Lowick Colliery

Overview

A small landsale colliery south-east of Lowick in north Northumberland, sinking a 20-fathom shaft in 1866 and worked by Robert Wright in the 1880s; its pits were disused by 1897.

History

Lowick Colliery lay south-east of the village of Lowick, in the far north of Northumberland, where a line of coal workings runs along the east bank of the Low, a small stream. It was established in the 1860s, when Salisbury and Co. are recorded as its owners, and first appears in the newspapers in 1866, with an advertisement for sinkers to sink a shaft of 20 fathoms, about 36 metres. The main pit was accompanied by a series of smaller pits and shafts along the road down to Nagup Dean.

By the 1880s the colliery was worked by Robert Wright, about whom little else is known. It was a landsale pit, its coal sold locally, and by 1894 it raised household coal with fifteen men, twelve of them underground. It worked for about three decades: by 1897 all its pits and shafts are shown as disused. Their earthworks and hollows still show in the farmland on aerial photographs.

Geology

Unknown.

Workings

A main pit with a series of smaller pits and shafts along the road to Nagup Dean, on the east bank of the Low.

Closure

Working in 1894 and shown as disused by 1897.

What remains

Farmland, with the earthworks and depressions of the workings visible on Historic England aerial photographs.

Earthworks and hollows of the pits and shafts.

Recorded claims

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

• Lowick Colliery was owned by Salisbury and Co. in the 1860s and by Robert Wright in the 1880s. ¹
• Contemporary newspapers name Robert Wright as the operator of Lowick Colliery. ²
• In 1866 an advertisement sought sinkers for a shaft of 20 fathoms at Lowick Colliery. ²
• In 1894 Lowick Colliery raised household coal with 15 men, 12 of them underground. ¹
• By 1897 the Lowick Colliery pits and shafts were shown as disused. ²

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Lowick Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) Lowick Colliery — North East Heritage Library (Coals Archive)

Record created: 22 October 2026 · Last researched: 22 October 2026