Hauxley Colliery

History

Hauxley was the newest of the Broomhill Collieries group, whose royalties of about 6,000 acres lay at the extreme north of the Northumberland coalfield, bounded on the north by the Hauxley Fault. The shaft was sunk in 1926, about a mile north of Newburgh, to develop coal under the sea.

Colliery Engineering devoted an article to the group in May 1931, and singled out Hauxley: being a new pit, unencumbered by the dictates of expediency that confront managers taking over older workings, it had been possible to develop it on the best modern lines, with generously proportioned shaft sidings, roads carried on arched steel girders and electric cables suspended from the girders on purpose-made clips. The returns record steam coal from 1930 and household coal as well from 1935, with fireclay and later clay raised alongside; the colliery worked the Albert, Bottom, Duke, Princess, Queen and Radcliffe seams in 1930, and the Bensham seam was discontinued on 3 August 1946.

Broomhill Collieries Limited held the colliery until nationalisation, when it passed to the National Coal Board; output in 1947 was 54,000 tons. Hauxley closed on 26 November 1966. The Durham Mining Museum names 16 men killed there and records no disaster of five or more. The Amble and District Mining Memorial names 18 killed there between 1925 and 1967, most by falls of stone.

Geology

The northern edge of the Northumberland coalfield, bounded by the Hauxley Fault with a supposed upthrow of about 140 feet, the workings driven out under the sea. The Albert, Bottom, Duke, Princess, Queen and Radcliffe seams were worked, with the Bensham given up in 1946.

Geological setting: Faults and Fractures (historical documentary reference), Sedimentary Beds and Seams (well documented example)

Workings

A shaft sunk in 1926 about a mile north of Newburgh to reach undersea coal, laid out from the start on mechanised lines: wide shaft sidings, roadways carried on arched steel girders and electric cables clipped to the girder flanges.

Closure

The National Coal Board closed Hauxley on 26 November 1966, forty years after the shaft was sunk.

What remains

The old workings are still pumped: a pumping station in a compound about 300 metres from the shore discharges through an iron-stained concrete outfall on the beach at Hauxley.

Related mines

• Broomhill Colliery — Broomhill Collieries Ltd sank Hauxley Colliery in 1926; both were part of the same company.
• Newburgh Colliery — Both were Broomhill Collieries pits working the Duke, Princess and Queen seams; Hauxley was sunk in 1926 by the same company.
• Radcliffe Colliery — Radcliffe's workings passed to Broomhill Collieries in 1900; Hauxley was sunk by the same company and worked the same Radcliffe, Duke, Princess and Queen seams.

What's uncertain

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

• Water from the old Hauxley workings, and from the opencast that followed in the 1970s, is pumped to the sea through an iron-stained concrete outfall on the shore, the pumping station standing in a compound about 300 metres inland. (uncertain) ⁴

Recorded claims

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

• The Hauxley shaft was sunk in 1926, about a mile north of Newburgh, to develop coal under the sea at the northern edge of the Northumberland coalfield. ^1,2
• Colliery Engineering reported in May 1931 that, being a new pit unencumbered by older workings, Hauxley had been developed on the best modern lines, with generous shaft sidings, roads carried on arched steel girders and electric cables suspended from the girders on special clips. ²
• The Broomhill royalties covered about 6,000 acres at the extreme north of the coalfield and were bounded on the north by the Hauxley Fault, supposed to have an upthrow of about 140 feet. ²
• The colliery worked the Albert, Bottom, Duke, Princess, Queen and Radcliffe seams in 1930 and gave up the Bensham seam on 3 August 1946; it raised 54,000 tons in 1947. ¹
• Broomhill Collieries Limited held the colliery until nationalisation and the National Coal Board closed it on 26 November 1966; the museum names 16 men killed there. ¹
• The Amble and District Mining Memorial names 18 men killed at Hauxley between 1925 and 1967, most by falls of stone, in workings that included the East Queen and Albert seams, drawing on inquest reports in the Northumberland Gazette and the Morpeth Herald. ³
• Water from the old Hauxley workings, and from the opencast that followed in the 1970s, is pumped to the sea through an iron-stained concrete outfall on the shore, the pumping station standing in a compound about 300 metres inland. (uncertain) ⁴

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Hauxley Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (primary) Broomhill Colliery: a highly mechanised mine (Colliery Engineering, May 1931) — Colliery Engineering, via the Durham Mining Museum
3. (secondary) The Amble and District Mining Memorial: Hauxley Colliery — fusilier.co.uk
4. (observational) Strange Structure of Iron-Stained Concrete (Geograph, David Lally, 2008) — Geograph Britain and Ireland

Record created: 20 September 2026 · Last researched: 24 September 2026