New Tranwell Colliery

Overview

A short-lived colliery near Morpeth, marked with its tramway and air shaft on the 1921 map, which worked the Brockwell and Victoria seams with up to 72 people before it closed in July 1924.

History

New Tranwell Colliery lay near Tranwell, about thirteen miles north-north-west of Newcastle and close to Morpeth. The Ordnance Survey map published in 1921 marks the colliery with a tramway and an air shaft. T. Stogdale is listed as its manager in 1918.

The New Tranwell Colliery Company Ltd owned it in the 1920s. In 1921 it employed 27 people and worked the Top seam for household coal; by 1923 it was working the Brockwell and Victoria seams for household and steam coal, with 72 people, 56 of them underground, under W. E. Simpson as manager. J. W. Watkin managed it in 1924, when it employed 62, and it closed in July 1924. The site has since been reclaimed.

Geology

The Top seam in 1921; the Brockwell and Victoria seams in 1923 and 1924.

Workings

A colliery with a tramway and an air shaft.

Closure

Closed in July 1924.

What remains

The site has been reclaimed.

Recorded claims

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

• The Ordnance Survey map published in 1921 marks New Tranwell Colliery with a tramway and an air shaft. ¹
• In 1923 New Tranwell employed 72 people, 56 underground, working the Brockwell and Victoria seams for household and steam coal. ²
• The New Tranwell Colliery Company Ltd owned the colliery in the 1920s. ^2,1
• New Tranwell Colliery closed in July 1924. ^2,1
• W. E. Simpson managed New Tranwell from 1921 to 1923, and J. W. Watkin in 1924. ³

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) New Tranwell Colliery — North East Heritage Library (Coals Archive)
2. (primary) New Tranwell Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
3. (primary) New Tranwell Colliery: colliery management — Durham Mining Museum

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