Newsham Colliery

Overview

A Blyth colliery worked from the Hannah Pit from about 1860 by the Cowpen & North Seaton and then the Cowpen Coal Company, with pit cottages, a brickfield and a railway, and 35 deaths recorded to 1936.

History

Newsham Colliery worked from the Hannah Pit at Newsham, on the south side of Blyth about 10 miles north-north-east of Newcastle. The Durham Mining Museum returns coal from it in 1860 and 1865, when the Cowpen & North Seaton Coal Company owned it, and again from 1882 to 1890 under the Cowpen Coal Company Limited. Two sinkers died in the shaft in 1860, one falling down it on 29 March and one out of the loop by which he was descending on 23 September. The Low Main seam was abandoned in 1926.

Keys to the Past, the Durham and Northumberland heritage site, describes Newsham Colliery as typical of the collieries built in small villages, with terraces of pit cottages, a brickfield and a railway link. The museum lists 35 men killed between 1859 and 1936, most by falls of stone in the 1920s and early 1930s. Two were electrocuted, in 1933 and 1936, and two died of blood poisoning, in 1914 and 1929.

Geology

The Low Main seam was worked and was abandoned in 1926.

Workings

The Durham Mining Museum lists the Hannah Pit.

Closure

The Low Main seam was abandoned in 1926; deaths are recorded at the colliery until 1936.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Cowpen Colliery — Both were owned by the Cowpen & North Seaton Coal Company in the 1860s and the Cowpen Coal Company in the 1880s.

Recorded claims

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

• The Cowpen & North Seaton Coal Company owned the colliery in the 1860s and the Cowpen Coal Company Limited in the 1880s. ¹
• The colliery worked from the Hannah Pit. ¹
• Coal is returned from the colliery in 1860, 1865, 1882, 1883, 1888 and 1890. ¹
• The Low Main seam was abandoned in 1926. ¹
• Two sinkers were killed in the shaft in 1860, on 29 March and 23 September. ¹
• Newsham Colliery was typical of collieries built in small villages, with terraces of pit cottages, a brickfield and a railway link. ²
• The museum lists 35 men killed at the colliery between 1859 and 1936. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Durham Mining Museum - Newsham Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) Blyth (Northumberland), Keys to the Past local history — Keys to the Past (Durham and Northumberland County Councils)

Record created: 29 September 2026 · Last researched: 29 September 2026