Kepier Grange Colliery

Overview

A colliery two miles east of Durham city, sunk in 1844 for the Earl of Durham's North Hetton partnership, which outlasted the other Kepier pits and closed in October 1924 after eighty years.

History

Kepier Grange Colliery lay two miles east-north-east of Durham, just north of Carrville, one of a group of collieries with Kepier and Grange round Kepier Woods, on either side of the Newcastle and Darlington Junction railway. The Kepier Grange Pit was sunk to the Brockwell in 1844, from a surface about 250 feet above sea level, finding the Low Main at about 170 feet; it was later bored on to some 665 feet. The North Pit was begun in January 1845 and went down to the Hutton, four feet thick, at about 299 feet.

The Earl of Durham and the North Hetton Coal Company, his partnership with Wood, Philipson, Burrell and others, held the colliery in the 1850s. Its first Hutton and Low Main workings were abandoned before 1872. On 13 May 1864 a boiler exploded at the colliery, killing a fireman and two boys of eight and ten who were not employed there. From the 1860s the Kepier Grange Coal Company worked it. In the twentieth century it was a small household-coal pit of 91 to 100 men working the Hutton and Low Main, and latterly the Low Main alone for steam coal. The Low Main and Hutton were abandoned on 22 October 1924, and Kepier Grange, the last of the Kepier pits, closed after eighty years.

Geology

Durham coalfield: at the Kepier Grange Pit the Low Main (3 ft 3 in) at about 170 ft and a supposed Harvey at about 390 ft; at the North Pit the Low Main at about 211 ft, the Brass Thill at about 252 ft and the Hutton (4 ft 3 in) at about 299 ft.

Workings

The Kepier Grange Pit (1844), the North Pit (1845), a New Pit and an air shaft.

Closure

The first Hutton and Low Main workings were abandoned before 1872; the colliery closed when the Low Main and Hutton were abandoned on 22 October 1924.

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.

• Kepier Grange Colliery was opened in 1845. (disputed) ²

Recorded claims

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

• The Kepier Grange Pit was sunk to the Brockwell in 1844. ¹
• Kepier Grange Colliery was opened in 1845. (disputed) ²
• The North Pit was begun in January 1845 and sunk to the Hutton seam. ^1,3
• The Earl of Durham and the North Hetton Coal Company held the colliery in the 1850s, and the Kepier Grange Coal Company from the 1860s. ^1,2
• Kepier Grange was the last of the Kepier collieries to close, in 1924, after eighty years of working. ^4,1
• The Low Main and Hutton were abandoned on 22 October 1924. ^5,6
• A boiler explosion on 13 May 1864 killed a fireman and two boys aged eight and ten. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Kepier Grange Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) Durham Collieries: Kepier Grange Colliery (Durham St. Giles) — Durham County Record Office
3. (primary) Kepier Grange Colliery: strata in the North Pit, 1845 — Durham Mining Museum
4. (secondary) Gilesgate — Durham City Tales
5. (primary) Kepier Grange Colliery: catalogue of plans of abandoned mines — Durham Mining Museum
6. (primary) BGS mine plan: Kepier Grange, Low Main seam, 1924 — British Geological Survey

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