Lumley Colliery

Overview

The colliery at Great Lumley, near Chester-le-Street, worked through a dozen pits from the 18th century and owned by the Earls of Durham and their Lambton companies from the 1860s. Its Sixth Pit, reopened in the 1860s, was still working when the colliery closed on 22 January 1966.

History

Coal was worked at Lumley well before 1800: a pit was sunk at Lumley Park in 1776 to the Low Main seam and the No. 2 Pit to the Hutton, and the Stobbs Hill Pit was older still. The Fifth Pit was begun on 9 November 1791, and both the Northern Mine Research Society and the Durham Mining Museum date the colliery's opening to the 1790s. Its pits were mostly known by number, First to Ninth, with the George Pit, Stobbs Hill and, from 1907, the West Pit. Explosions killed 31 in 1797, 39 in 1799, 13 at the George Pit in 1819 and 14 there in 1824; an older record gives 60 lost in 1727.

Stobart, Bell and Co. owned the colliery in the 1850s, and from the 1860s it belonged to the Earl of Durham. In 1894 his Lumley Six Pit, reopened about thirty years before after standing for many years, worked the Five Quarter at 43½ fathoms, the Low Main at 77 and the Hutton at 91; the Main Coal was worked out. Two furnaces ventilated it, 900 gallons of water a minute were pumped out, and about 500 men and boys raised some 800 tons a day.

The Earl's pits passed to Lambton Collieries Ltd in 1896, to Lambton and Hetton Collieries and then to Lambton, Hetton and Joicey Collieries, and in 1947 to the National Coal Board. With the Sixth and Third pits both drawing coal, employment reached 1,443 in 1910; the Third and Fifth closed on 19 September 1924, and the Sixth employed 997 the following year. It raised 160,962 tons in 1947 and still employed 612 in 1965, working the Brass Thill, Hutton, Low Main and Main Coal, before closing in January 1966.

Geology

Durham Coal Measures: the Main Coal (worked out by 1894), Five Quarter, Low Main, Hutton, Maudlin and Brass Thill. Borings below the Hutton in the Third Pit in 1819 and 1898 found the lower coals disappointing in thickness and quality.

Workings

A dozen pits over the colliery's life, numbered First to Ninth with the George, Stobbs Hill and West (1907) pits; the Sixth Pit, reopened in the 1860s, was the principal shaft in the 20th century. In 1894 it was ventilated by two furnaces and pumped 900 gallons a minute.

Closure

The Third and Fifth pits closed on 19 September 1924; the colliery closed on 22 January 1966 under the National Coal Board.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Disasters & major incidents

• Lumley Colliery explosion, 1797
  11 April 1797 · Explosion · 31 fatalities
  On 11 April 1797 an explosion at Lumley Colliery, near Chester-le-Street, killed 31. It was the first of three explosions there in little more than two years, the second killing 39 in October 1799.
• Lumley Colliery explosion, 1799
  11 October 1799 · Explosion · 39 fatalities
  On 11 October 1799 a violent explosion at Lumley Colliery, near Chester-le-Street, killed 39 men and boys, two and a half years after one there had killed 31. It was reported that their bodies were never found.
• Lumley George Pit explosion, 1819
  9 October 1819 · Explosion · 13 fatalities
  On 9 October 1819 gas fired at the candle of a hewer named Gee in the George Pit at Lumley, near Chester-le-Street. Eleven men and boys were killed outright, and Gee and a boy died the next day, making thirteen; many others were badly hurt.

Recorded claims

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

• The colliery opened in the 1790s. ^1,2
• In 1776 a pit was sunk at Lumley Park to the Low Main seam and the No. 2 Pit to the Hutton. ¹
• In 1894 the Sixth Pit worked the Five Quarter at 43½ fathoms, the Low Main at 77 and the Hutton at 91, employing about 500 and raising about 800 tons a day. ¹
• The pits belonged to the Earl of Durham from the 1860s and passed through the Lambton companies to the National Coal Board in 1947. ¹
• An explosion at the George Pit on 9 October 1819 killed thirteen. ^3,1
• The colliery, including Lumley Sixth, closed in January 1966. ^1,2
• Plans of the Low Main, Hutton, Maudlin and Five Quarter seams at Lumley were deposited as abandoned in 1877. ⁴
• A boring below the Hutton seam in the Third Pit in 1819 found the lower coals disappointing in thickness and quality. ^1,5
• Lumley Sixth Pit stood near Floaters Mill Bridge, as a 1939 map shows. ⁶

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Lumley Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) Sunderland Area collieries — Northern Mine Research Society
3. (secondary) Lumley Colliery George Pit Explosion - Chester-le-Street - 1819 — Northern Mine Research Society
4. (primary) Lumley: Hutton seam abandonment plan, 1877 — BGS / Mining Remediation Authority
5. (primary) Lumley Colliery: shaft sections (3rd, 9th and Stobbs Hill pits) — Durham Mining Museum
6. (secondary) All Things Bournmoor: Pits — All Things Bournmoor

Record created: 3 October 2026 · Last researched: 3 October 2026