Hawthorn Combined Mine

Overview

A modern National Coal Board colliery and coke works near Murton on the Durham coast, started in 1953 and opened in 1960; its coke works replaced the Board's works at Shotton. It closed in 1992.

History

Hawthorn Combined Mine stood near Murton, about seven and a half miles south of Sunderland on the Durham coast, in the concealed coalfield beneath the Magnesian Limestone. Work on the new colliery began in 1953, and it first drew coal in September 1959, formally opening on 2 January 1960 under the National Coal Board. A complementary coke works came on line a little earlier; when it did, the Board closed its coke works at Shotton and transferred most of that workforce to Hawthorn. Hawthorn was not simply a new pit but the surface end of a concentration scheme. Output from the older inland collieries at Elemore, Eppleton and Murton was brought to bank here from January 1960 through one new skip-winding shaft, with a coal-preparation plant built to handle 750 tons an hour. The coking plant beside it, also known as the Murton coking plant, was put up in 1958 to replace older works at Horden and Shotton: fifty Woodall-Duckham underject compound silica ovens which, at a twenty-hour coking time, could take 365,000 tons a year of washed smalls from the adjacent Hawthorn shaft and washery. Eight blending bunkers of 400 tons apiece fed them, crushed coke breeze was added to improve the coke, and there was stocking and reclaiming ground for 150,000 tons of coke besides a landsale in coke nuts. It recorded 250,000 tons of coke in 1961 and 230,000 in 1964, employing 212 and then 237 men. Very little of the plant's output was coke alone. Ammonia was recovered as concentrated liquor and tar sent to the Ness distillation plants at Norwood and Brancepeth for electrode pitch; benzole refining equipment was moved in from closed refineries. Steam was raised at 615 p.s.i. on washery middlings, inferior coal and coke breeze, and the plant generated its own power from a pass-out turbo-alternator. Seven million cubic feet of purified gas a day, some of it released by burning methane drawn from Easington and Horden collieries in the ovens, went into the Northern Gas Board's grid. The coke works closed in 1985. The mine passed to British Coal at the 1986 renaming of the National Coal Board and closed in 1992, and the shaft that had wound for four collieries was capped.

Geology

Worked the coal seams of the concealed East Durham coalfield beneath the Magnesian Limestone, near the Durham coast.

Workings

One new skip-winding shaft taking the output of Hawthorn itself and of the Elemore, Eppleton and Murton workings, with a coal-preparation plant sized for 750 tons of coal an hour and a washery feeding the coke ovens beside it. The coking plant held fifty Woodall-Duckham underject compound silica ovens with provision for lean-gas firing, eight 400-ton blending bunkers, by-product recovery for ammonia, tar and benzole, and its own steam-raising and power generation.

Closure

The mine passed to British Coal at the 1986 renaming of the National Coal Board and closed in 1992.

What remains

Cleared. A visitor in September 2007 found the pit shaft capped, a supergrid transformer station standing beside it, and the surrounding fields crossed by colliery roads that now lead nowhere; a converted railway, the Hawthorn to Ryhope path, runs near the site. In the village of South Hetton the winding wheels of that colliery have been kept as a monument, with a mural on a wall nearby.

The capped shaft and the transformer station beside it. The 2007 report found nothing else of a district that had held five pits and a coke works within about three miles.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Nearby mines

• Murton Colliery — 1.8 km NE
• Elemore Colliery — 3.4 km W
• Easington Colliery — 3.5 km SE
• Eppleton Colliery — 3.6 km NW, Tyne and Wear
• Haswell Colliery — 3.9 km SW

Straight-line distance, within 15 km. Show on the map.

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 Hawthorn shaft is said locally to hold the European record for the most coal wound up a single shaft in one day, at 12,000 tons. (uncertain) ⁴

Recorded claims

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

• Work on the colliery began in 1953, it first drew coal in September 1959, and it formally opened on 2 January 1960 under the National Coal Board. ¹
• Its complementary coke works replaced the Board's works at Shotton, most of whose workforce was transferred to Hawthorn. ¹
• The mine passed to British Coal at the 1986 renaming and closed in 1992. ¹
• The workings are recorded in the mine-plans catalogue of the British Geological Survey. ²
• From January 1960 the coal of the Elemore, Eppleton and Murton collieries was drawn to the surface at Hawthorn through one new skip-winding shaft, with a coal-preparation plant built to deal with 750 tons of coal an hour. ³
• The Hawthorn coking plant, also known as the Murton coking plant, was built in 1958 to replace older works at Horden and Shotton. Fifty Woodall-Duckham underject compound silica ovens gave it a capacity of 365,000 tons a year of washed smalls at a twenty-hour coking time; it made 250,000 tons of coke in 1961 and 230,000 in 1964. ³
• Ammonia was recovered as concentrated liquor and tar sent to the Ness plants at Norwood and Brancepeth for electrode pitch. Seven million cubic feet of purified gas a day, part of it released by firing the ovens with methane from Easington and Horden collieries, was compressed and sold into the Northern Gas Board's grid. ³
• A report of September 2007 describes the shaft capped and a supergrid transformer station standing beside it, the colliery land returned to open field crossed by disused colliery roads, and the winding wheels at neighbouring South Hetton kept as a monument. ⁴
• The Hawthorn shaft is said locally to hold the European record for the most coal wound up a single shaft in one day, at 12,000 tons. (uncertain) ⁴

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Hawthorn Combined Mine (DMM h025) — Durham Mining Museum
2. (primary) Shotton Colliery abandonment plans (BGS mine-plans catalogue) — British Geological Survey
3. (primary) Hawthorn Coking Plant (DMM h650) — Durham Mining Museum
4. (observational) South Hetton Colliery / Hawthorn Combined Mine, 22 September 2007 — 28DaysLater
5. (primary) Hawthorn abandonment plans (BGS mine-plans catalogue) — British Geological Survey

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