Houseslip Mine

Overview

Houseslip Mine, one of three ganister mines at Tow Law worked together by Pickford, Holland & Co. in the 1920s alongside Bounder House and Viewley Hill, closed and was abandoned in April 1924.

History

The Durham Mining Museum's own colliery index records Houseslip as owned in the 1920s by Pickford, Holland & Co., closed in 1923. Its companion record of abandoned mine plans gives a more precise picture: the mine (recorded there as 'Houseslit', a transcription variant) was abandoned on 7 April 1924 in the parish of Wolsingham, working ganister -- a fine-grained siliceous rock used to line refractory furnaces -- under Plan No. 7,850, received by the authorities on 9 August 1924. The Durham Record Office's own catalogue of abandoned-mine plans, held separately from the Durham Mining Museum's own transcription of the same official 1928 published catalogue, independently confirms the mine (there spelled 'Houslip') and dates the underlying plan itself to 1924, drawn by G. J. Seymour. It names Houseslip alongside two neighbouring workings, Bounder House and Viewley Hill, as a single group of ganister mines belonging to Pickford, Holland & Co. of Tow Law, and records the physical plan as tracing linen on cloth, at a scale of two chains to the inch.

Geology

Worked ganister, a fine-grained siliceous rock found in the coal measures, used to make refractory brick for furnace linings.

Workings

One of three ganister mines -- with Bounder House and Viewley Hill -- worked together by Pickford, Holland & Co. of Tow Law.

Closure

Abandoned 7 April 1924, per the plan received by the authorities that August.

What remains

Unknown.

Unknown.

Recorded claims

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

• Houseslip was owned in the 1920s by Pickford, Holland & Co. and closed in 1923. ¹
• Houseslip (recorded there as 'Houslip') was abandoned in 1924, one of a group of three ganister mines -- with Bounder House and Viewley Hill -- belonging to Pickford, Holland & Co. of Tow Law, per a 1924 plan by G. J. Seymour held by the Durham Record Office. ²
• The mine's own abandoned-mines record gives the precise date as 7 April 1924, in the parish of Wolsingham, under Plan No. 7,850. ¹

Sources

1. (primary) Durham Mining Museum - Houseslip (Ganister) — Durham Mining Museum
2. (primary) Durham Record Office - Catalogue of Plans of Abandoned Mines (Ganister Mines: Bounder House, Houslip and Viewley Hill) — Durham Record Office

Record created: 11 September 2026 · Last researched: 16 September 2026