Ludworth Colliery

Overview

A colliery at Ludworth, east of Durham, dated from 1837 and owned in the 1850s by the Thornley Coal Company, where four sinkers fell to their deaths in 1845 and three men and a boy died when a cage fell in 1852; it worked fitfully after 1900 and closed in 1931, after which its pit village was largely rebuilt.

History

Ludworth Colliery, half a mile east of Shadforth and five and a half miles east of Durham, is dated from 1837. Its shaft passed through some 830 feet of strata to the Hutton seam. Four sinkers fell down the shaft and were killed on 8 January 1845, and on 23 March 1852 a cage carrying men fell down the North Pit shaft, killing three men and an eleven-year-old boy (see Disasters, below). In the 1850s it belonged to the Thornley Coal Company, the partnership of Thomas Wood, Gully, the Chaytors and Burrell; the London Steam Colliery and Coal Co. held it in the 1860s, the Original Hartlepool Collieries Co. in the 1880s and the Weardale Iron and Coal Company in the 1890s.

It employed 469 men in 1883 and was standing in 1884. In 1894 the Weardale company worked the Low Main and Main Coal for 400 tons a day with over 300 hands. Coal drawing was suspended in 1902, and in 1904 the Five Quarter, Main Coal, Low Main and Hutton were abandoned as not profitable to work under the trade conditions of the day. It reopened in the Five Quarter by 1915, employing 233 in 1921, but was down to 40 men and standing by 1924-25, and it closed in 1931.

Ludworth was a pit village of terraced rows around the colliery, with a National School on the western edge of the colliery site and two chapels. After the colliery closed most of the village was demolished and rebuilt: the pit terraces were cleared, new semi-detached houses went up south of Margaret Street, and only the Margaret Street terrace survives from the pit settlement. Towards the end of the twentieth century the site of the old pit settlement became a large playing field. The museum's list of those killed holds 34 names.

Geology

Durham coalfield: the Five Quarter, Main Coal, Low Main and Hutton seams, the Hutton at about 830 ft.

Workings

North and South pits, the shaft sunk to the Hutton seam.

Closure

Seams abandoned in 1904 as unprofitable; reopened by 1915, standing by 1924-25, and closed in 1931.

What remains

The pit village was largely rebuilt after closure; the old pit settlement is a playing field.

Redevelopment

Housing and a playing field.

Disasters & major incidents

• Ludworth Colliery cage accident, 1852
  23 March 1852 · Winding / Shaft Accident · 4 fatalities
  Three men and a boy of eleven were killed at Ludworth Colliery on 23 March 1852 when the spring joining the rope to the cage chains broke as they rode up the North Pit shaft, and the cage fell to the bottom; the inquest jury blamed the firm that supplied the spring.

Recorded claims

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

• The colliery is dated from 1837. ¹
• In 1894 the Weardale Iron and Coal Company worked the Low Main and Main Coal for 400 tons a day with over 300 hands. ¹
• In 1904 the Five Quarter, Main Coal, Low Main and Hutton were abandoned as not profitable to work. ¹
• Closed in 1931. ^1,2
• After the colliery closed the pit terraces were cleared and the village rebuilt; only the Margaret Street terrace survives from the pit settlement. ²

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Durham Mining Museum: Ludworth Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) Ludworth Settlement Character Study — Durham County Council

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