Hole-in-the-Wall Colliery

Overview

Crook's last pit: a drift on the north side of the town opened by the Crags family in 1935, employing up to 370 in the war, and closed on 21 November 1964; its lodge banner was carried to the Gala that year without leave.

History

Hole-in-the-Wall Colliery, known by its Sunday name as Crook Drift, lay on the north side of Crook, seven and a half miles west-south-west of Durham, in Helmington Row. William Crags and Sons opened it in 1935; the Record Office's National Coal Board list gives an opening of 1843. It began with 38 men on the Harvey seam in 1936, raising coking, household and manufacturing coal, and by 1940 it had 248, with the Eight Quarter also worked and 35,000 tons raised. Its miners' lodge was formed in 1940, and at its wartime peak it employed 370; in 1943 the men raised 166 tons above their weekly average to mark the Durham Light Infantry's fighting in Africa.

The National Coal Board took it over in 1947, when 190 men raised 45,000 tons. It worked the Five Quarter, Harvey and Hutton, with a Stonechester Drift in the Hutton in 1950, and later the Busty, Tilley and Victoria, employing 313 in 1955. Its seams were given up one by one: the Ballarat or Top Busty in 1957, the Harvey in 1958, the Tilley in 1959 and the Bottom Busty in 1962. In April 1964 the oldest section closed with its coal exhausted, and test borings for a new seam were poor. That summer the lodge decided it could not afford to send its banner to the Durham Gala, but ten men took it there anyway, and the Crook Drift banner was paraded for the last time. In October the 167 men were told the pit would close, and it shut on 21 November 1964; eighty of them were offered jobs at Mainsforth, Fishburn and Staindrop Field House. A replica of the banner, made in 2009, returned to the Gala in 2014.

Geology

Durham coalfield, western side: the Harvey, Eight Quarter, Five Quarter, Hutton, Ballarat or Top Busty, Bottom Busty, Tilley and Victoria seams, worked by drift.

Workings

A drift mine (Crook Drift), with a Stonechester Drift in the Hutton by 1950.

Closure

The oldest section closed in April 1964 when its coal ran out; with test borings poor, the colliery closed on 21 November 1964.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

What's uncertain

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

• Hole-in-the-Wall Colliery opened in 1843. (disputed) ⁴

Recorded claims

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

• The colliery was opened in 1935 by the Crags family. ^1,2,3
• Hole-in-the-Wall Colliery opened in 1843. (disputed) ⁴
• Hole-in-the-Wall Colliery was also known as Crook Drift. ^5,2,3
• At its peak during the Second World War it employed 370 men. ³
• In 1947 the colliery raised 45,000 tons with 190 men. ¹
• The Harvey seam was abandoned in 1958. ⁶
• In 1964 ten men took the Crook Drift Lodge banner to the Durham Gala without the lodge's sanction, its last appearance until a replica was paraded in 2014. ³
• Hole-in-the-Wall, Crook's last pit, closed on 21 November 1964. ^1,2,3

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Hole-in-the-Wall Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) Hole-in-the-Wall Colliery (1935 - 1964) (Co-Curate) — Co-Curate, Newcastle University
3. (secondary) Telling the Hole story (The Northern Echo, Chris Lloyd, 14 July 2014) — The Northern Echo
4. (secondary) Durham Collieries: Hole-in-the-Wall Colliery (Helmington Row) — Durham County Record Office
5. (secondary) Durham Collieries: Hole-in-the-Wall (Crook) Drift (Helmington Row) — Durham County Record Office
6. (primary) BGS mine plan: Hole in the Wall, Harvey seam, 1958 — British Geological Survey

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