Houghton Colliery

Overview

The Earl of Durham's colliery at Houghton-le-Spring, sunk through wet ground from 1823, laid in for twelve years from 1838, where explosions killed 7 in 1828 and 26 or 27 in 1850; it grew to employ over 2,000 and worked until 1981.

History

Houghton Colliery was sunk on land at the north end of Houghton-le-Spring for the Earl of Durham between 29 April 1823 and April 1827, through troublesome water-bearing ground. An explosion in the new pit on 1 September 1828 burned three men and four boys to death, and about 1832 a section of cast-iron tubbing burst and flooded the pit, drowning its horses. The colliery was 'laid in' in April 1838 and stood idle until work recommenced in December 1849.

Between five and six in the morning of 11 November 1850 an explosion in the Hutton seam, 116 fathoms down, killed 26 or 27 men and boys, most of them in afterdamp as they tried to reach the shaft (see Disasters, below). The inquest found the explosion was caused by a naked lamp negligently used by the pitman John Watchman, and the Earl of Durham undertook to bear the cost of relief for the families. A new pit was started in 1853 as a furnace upcast. By the 1890s the colliery worked the Main Coal, Maudlin and Hutton seams through two shafts with a Guibal fan, raising 1,600 tons a day with 1,020 hands. It passed to Lambton Collieries in 1896 and later to Lambton and Hetton Collieries; an explosion on 3 June 1885 is also recorded, and the Hutton was abandoned as exhausted in 1900. From 1936 the old Rainton Meadows shaft was reopened for riding men, Meadows coal being raised at Houghton. Employment peaked at 2,101 in 1925; the colliery passed to the National Coal Board in 1947 and closed in September 1981, when commemorative miners' lamps were presented to Houghton's churches.

Geology

The Main Coal (6 feet, at 96 fathoms), Maudlin (4½ feet, 105 fathoms) and Hutton (4 feet, 130 fathoms) seams, beneath water-bearing strata that troubled the sinking; the Five Quarter and Low Main were not worked in the 1890s and the Hutton was exhausted by 1900.

Workings

The Houghton Pit, sunk 1823-27 and tubbed with cast iron, with the Margaret Pit as upcast in 1850 and a furnace upcast begun in 1853; two shafts and a Guibal fan by the 1890s, and from 1936 the Meadows shaft (to 1960) for riding men.

Closure

Closed in September 1981 (26 September per DMM), when 230 people were employed; the Meadows shaft had closed in 1960.

What remains

The colliery site is grassed over and home to wild rabbits; the two shaft tops can still be seen as large concrete circles.

Two concreted shaft tops on the grassed site.

Related mines

• Rainton Meadows Colliery — The Meadows shaft was connected by an underground drift to Houghton Colliery, and from 1936 Meadows coal was wound at Houghton.

Disasters & major incidents

• Houghton Colliery explosion, 1828
  1 September 1828 · Explosion · 7 fatalities
  Seven men and boys died in the New Pit at Houghton-le-Spring on Monday 1 September 1828 — the first disaster at Lord Durham's colliery, which had been sunk only five years before. The accident was put down to a door in the mine having been carelessly left open on the Saturday night, so that foul air gathered over the weekend and fired when the pitmen came back on Monday morning with their lights. The inquest returned accidental death.
• Houghton Colliery explosion, 1850
  11 November 1850 · Explosion · 27 fatalities
  Clouds of coal dust thrown up the shaft at six in the morning of Monday 11 November 1850 were the first sign that Houghton Pit had exploded. Twenty-seven men and boys were killed, most of them by afterdamp. Wives and parents crowded the pit heap in their thousands while the search went on, and the bodies and survivors were not drawn up until three in the afternoon. The inquest at the White Lion Hotel ended in a verdict of negligence over the exposure of a naked light, though the jury could not say by whom.
• Houghton Colliery fall of coal, 1913
  2 June 1913 · Collapse / Roof Fall · 2 fatalities

  Coal and stone came away over thirteen feet of face on two hewers kirving under a pillar at Houghton Colliery on 2 June 1913, killing both.

  On 2 June 1913 two hewers at the Lambton and Hetton Collieries' Houghton pit, John Dixon, 29, and John Napier, 34, were taking out a pillar in a four-foot seam and kirving, undercutting the coal, when coal and the stone above it came away together along thirteen feet of face and fell on them, killing both on the spot. They had undercut beyond a breaker, a natural joint, which set the fall free, and the face was overhanging from the start without enough sprags set under it.

What's uncertain

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

• DMM gives 27 lives lost on 11 November 1850; the Houghton Heritage Society and the 1850 Spectator report it quotes give 26. (disputed) ^1,4,3,5
• The inquest found the explosion caused by a naked lamp negligently used by John Watchman; DMM records the ignition as by safety lamp. (disputed) ^1,7,5
• The Houghton Heritage Society records an explosion on 3 June 1885 that took 12 lives. (uncertain) ³

Recorded claims

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

• Sinking began on 29 April 1823 for the Earl of Durham and the sump below the Hutton seam was finished in April 1827. ^1,2,3
• The colliery was laid in from April 1838 until December 1849. ^1,4,5
• About 1832 a section of cast-iron tubbing burst and flooded the pit; no lives were lost but the horses drowned. ⁵
• An explosion on 1 September 1828 killed three men and four boys. ^1,6,5
• DMM gives 27 lives lost on 11 November 1850; the Houghton Heritage Society and the 1850 Spectator report it quotes give 26. (disputed) ^1,4,3,5
• The inquest found the explosion caused by a naked lamp negligently used by John Watchman; DMM records the ignition as by safety lamp. (disputed) ^1,7,5
• The Houghton Heritage Society records an explosion on 3 June 1885 that took 12 lives. (uncertain) ³
• The colliery closed in September 1981; its site is grassed over with the two shaft tops still visible as concrete circles. ^1,3,5
• Houghton Miners' Lodge presented seven banners at the Durham Miners' Gala, and commemorative miners' lamps were given to Houghton's churches when the colliery closed. ³

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Houghton Colliery (Durham Mining Museum) — Durham Mining Museum
2. (primary) Houghton Colliery Shaft Details (Durham Mining Museum) — Durham Mining Museum
3. (secondary) Houghton Colliery (Houghton Heritage Society) — Houghton Heritage Society
4. (primary) Colliery Disaster 1850: Houghton (Durham Mining Museum) — Durham Mining Museum
5. (secondary) Houghton Colliery Remembered (aka Houghton Pit) 1823 - 2011: Colliery Time Line — Houghton Heritage Society
6. (secondary) Houghton-le-Spring Colliery Explosion – Houghton-le-Spring – 1828 — Northern Mine Research Society
7. (secondary) Houghton Colliery Explosion – Houghton – 1850 — Northern Mine Research Society

Record created: 17 September 2026 · Last researched: 17 September 2026