Millfield Grange Colliery

Location	Cockfield Fell, Cockfield, County Durham — 54.6258, -1.8164 (approximate)
Commodity	Coal
Type	Coal
Worked	By 1883–25 February 1911
Maximum depth	Unknown.
Operators	Millfield Grange Colliery Co. Ltd (?–1911), R. Summerson and Co.

Overview

A small shaft colliery on Cockfield Fell, worked by R. Summerson and Company and then the Millfield Grange Colliery Company, with a tramway to the Haggerleases branch; its seams were abandoned in February 1911.

Rough pasture with horses grazing, a pale patch of old concrete and a grassy spoil bank on the left. — Reclaimed land south of the River Gaunless, with the site of Millfield Grange Andrew Curtis, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Geograph

History

Millfield Grange Colliery was one of the many workings on Cockfield Fell, about fourteen and a half miles south-west of Durham, during the coal rush of the later nineteenth century. Like most of the others it was a simple affair, a central shaft with few buildings. A tramway, much of it on the line of an older drift just to the east, led to the Haggerleases branch, and a smaller, unconnected tramway ran to another drift to the west, north of Cockfield station.

It employed 73 people in 1883, under J. Dakers as manager with W. Summerson as agent, but stood idle in 1888 and 1890. R. Summerson and Company owned it in the 1890s and the Millfield Grange Colliery Company Ltd in the 1900s, with H. and H. W. Summerson as managers. It raised manufacturing coal with 23 to 30 people from 1894 to 1910, from the Five Quarter, or Busty, and the Main Coal, or Brockwell. James Cooper, a deputy of 63, was killed by a fall of roof in 1892, and John R. Blackett, a putter of 16, was suffocated under fallen stone in 1903.

The Five Quarter and Main were abandoned on 25 February 1911, with the Ladder and Strand workings on the same plan. The colliery itself has gone, but the earthworks of the tramway and a small heap remain.

Geology

The Five Quarter (Busty) and Main Coal (Brockwell) seams.

Workings

A central shaft, with a tramway to the Haggerleases branch on the line of an older drift and a smaller tramway to a drift to the west.

Closure

The Five Quarter and Main seams were abandoned on 25 February 1911.

What remains

The site has been reclaimed; tramway earthworks and a small heap survive.

Earthworks of the tramway and a small slag heap.

Nearby mines

Butterknowle Colliery — 0.7 miles (1.1 km) W
Holly Moor Colliery — 0.7 miles (1.1 km) S
Wham Colliery — 0.7 miles (1.2 km) NW
Gordon House Colliery — 1.1 miles (1.8 km) SE
New Copley Colliery — 1.1 miles (1.8 km) S

Straight-line distance, within 9 miles (15 km). Show on the map.

Recorded claims

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

Millfield Grange had a tramway to the Haggerleases branch, much of it on the line of an older drift. ¹
Millfield Grange Colliery employed 73 people in 1883. ²
R. Summerson and Company owned Millfield Grange in the 1890s and the Millfield Grange Colliery Company Ltd in the 1900s. ^2,1
The Five Quarter and Main seams at Millfield Grange were abandoned on 25 February 1911. ^2,3,4

Photographs & further reading

Millfield Grange Colliery (North East Heritage Library) (reference)

Coals Archive record of the shaft, its tramways and the surviving earthworks.

View source

Sources

(secondary) Millfield Grange Colliery — North East Heritage Library (Coals Archive)
(primary) Millfield Grange Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
(primary) Millfield Grange Colliery: catalogue of plans of abandoned mines — Durham Mining Museum
(primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan 21916088: Millfield Grange, Busty or Five Quarter, 1911 — British Geological Survey

Record created: 23 October 2026 · Last researched: 23 October 2026