Lanchester Colliery

Overview

A colliery north-west of Lanchester beside the Consett to Durham railway, worked on and off from the nineteenth century to 1950 by Ferens and Love, S. A. Sadler and the Lanchester and Iveston Coal Company.

History

Lanchester Colliery lay north-west of Lanchester, eight miles west-north-west of Durham, beside the North Eastern Railway's branch from Consett to Durham, with an extensive network of air shafts around it. Its pit was the Hannah Pit. Coal was being worked on Lanchester Common by 1838, when two hewers, Bowes and Hodgson, were killed together by a fall of stone in the South Pit there, having worked further under a bad stone than the overman had ordered.\n\nIn the 1880s the colliery belonged to Ferens and Love, and it stood idle in 1882 and 1883. By 1900 S. A. Sadler Ltd had it, raising coking coal and fireclay with 29 men; its Busty seam was abandoned as exhausted in 1905, a year it was not worked, and the maps of the 1890s already show the old colliery disused.\n\nIt was revived in the twentieth century. In the 1930s the Lanchester and Iveston Coal Company worked the Brockwell with about 44 men until that seam was abandoned on 14 October 1933, and a No. 2 pit worked the Busty in 1935. The Brockwell Drift employed 36 to 44 men in the 1940s until it was abandoned in 1950, when Harvey and Tilley drifts had 17. No sign of the colliery remains, and the Lanchester Valley Railway is now a cycle path.

Geology

Durham coal measures: in the Hannah Pit the Busty seam 6 ft thick at 34 ft with a lower leaf of 1 ft 8 in at 48 ft, and the Brockwell 2 ft 2½ in thick at about 115 ft; later the Harvey and Tilley seams; fireclay was raised with the coal.

Workings

The Hannah Pit with an extensive network of air shafts; later a No. 2 pit, the Brockwell Drift and Harvey and Tilley drifts.

Closure

The Busty was abandoned as exhausted in 1905 and the Brockwell in 1933; the Brockwell Drift was abandoned in 1950, the last year the drifts are returned.

What remains

No sign of the colliery remains; the site is reclaimed, and the Lanchester Valley Railway beside it is a cycle path.

None.

What's uncertain

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

• Maps of the 1890s show the colliery disused. (disputed) ²

Recorded claims

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

• Lanchester Colliery belonged to Ferens and Love in the 1880s, S. A. Sadler Ltd in the 1900s and the Lanchester and Iveston Coal Company in the 1930s. ^1,2
• The colliery stood beside the North Eastern Railway's branch from Consett to Durham, with an extensive network of air shafts. ²
• Its Busty seam was abandoned as exhausted in 1905. ¹
• The Brockwell Drift was abandoned in 1950, when Harvey and Tilley drifts employed 17. ^1,3,4
• Maps of the 1890s show the colliery disused. (disputed) ²
• The Hannah Pit passed the Busty seam, 6 feet thick, at 34 feet and reached the Brockwell, 2 feet 2½ inches thick, at 116 feet 10½ inches. ⁵

Sources

1. (primary) Durham Mining Museum: Lanchester Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) Lanchester Colliery (North East Heritage Library Coals Archive) — North East Heritage Library
3. (primary) BGS mine plan: LANCHESTER, Harvey and Tilley, abandoned 1950 — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
4. (primary) BGS mine plan: LANCHESTER, Brockwell, abandoned 1949 — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
5. (primary) Durham Mining Museum: Section of Strata in the Hannah Pit, Lanchester Colliery — Durham Mining Museum

Record created: 24 October 2026 · Last researched: 24 October 2026