Mickleybank Colliery

Overview

A small colliery at Mickley Bank near Prudhoe, held by the Bewick name for nearly a century, which raised landsale and household coal with about ten men from the 1860s and worked on into the 1950s until its last seams were abandoned in October 1956.

History

Mickleybank Colliery, also written Mickley Bank, lay in the parish of Mickley near Prudhoe, about eight and a half miles east-south-east of Hexham. It is on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1864-5 and returned coal in 1860, when Elizabeth Bewick owned it. Isabella Bewick held it in the 1890s and R. J. Bewick, who had been its agent from the 1920s, in the 1940s; John Bewick was manager in the 1880s and 1890s and William Bewick from 1902.

It sold landsale coal in the 1880s and household coal from the 1890s, and fireclay in the 1920s, with nine to twelve men up to 1915. The Six Quarter was abandoned in April 1916 and again on 23 January 1936, and the Hodge in January 1928; the returns for 1930 include Mickley Grange. Work resumed with 24 men in 1940 and continued through the 1940s and 1950s in the Five Quarter, Six Quarter and Tilley, with nine to sixteen men, until the Tilley and Five Quarter were abandoned on 13 October 1956. The site has since been redeveloped.

Geology

The Six Quarter, Five Quarter, Three Quarter, Tilley and Hodge seams, with fireclay.

Workings

Unknown.

Closure

Seams abandoned in 1916, 1928 and 1936; reworked from 1940; the Tilley and Five Quarter abandoned on 13 October 1956.

What remains

The site has been redeveloped.

Recorded claims

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

• Mickleybank was owned by Elizabeth Bewick in the 1860s, Isabella Bewick in the 1890s and R. J. Bewick in the 1940s. ^1,2
• Mickleybank Colliery is shown on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1864-5. ²
• The Six Quarter seam at Mickley Bank was abandoned in April 1916. ^3,4
• The Tilley and Five Quarter seams at Mickley Bank were abandoned on 13 October 1956. ^1,5
• John Bewick managed Mickley Bank in the 1880s and 1890s, and William Bewick from 1902. ⁶

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Mickley Bank Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) Mickleybank Colliery — North East Heritage Library (Coals Archive)
3. (primary) Mickley Bank Colliery: catalogue of plans of abandoned mines — Durham Mining Museum
4. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan 21915750: Mickley Bank, Six Quarter, 14 April 1916 — British Geological Survey
5. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan 21875242: Mickley Bank, Tilley and Five Quarter, 13 October 1956 — British Geological Survey
6. (primary) Mickley Bank Colliery: colliery management — Durham Mining Museum

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