Newfield Colliery, Willington

Overview

A Bolckow, Vaughan colliery at Newfield near Willington, opened in 1841, which by the 1890s raised 500 tons a day for the company's coke ovens and firebrick works with about 600 men and boys, and was linked by a waggonway across the Wear to Hunwick.

History

Newfield Colliery lay at Newfield, near Willington, about seven miles south-west of Durham, across the Wear from Hunwick. Gibson's Pit was sunk in 1841 from about 320 feet above sea level, finding the Brockwell seam, four feet thick, at 225 feet; the Challies Pit stood nearby. Plans of its first workings date from 1841. A single-track waggonway ran from Hunwick Colliery across the river to Newfield.

Bolckow, Vaughan and Company held it from the 1860s, and it fed their works. Whellan's directory of 1894 describes the Busty seam, four and a half feet thick, worked from a shaft at a depth of nine fathoms, with the Beaumont and the Harvey reached by drifts from the Busty. The output, 500 tons a day, was made into coke for the company's works, and large firebrick works used the clay beneath the Beaumont. About 600 men and boys worked there; the returns give 488 in 1894 and 580 in 1905. In May 1880 three sinkers died of black damp in a pit only 14 yards deep: the charge man went down first, and the other two were lost going down to rescue him.

Employment fell to 224 by 1915 and 275 in 1925. The colliery's older workings appear on the combined Westerton, Byers Green and Newfield abandonment plan of 31 October 1932. A small drift carried on under Dorman, Long and Company in the 1940s and the National Coal Board from 1948, working the Beaumont with 36 to 41 men; its miners' lodge kept subscription registers from 1951 to 1963. In the 1980s J. F. Bartlett worked a licensed drift here in the Tilley seam with five to seven men.

Geology

The Busty, Beaumont, Harvey, Five Quarter and Brockwell seams, with fireclay below the Beaumont; the Tilley in the 1980s.

Workings

Gibson's Pit and the Challies Pit, with drifts from the Busty to the Beaumont and Harvey; later the Newfield Drift.

Closure

The older workings appear on the combined Westerton, Byers Green and Newfield abandonment plan of 31 October 1932; a drift worked on to at least 1960, and a licensed drift in the 1980s.

What remains

The site has been redeveloped.

Related mines

• Byers Green Colliery — Newfield's older workings share the combined Westerton, Byers Green and Newfield abandonment plan of 1932, and both were Bolckow, Vaughan collieries.
• Hunwick Colliery — A single-track waggonway ran from Hunwick across the Wear to Newfield, and both were Bolckow, Vaughan collieries.

Recorded claims

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

• In 1894 Newfield raised 500 tons a day for coke, working the Busty from a shaft at nine fathoms and the Beaumont and Harvey by drifts, with about 600 men and boys. ^1,2
• Gibson's Pit at Newfield, sunk in 1841, reached the Brockwell seam, four feet thick, at 225 feet. ³
• A single-track waggonway led from Hunwick Colliery across the Wear to Newfield Colliery. ⁴
• Newfield was owned by Bolckow, Vaughan and Company from the 1860s, Dorman, Long and Company in the 1940s and the National Coal Board from 1948. ^1,2
• In May 1880 three sinkers died of black damp in a 14-yard-deep pit at Newfield, two of them going to the rescue of the first. ¹
• Newfield's older workings are on the combined Westerton, Byers Green and Newfield abandonment plan of 31 October 1932. ⁵

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Newfield Colliery (Willington) — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) Newfield Colliery — North East Heritage Library (Coals Archive)
3. (primary) Newfield Colliery: account of sinking at Gibson's Pit, 1841 — Durham Mining Museum
4. (secondary) Hunwick Colliery — North East Heritage Library (Coals Archive)
5. (primary) Newfield (Willington): catalogue of plans of abandoned mines — Durham Mining Museum

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