Harraton Colliery

Overview

A colliery on the Wear near Chester-le-Street with a documented history of nearly four centuries: coal was first recorded here in 1594, it was held by Scottish soldiers for the Parliamentarian cause during the Civil War, and large-scale mining began in 1794. Known locally as the Cotia pit, it suffered four explosions between 1794 and 1817 and closed in May 1965, its men going south to the Nottinghamshire coalfield.

History

Coal was first recorded at Harraton in 1594. During the English Civil War, with the Tyne coal trade halted, the Port of Sunderland became important in supplying London, and Harraton Colliery came under the control of Scottish soldiers aligned to the Parliamentarian cause — a position of some significance in that trade. Large-scale mining began in 1794, and the colliery worked the Big, Billy and Row pits together with the Nova Scotia pit that gave the colliery its local nickname, Cotia, from the number of Scots who worked there.

The early nineteenth century was brutal. An explosion on 11 June 1794 killed twenty-eight; another on 29 November 1808 killed at least four; and on 30 June 1817 the Row Pit exploded and killed thirty-eight, ten of them from one family. Two days later eight men who had gone down the Nova Scotia pit to repair the damage were killed by chokedamp (see Disasters, below).

The colliery passed from Messrs Lamb & Co. in the 1820s to Stobart, Bell & Co. in the 1850s and to the Earl of Durham — the Lambton family, whose seat at Lambton Castle stands on the Wear nearby — in the 1860s, then through Lambton Collieries Ltd from 1896 and its successors to the National Coal Board in 1947. A colliery chapel was built in 1873, financed by the Earl of Durham, of brick and seating 150. The Imperial Gazetteer of 1870-72 already recorded that coal had been extensively worked but that the majority of the pits were exhausted; the colliery nonetheless worked on until May 1965, after which many of its men migrated to the newer pits of Nottinghamshire.

Geology

The colliery worked the Coal Measures on the lower Wear, in ground that had been mined since the sixteenth century. The consequence of that antiquity shows in the record: by the 1870s the gazetteers already described most of the pits as exhausted, and what kept the colliery working into the 1960s was going deeper and further rather than finding new ground.

Geological setting: Sedimentary Beds and Seams (well documented example)

Workings

The Big, Billy and Row pits are named in the colliery records, together with the Nova Scotia pit. The Row Pit shaft was 82 fathoms deep. By the 1870s the Imperial Gazetteer reported that the majority of the pits were exhausted, though the colliery worked on for almost another century.

Closure

The pit closed in May 1965, and many of its miners migrated to the modern pits of Nottinghamshire.

What remains

The colliery has been cleared. Its memory is kept in the Cotia banner, remade in 2004 and carried at the Durham Miners' Gala with pictures of Jock Purdon and Jack Elliott on the back.

No colliery structures are recorded as surviving.

Related mines

• Fatfield Colliery — Fatfield formed part of the Harraton estate, and its Juliet Pit was known as Harraton Outside.
• Herrington Colliery — Four successive owners in common — the Earl of Durham, Lambton Collieries Ltd, Lambton & Hetton Collieries Ltd and Lambton, Hetton & Joicey Collieries Ltd — so the two pits sat in the same Lambton estate group from the nineteenth century to nationalisation.

Disasters & major incidents

• Harraton Colliery explosion, 1794
  11 June 1794 · Explosion · 28 fatalities
  An explosion at Harraton Colliery on 11 June 1794 killed 28 men and boys, recorded in the Chester-le-Street parish burial register rather than in any surviving inquest or inspector's account — one of the earliest well-documented mass-fatality colliery explosions in the Durham coalfield.
• Harraton Colliery explosion, 1808
  29 November 1808 · Explosion · 4 fatalities
  A firedamp explosion at Harraton Colliery's Row Pit on 29 November 1808 killed at least four men, including the overman, and left fourteen burnt, some fatally, after a party carrying a lit torch through old workings strayed near a pair of leaking dams; a second explosion during the rescue attempt killed the overman and two companions.
• Harraton Row Pit Explosion, 1817
  30 June 1817 · Explosion · 38 fatalities
  At about eleven in the morning on 30 June 1817 the gas in the Row Pit at Harraton Colliery ignited and thirty-eight men and boys were killed. It was among the most violent explosions of its era: the shaft bottom, 82 fathoms down, was blown into the air along with two of the bodies. Ten of the dead were from a single family — a grandfather, his two sons and seven grandsons.
• Harraton Nova Scotia Pit Chokedamp Deaths, 1817
  2 July 1817 · Gas / Asphyxiation · 8 fatalities
  Two days after the Row Pit explosion killed thirty-eight at Harraton, eight men went down the colliery's Nova Scotia pit to repair shaft damage the blast had done. Chokedamp from the Row Pit had entered the workings. A second party sent to find them was driven back by it, and the eight had to be left to their fate.
• Harraton Colliery fall of stone, 1868
  17 June 1868 · Collapse / Roof Fall · 2 fatalities
  A fall of stone killed a stoneman and a rolleywayman at the Earl of Durham's Harraton Colliery, near Chester-le-Street, on 17 June 1868.

Culture

• Farewell to Cotia (Music)
  The song is about the closure of this colliery — known locally as the Cotia pit — in May 1965 and the migration of its men to the Nottinghamshire coalfield.
• The Big Hewer (Music)
  Jack and Reece Elliott of Birtley, hewers at Harraton Colliery (the Cotia) for most of their working lives, were the programme's main Durham informants; their tale of Bob Towers, the County of Durham Big Hewer, has him starting at this pit.

What's uncertain

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

• Coal was first recorded as produced at Harraton Colliery in 1594. (uncertain) ¹
• During the English Civil War, with the Tyne coal trade halted and the Port of Sunderland supplying London, Harraton Colliery came under the control of Scottish soldiers aligned to the Parliamentarian cause and was of some significance in that trade. (uncertain) ¹
• Large-scale mining at the colliery started in 1794. The Durham Mining Museum records the colliery as working before that year. (uncertain) ^2,1
• The colliery was known locally as the Cotia pit, the name coming from its Nova Scotia pit, which the area became known as because of the number of Scots who worked there. (uncertain) ¹
• The Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales for 1870-72 recorded that coal was extensively worked at Harraton but that the majority of the coal pits were exhausted. (uncertain) ¹
• The pit closed in May 1965, with many of its miners migrating to the modern pits in Nottinghamshire. (uncertain) ^2,1

Recorded claims

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

• Coal was first recorded as produced at Harraton Colliery in 1594. (uncertain) ¹
• During the English Civil War, with the Tyne coal trade halted and the Port of Sunderland supplying London, Harraton Colliery came under the control of Scottish soldiers aligned to the Parliamentarian cause and was of some significance in that trade. (uncertain) ¹
• Large-scale mining at the colliery started in 1794. The Durham Mining Museum records the colliery as working before that year. (uncertain) ^2,1
• The colliery was known locally as the Cotia pit, the name coming from its Nova Scotia pit, which the area became known as because of the number of Scots who worked there. (uncertain) ¹
• The Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales for 1870-72 recorded that coal was extensively worked at Harraton but that the majority of the coal pits were exhausted. (uncertain) ¹
• The pit closed in May 1965, with many of its miners migrating to the modern pits in Nottinghamshire. (uncertain) ^2,1
• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Harraton' (catalogue D941, Five-Quarter 'F2', dated 1963). ³

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Harraton — Wikipedia
2. (primary) Durham Mining Museum: Harraton Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
3. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans: HARRATON — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority

Record created: 3 September 2026 · Last researched: 3 September 2026