Paradise Colliery

Overview

An early Benwell colliery west of Newcastle, also called West Benwell or the Beaumont Pit, where Matthew Liddell worked the Brockwell seam from 1819 until 1848; its abandoned, flooded workings caused the fatal 1925 Montagu Colliery inrush.

History

Paradise Colliery was a Benwell pit on the north bank of the Tyne, west of Newcastle, known over its life as the Paradise, the Beaumont or the West Benwell pit. It stood a mile and a quarter east of the View pit, and it opened in 1819. From 1821 the royalty here was not divided, and until 1848 the Brockwell seam was worked by Matthew Liddell from a shaft standing on the leasehold of William Cochran Carr. The workings ran out on both sides of the line that would later divide the two leaseholds. In 1848 they were abandoned: the coal had become unsaleable, and the pit flooded. They were never reopened, and they never drained. When the mineral field was divided after transactions in 1876 and 1877 the old leases made no mention of the old workings at all, though their existence was known and they were barred off by a line drawn on a working plan; the Brockwell was afterwards worked on another part of the lease from the Charlotte pit, some distance to the north. From 1884 the Montagu colliery worked the Brockwell extensively from the View pit to the west, and by 1925 its eastern workings had come within 94 yards of the neighbouring leasehold, required to leave a barrier of 40 yards on their own side. On 30 March 1925 the water in Paradise's seventy-seven-year-old workings found its way through. Thirty-eight men died in the inrush at the Montagu View Pit, among them the back overman Sam Evans, who went back through the flooding ground to reach the missing men and could not return as the water rose. The inquiry sat at the Moot Hall in Newcastle in January 1926 under the Right Honourable Hugh Pattison Macmillan, with H.M. Chief Inspector of Mines as technical assessor. The ground had drowned a colliery once before. Benwell's Low Main workings were carried under the haugh west of the manufactory at the village of Paradise and, lying near the surface, were broken into by the river in a great flood about the middle of the seventeenth century; the crater the water made and the dyke afterwards built round it were still visible two centuries later.

Geology

Worked the Brockwell seam of the Northumberland coalfield, in the Benwell Estate west of Newcastle.

Workings

A shaft on William Cochran Carr's leasehold, working the Brockwell seam from 1821 to 1848, its workings running out on both sides of the line that later divided the leaseholds. They were left full of water in 1848 and were barred off on the working plans of the collieries that came after.

Closure

Abandoned in 1848 when the coal became unsaleable and the workings flooded. In 1925 the neighbouring Montagu Colliery holed into the old flooded Paradise workings, drowning five men.

What remains

Built over. The pit closed in 1848 and the ground at Benwell is now suburban Newcastle; the workings themselves remained waterlogged and were the cause of the 1925 Montagu inrush.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Montagu Colliery — Water from Paradise's abandoned, flooded Brockwell workings broke into Montagu Colliery in the fatal 1925 inrush.

Nearby mines

• Redheugh Colliery — 1.8 km SE
• Montagu Colliery — 3.4 km NW
• Heaton Main Colliery — 4.3 km NE
• Felling Colliery — 4.9 km E
• Coxlodge Colliery — 5.4 km N

Straight-line distance, within 15 km. Show on the map.

Disasters & major incidents

• Paradise Colliery explosion, 1795
  24 April 1795 · Explosion · 11 fatalities
  On 24 April 1795 an explosion at the Paradise colliery at Benwell, west of Newcastle, killed eleven men.

Recorded claims

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

• Matthew Liddell worked the Brockwell seam at the Paradise (West Benwell) pit from 1819, sinking having begun on 4 March 1819. ^1,2
• The colliery was abandoned in 1848 when the coal became unsaleable and the workings flooded, and they were never reopened. ¹
• On 30 March 1925 the neighbouring Montagu Colliery holed into the old flooded Paradise workings, drowning five men. ¹
• The workings are recorded in the mine-plans catalogue of the British Geological Survey. ³
• From 1821, the royalty here being undivided, the Brockwell seam was worked until 1848 by Matthew Liddell from a shaft on the leasehold of William Cochran Carr. The pit was known over its life as the Paradise, the Beaumont or the West Benwell pit and stood a mile and a quarter east of the View pit. ¹
• The workings were abandoned in 1848 when the coal became unsaleable and the pit flooded. They were never reopened and remained waterlogged; the leases of 1884 and after made no mention of them, though their existence was known and they were barred off by a line on a working plan. ¹
• On 30 March 1925 water from these abandoned workings broke into the Montagu View Pit and thirty-eight men died. The inquiry sat at the Moot Hall, Newcastle, on 26 and 27 January 1926 under the Right Honourable Hugh Pattison Macmillan, assisted by H.M. Chief Inspector of Mines. ¹
• Benwell's Low Main workings had been carried under the haugh west of the manufactory at the village of Paradise and, being near the surface, were broken into by the river during a great flood about the middle of the seventeenth century, drowning the colliery. The crater the water formed and the dyke built round it afterwards were still visible in the nineteenth century. ⁴

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Montagu Colliery Inrush – Scotswood – 1925 — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (primary) Paradise Colliery (DMM p042) — Durham Mining Museum
3. (primary) Paradise Colliery abandonment plans (BGS mine-plans catalogue) — British Geological Survey
4. (primary) Benwell Colliery (DMM b061) — Durham Mining Museum

Record created: 23 September 2026 · Last researched: 23 September 2026