North Biddick Colliery

Overview

A Wearside colliery at Washington, known locally as the 'Butney', worked from before 1710 until March 1935; explosions killed 17 in 1743 and 19 in 1773, and under the Lambton companies it employed more than 1,200 in the 1920s.

History

North Biddick Colliery, known locally as the 'Butney', stood close to the north bank of the River Wear between Fatfield Bridge and Victoria Bridge, six miles west-south-west of Sunderland. It was at work before 1710. An explosion killed seventeen in January 1743 (see Disasters, below). In 1766 the Fortune, Venture and Wayside pits were working the Three Quarter, Five Quarter and Main seams, and on 17 November 1771 a flood filled North Biddick and its neighbours, drowning more than thirty horses and destroying the fire engines. Another, on 6 December 1773, killed nineteen or twenty (see Disasters, below).

Sir George Elliot owned the colliery in the 1880s, Lambton Collieries Ltd in the 1890s and Lambton and Hetton Collieries Ltd from the 1910s. The Little Pit was sunk to the Hutton in March 1894. In 1894 the Maudlin, four feet six inches thick at 140 fathoms, and the Hutton were worked, the Maudlin drawn from the Hutton level at 120 fathoms, with about 350 men and boys. Employment rose to 930 in 1910 and to 1,293 in 1923, in the Five Quarter, Hutton, Low Main, Main Coal and Maudlin seams, and the colliery still employed 1,023 in 1930.

North Biddick closed in March 1935. Its pit heap stood beside the river, and a lodge banner was carried for its men. The museum's list of those killed holds 83 names; two men were killed by jammed tubs on 14 August 1923.

Geology

Durham coalfield: the Maudlin (4 ft 6 in at 140 fathoms in 1894), Hutton (about 3 ft 6 in at 120 fathoms), Five Quarter, Three Quarter, Low Main and Main Coal.

Workings

The Fortune, Venture and Wayside pits (1766); the Victoria Pit; the Little Pit, sunk to the Hutton in 1894.

Closure

Closed in March 1935 under Lambton and Hetton Collieries Ltd.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Disasters & major incidents

• North Biddick Colliery explosion, 1743
  January 1743 · Explosion · 17 fatalities
  Seventeen were killed at North Biddick Colliery, on the Wear at Washington, in January 1743 when men holing a drift into an old waste fired gas, though the drift and waste were full of water.
• North Biddick Colliery explosion, 1773
  6 December 1773 · Explosion · 19 fatalities
  Foul air in an old waste at North Biddick Colliery took fire about noon on 6 December 1773 and burst through into the working pit; most of the men were drawn out in time, but some boys and a man were killed, nineteen or twenty in all, and explosions went on through the day.

Recorded claims

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

• Worked from before 1710 until March 1935. ^1,2
• Known locally as the 'Butney'. ^1,2
• The colliery employed 1,293 in 1923. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Durham Mining Museum: North Biddick Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) North Biddick Colliery 1/4 — Washington County Durham: Memories of Mining (raggyspelk.co.uk)
3. (secondary) North Biddick Colliery Explosion - Biddick - 1743 — Northern Mine Research Society
4. (secondary) North Biddick Colliery Explosion - Washington - 1773 — Northern Mine Research Society

Record created: 6 October 2026 · Last researched: 6 October 2026