Kirkheaton Colliery

Overview

A small colliery and limekiln at Kirkheaton, near Belsay, worked by William Grace and Company by 1855 and later by the Kirkheaton Colliery Company, raising household coal from a shallow Limestone Coal seam with fifteen or so men until 1924.

History

Kirkheaton Colliery lay at Kirkheaton, near Belsay, about ten and a half miles north-east of Hexham. In 1855 a directory recorded a colliery and limekiln at Kirk Heaton, extensively worked by William Grace and Company, with T. Nicholson as manager; Grace and Tone owned the colliery in the 1860s and the Kirkheaton Colliery Company from the 1890s. An old plan of workings at Kirkheaton is dated 1824.

The shaft passed through clay, 22 feet of limestone with water, and 27 feet of very strong white post with pebbles to a seam of kiln and fine coal two and a half feet thick, reached at about 82 feet. In the 1880s the coal was sold at the pit for landsale and later as household coal; fireclay was returned in 1910. The colliery worked the Bog Hall seam of the Limestone Coal and employed between 13 and 19 people from 1894 to 1915. Robert Burn and Robert Burn junior managed it from 1882 to 1915.

Next to the shaft and its buildings stood a row of six workers' houses with three outbuildings. Workings in the Little Limestone seam were abandoned in August 1919 and July 1924, and the colliery closed in 1924. The houses were still standing in 1947 but most had gone by 1959, and none survives.

Geology

Coal of the Limestone Coal group: under clay and 22 feet of watery limestone, a strong white post with pebbles overlay a two-and-a-half-foot seam of kiln and fine coal at about 82 feet; the Bog Hall seam was worked from 1905, and plans name the Little Limestone seam.

Workings

A shaft, with a level marked beside the colliery on the 1921 Ordnance Survey.

Closure

Little Limestone workings were abandoned in 1919 and on 30 July 1924; the colliery closed in 1924.

What remains

The site has been redeveloped; the row of workers' houses has gone.

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 Ordnance Survey of 1921 shows the colliery as disused. (disputed) ⁶

Recorded claims

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

• In 1855 the colliery and limekiln at Kirk Heaton were extensively worked by William Grace and Company. ¹
• Kirkheaton Colliery worked the Bog Hall seam of the Limestone Coal and employed 13 to 19 people between 1894 and 1915. ²
• Kirkheaton's shaft reached a seam of kiln and fine coal at about 82 feet, under limestone and strong white post. ³
• Little Limestone workings at Kirkheaton were abandoned on 30 July 1924, and the colliery closed that year. ^2,4,5
• The Ordnance Survey of 1921 shows the colliery as disused. (disputed) ⁶

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Kirk Heaton, 1855 (Co-Curate, from Whellan's directory) — Co-Curate, Newcastle University
2. (primary) Kirkheaton Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
3. (primary) Kirkheaton Colliery: account of the strata sunk through — Durham Mining Museum
4. (secondary) Kirkheaton Colliery — North East Heritage Library (Coals Archive)
5. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan 21902522: Kirkheaton, Little Limestone, 30 July 1924 — British Geological Survey
6. (secondary) Kirkheaton Colliery (Capheaton), Keys to the Past N10209 — Keys to the Past (Durham and Northumberland County Councils)

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