Pegswood Colliery

Overview

The colliery that made Pegswood. A lease between the Duke of Portland and Simon Henry Fraser, a mining engineer of Southwick, brought the new Pegswood Colliery into being on 13 May 1868, east of the older Anderson pit it soon outgrew. By 1873 it employed 160 hewers and turned out 380 tons a day with a second shaft being sunk, and the village expanded around it from 1872. It closed in 1969. Opencast working returned to Pegswood Moor between 1997 and 2004, and that site is now a community park.

History

There were two collieries in the area early in the nineteenth century. The older, the Anderson colliery, employed about 104 men and boys, remained at work until the 1870s — though it was closed for much of that time by strikes and disputes — and passed from Robert Anderson to his son Thomas by 1871. It was then decided that the future of coal lay east rather than west of Pegswood. A lease was drawn up between the Duke of Portland and Simon Henry Fraser, a mining engineer of Southwick, and the new Pegswood Colliery was born on 13 May 1868. As it grew its workforce soon outstripped the old Anderson colliery. New houses were built with the cost divided equally between the Duke and Fraser, both sharing the upkeep of the houses and the surface buildings including a school built later. A newspaper report of 1873 describes 160 hewers turning out 380 tons of coal, a second shaft being sunk and houses springing up. The workforce was drawn from across Britain as well as from neighbouring collieries at Netherton and Ashington, men moving freely between pits in search of better conditions and housing. It was no more peaceful than the Anderson colliery had been: school logbooks record repeated unrest and strikes. Relations with the landlord were worse still. The Duke of Portland blamed the miners and their families for persistent trespass in Bothal woods and around Bothal Castle, with signs pulled down and fences damaged; the case reached court, where the Pegswood miners were described as a collection of the greatest ruffians that could be got together from all parts of the United Kingdom, and Fraser as caring nothing what they were provided they worked coal for him. The Duke won damages of £2. Later leases made Fraser responsible for his workforce, requiring instant dismissal of any man proved guilty of poaching, trespass or lawlessness — and obliged the colliery to supply the Duke with fifty tons of best Pegswood coal a year, and twenty-five tons to the occupiers of Bothal Castle.

Geology

The Northumberland coalfield east of Morpeth, on ground the colliery’s promoters judged more promising than the older workings west of the village.

Workings

A shaft colliery; a second shaft was being sunk by 1873. No detailed description of the underground layout has been established from the sources read.

Closure

The colliery closed in 1969, though Pegswood is still classed as a pit village. Opencast working returned to Pegswood Moor when the Banks Group opened a site there in 1997; that work stopped in 2004.

What remains

The deep mine is gone. The later opencast site at Pegswood Moor was converted after 2004 into Pegswood Community Park.

No colliery structure has been identified as surviving.

Redevelopment

Pegswood Community Park, on the later opencast site at Pegswood Moor.

Related mines

• Netherton Colliery — Named together in the same account of a mobile workforce: Pegswood’s local history records that its people came from many parts of Britain and from other collieries in the area, Netherton and Ashington among them, men moving freely between the pits in search of better conditions and housing.

Nearby mines

• Netherton Colliery — 4.5 km S
• Choppington 'A' Pit — 5.5 km SE
• Woodhorn Colliery — 5.5 km E
• Bedlington 'D' Colliery — 5.8 km SE
• Choppington 'B' Pit — 5.8 km SE

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

Recorded claims

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

• A lease was drawn up between the Duke of Portland and Simon Henry Fraser, mining engineer of Southwick, and the new Pegswood Colliery was born on 13 May 1868. ¹
• New houses were built with the cost divided equally between the Duke and Fraser, both parties also sharing the upkeep of the houses and of surface buildings including the school built later. ¹
• A newspaper report of 1873 describes the colliery employing 160 hewers and turning out 380 tons of coal, with a second shaft in the process of being sunk and houses springing up in the area. ²
• Later leases required Pegswood Colliery to supply the Duke of Portland with fifty tons of best Pegswood coal a year, and twenty-five tons of best Pegswood coal to the occupiers of Bothal Castle. ¹
• The Duke of Portland blamed the miners and their families for habitual trespass in Bothal woods and around Bothal Castle. The case reached court, where the Pegswood miners were described as "a collection of the greatest ruffians that could possibly be got together from all parts of the United Kingdom"; the court found for the Duke and awarded damages of £2. ¹
• The colliery closed in 1969, though the village is still classed as a pit village. Opencast working returned to Pegswood Moor from 1997 to 2004, after which the site became Pegswood Community Park. ²

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Pegswood’s Collieries — Pegswood: A History (local history project)
2. (secondary) Pegswood — Wikipedia

Record created: 8 September 2026 · Last researched: 8 September 2026