Newton Colliery, Newton-on-the-Moor

Overview

A small household-coal colliery at Newton-on-the-Moor, south of Alnwick, from the Hunter Pit of 1835 and the Newton Colliery sunk in 1860, employing about 25 people in the 1890s and standing by 1905; a shaft collapse in August 1884 killed two men.

History

Newton Colliery lay at Newton-on-the-Moor, 5 miles south of Alnwick. The Hunter Pit was sunk at Dyke Head in 1835 and, according to the parish history, the Newton Colliery was sunk in 1860 on the site of the present Northumbrian Water treatment works. The Durham Mining Museum lists the Engine Pit and the Hunter Pit, and gives the owners as R. G. Reed in the 1860s, S. F. Widdrington in the 1880s, the Newton Coal Co. Ltd in the 1890s and the Newton Colliery Co. Ltd in the 1900s. In 1864 the village had, besides the colliery, three public houses, a tile works, two smithies, two lime kilns, a school, a Methodist chapel and a sawmill, and the 1896 Ordnance Survey still showed the colliery.

The colliery sold household coal, landsale before 1894, and employed 29 people in 1894, 23 of them underground, 28 in 1896, 24 in 1900 and 25 in 1902; by 1905 it was standing idle. The Shilbottle seam was abandoned in 1889, the coal having been worked out to water level.

In August 1884 the shaft fell in: the furnaceman Thomas Riddell, 67, was suffocated on 11 August when a breakage of timber blocked the shaft and stopped the ventilation, and the hewer John Purvis, 30, died on 14 August in a fall of timber from the shaft side; a boiler explosion had killed the fireman William Richardson in July 1862. In August 1903, when a shaft re-opened after a recent abandonment and partly filled with water was being pumped out, the manager's son, the 20-year-old engineer Robert Bennison, fell from a scaffold into the water and drowned.

Geology

The Shilbottle seam was worked and was abandoned in 1889, the coal being worked out to water level.

Workings

The Engine Pit and the Hunter Pit, sunk in 1835 at Dyke Head.

Closure

The colliery is returned as standing idle in 1905; the Shilbottle seam had been abandoned in 1889.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

The Newton Colliery is said to have stood on the site of the present Northumbrian Water treatment works.

Recorded claims

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

• The Hunter Pit was sunk at Dyke Head in 1835 and the Newton Colliery in 1860. ^1,2
• R. G. Reed owned the colliery in the 1860s, S. F. Widdrington in the 1880s, the Newton Coal Co. Ltd in the 1890s and the Newton Colliery Co. Ltd in the 1900s. ¹
• The colliery employed 29 people in 1894, 28 in 1896, 24 in 1900 and 25 in 1902 and was standing in 1905. ¹
• The Shilbottle seam was abandoned in 1889, the coal having been worked out to water level. ¹
• In 1864 the village had, besides the colliery, three public houses, a tile works, two smithies, two lime kilns, a school, a Methodist chapel and a sawmill. ²
• In August 1884 the shaft fell in, suffocating the furnaceman Thomas Riddell on 11 August and killing the hewer John Purvis on 14 August. ^1,3
• The engineer Robert Bennison, 20, son of the manager, fell into water in a re-opened shaft and drowned on 22 August 1903. ^1,3

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Durham Mining Museum - Newton Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) The History of Swarland, Newton on the Moor, Hazon and ... (Newton and Swarland Parish Council) — Newton and Swarland Parish Council
3. (secondary) The Amble and District Mining Memorial: Newton Colliery — Amble and District Local History (fusilier.co.uk)

Record created: 30 September 2026 · Last researched: 30 September 2026