Low Bitchburn Colliery

Overview

A drift colliery just south-west of Crook, County Durham, sunk in 1850 as Thistleflat Colliery and better known as Low Beechburn. It employed up to 269 in 1900, coked all its coal in the 1890s, and was run down from 1924 until its last seam was abandoned in 1937.

History

Low Bitchburn Colliery, also called Low Beechburn, lay a little south-west of Crook, about two hundred yards north of Beechburn Colliery and beside the railway from Bishop Auckland to Crook, which served it by sidings. It was sunk in 1850 as Thistleflat Colliery. A fall of stone there in March 1852 crippled John Shaw, who died that April, and in 1865 the manager, John Sharp Oakey, was fatally hurt when a block broke while a boiler was being lowered into place.

John Sharp held the colliery in the 1880s, when only eight men were returned, and from the 1890s it belonged to the Low Beechburn Coal Company. In 1894 it employed about 180 and worked the Main Coal, Top Main, Little Busty and Big Busty by drifts, raising about 200 tons a day, all of it made into coke; it also sent away fireclay. Employment peaked at 269 in 1900, and the Busty, Harvey, Hutton and Yard seams were being worked by 1905.

The colliery was temporarily closed in 1924. The No. 2 mine's Main Coal was abandoned on 10 October 1927, and the Main, Hutton, Yard, Ballarat, Busty and Five Quarter seams on 9 December 1930. In the 1930s the Beechburn Coal and Firebrick Company and Hird and Co. worked what was left; the Top Main and Brockwell, worked as one seam, were abandoned on 5 May 1936 and the Harvey in 1937, when the colliery closed.

Geology

Durham coalfield, worked by drifts: the Main Coal (4 ft 6 in in 1894), Top Main (2 ft), Little Busty (1 ft 8 in) and Big Busty (3 ft), and later the Harvey, Hutton, Yard, Ballarat, Five Quarter and Brockwell, with fireclay.

Workings

Drift mines, numbered No. 1 and No. 2 by 1927, with sidings east of the Bishop Auckland to Crook line; the coal was coked in the 1890s.

Closure

Run down from 1924: the No. 2 mine was abandoned in October 1927, most seams in December 1930, working was discontinued in October 1935, and the Top Main and Brockwell (May 1936) and Harvey (1937) were the last seams given up.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Recorded claims

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

• Low Beechburn Colliery, also known as Low Bitchburn, was sunk in 1850 as Thistleflat Colliery, lay 200 yards north of Beechburn Colliery, and closed in 1937. ^1,2
• The colliery was held by John Sharp in the 1880s, the Low Beechburn Coal Co. Ltd in the 1890s, and the Beechburn Coal and Firebrick Co. Ltd and Hird and Co. in the 1930s. ²
• In 1894 Low Bitchburn employed about 180 and worked the Main Coal, Top Main, Little Busty and Big Busty by drifts, with an output of about 200 tons a day, all converted into coke. ³
• Employment at the colliery peaked at 269 (173 below ground, 96 above) in 1900. ²
• The No. 2 mine's Main Coal was abandoned on 10 October 1927, and the Main, Hutton, Yard, Ballarat, Busty and Five Quarter seams on 9 December 1930. ^4,5
• The manager, John Sharp Oakey, died on 5 May 1865 of a spinal injury received when a pulley block broke while a boiler was being lowered into place. ²

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Disused Stations: Crook Station — Disused Stations
2. (primary) Low Bitchburn Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
3. (primary) Durham Mining Museum - Woodifield Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
4. (primary) Low Bitchburn Colliery: catalogue of plans of abandoned mines — Durham Mining Museum
5. (primary) BGS mine plan: Beechburn Low No 2, Main, abandoned 1927 — BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans

Record created: 5 October 2026 · Last researched: 6 October 2026