Hareshaw Head Colliery

Overview

A family pit near Bellingham worked by the Armstrongs for about a century, never taken into the National Coal Board; it supplied most of the district's household coal and worked its last shift in September 1952.

History

Hareshaw Head Colliery lay near Bellingham, about sixteen miles north-north-west of Hexham, on either side of the road. Three pits were sunk in the 1840s: the Percy Pit from 26 August 1841, the No. 1 Pit from 30 December 1844 and the Upper Hall Pit from 24 February 1846. One early pit, worked from a vertical shaft, was closed by flooding, in which the pit ponies were drowned; the later workings were two drifts, the last reaching into the hill to join the earlier drift workings. Henry Riddell, 32, was killed by a fall of coal on 8 April 1848.

The Armstrong family held it throughout: Joseph Armstrong in the 1850s, J. and B. Armstrong in the 1880s, J. and E. M. Armstrong in the 1910s and J. Armstrong and Son in the 1940s, with members of the family as manager. It worked the Limestone Coal, later called the Hareshaw Head seam, for household and steam coal. Employment rose from 11 in 1894 to 30 in 1925 and 1940, when output was 6,000 tons; at its peak it gave 5,000 tons a year and work for 30 men, and supplied most of the domestic needs of the Bellingham district. Its two shafts, two heaps and small tramway stood beside a row of miners' houses, five of stone and four of wood and corrugated iron, with a village hall used for meetings and Presbyterian services, and from 1929 to 1931 a school.

As a private pit it never came under national control. Jackie Stevenson of Bellingham, killed by a stone while propping the roof in 1951, was only the second man killed there. The last shift was worked on 17 September 1952, after some 200,000 tons, and the plan of the Hareshaw Head seam is dated 20 September 1952.

Geology

The Limestone Coal, called the Hareshaw or Hareshaw Head seam from the 1920s.

Workings

Three pits sunk in 1841-46 and, later, two drifts; two shafts, two heaps and a small tramway either side of the road.

Closure

The last shift was worked on 17 September 1952; the colliery had never been nationalised, and Bellingham's coal came from Coal Board pits thereafter.

What remains

The site has been reclaimed.

What's uncertain

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

• The Durham Mining Museum gives the colliery's closure as 1951. (disputed) ¹

Recorded claims

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

• Hareshaw Head's Percy Pit was sunk from 26 August 1841, the No. 1 Pit from 30 December 1844 and the Upper Hall Pit from 24 February 1846. ¹
• The Armstrong family owned Hareshaw Head from the 1850s to its closure. ^1,2,3
• Hareshaw Head was one of the few family pits in Northumberland never brought under national control. ³
• The last shift at Hareshaw Head was worked on 17 September 1952, after some 200,000 tons; the seam's plan is dated 20 September 1952. ^3,4
• The Durham Mining Museum gives the colliery's closure as 1951. (disputed) ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Hareshaw Head Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) Hareshaw Head Colliery — North East Heritage Library (Coals Archive)
3. (secondary) Hareshaw Head Coal Mine (Bellingham Heritage Centre wiki) — Bellingham Heritage Centre
4. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan 21878717: Hareshaw Head, Hareshaw or Hareshaw Head seam, 20 September 1952 — British Geological Survey

Record created: 23 October 2026 · Last researched: 23 October 2026