (Durham and Northumberland HER)

Record created: 6 October 2026 · Last researched: 6 October 2026