Redheugh Colliery

Overview

A town colliery on the Tyne’s south bank west of Gateshead town centre, sunk in 1872 and worked for fifty-five years on the Harvey, Busty and Brockwell seams for house, gas, steam and coking coal. It employed 863 men and boys at its 1910 peak, was worked throughout with safety lamps, and was abandoned on 28 May 1927 — the last colliery at work in Gateshead. On 5 January 1929 the sealed shafts of the abandoned mine blew out in a violent explosion whose cause was never established.

History

Sinking began in 1872 and by 1874 the shafts had been carried below the Hutton Seam; a boring put down the following year below the Brockwell proved the lower coals worthless. The colliery stood between Lower Cuthbert Street and Morrison Street off Askew Road, about a mile south-west of Newcastle across the river. John Fleming and John Milling owned it through the 1880s — the pairing under which it appears in the official 1880 list of collieries at work — and it passed to the executors of John Fleming and then to Redheugh Colliery Ltd. Whellan’s 1894 directory of County Durham found the Harvey being worked at 61 fathoms and 2 ft 2 in thick, the Busty at 73 fathoms and 2 ft 8 in, and the Brockwell at 95 fathoms and 2 ft 9 in; the Hutton was worked out, and the Bensham, Five Quarter, Three Quarter and bottom Busty also lay in the takes. Annual output then stood at 120,000 tons and employment at 420 men and boys, producing house and steam coal. Employment peaked at 863 in 1910 and the colliery’s coals were sold as gas, household, steam, coking and manufacturing grades at different dates. The pit was temporarily closed in September 1925, worked briefly again with a much reduced workforce, and was abandoned on 25 March 1927; the closure date given by both the museum record and the Tyne and Wear historic environment record is 28 May 1927.

Geology

Coal Measures of the Durham coalfield. The colliery worked the Harvey, Busty and Brockwell seams from a shaft 570 yards deep to the Brockwell, the Hutton having been exhausted by the 1890s. A boring below the Brockwell in 1875 proved the coals underneath worthless, which fixed the depth the colliery would ever reach.

Workings

Two shafts, 16 ft and 10 ft in diameter, both 570 yards deep to the Brockwell seam. All seams were worked with safety lamps, and the 1929 inspector’s account describes roads that were dry and dusty with good roofs. The Brockwell seam was abandoned in 1919 and the Main in 1934, after the colliery itself had gone.

Closure

Abandoned on 25 March 1927 and formally closed on 28 May, the last colliery at work in Gateshead. Employment had collapsed from 685 in 1923 to 63 in 1927, of whom only 22 worked underground; a temporary closure in September 1925 had already cut the workforce to 374.

What remains

Nothing of the colliery survives above ground. The site lies within the built-up west end of Gateshead off Askew Road, where the streets that stood beside it — Lower Cuthbert Street and Morrison Street — were themselves cleared during the twentieth century.

None identified.

Nearby mines

• Team Colliery — 5.2 km SE
• Springwell Colliery — 5.6 km SE
• Wallsend Colliery — 7.5 km NE
• Usworth Colliery — 8.3 km SE
• Hazlerigg Colliery — 9.3 km N

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

Disasters & major incidents

• Redheugh Colliery explosion
  5 January 1929 · Explosion · 0 fatalities
  Twenty months after Redheugh Colliery was abandoned, its sealed shafts exploded. Flame shot about seventy feet above the winding shaft, the timber seals were thrown sixty yards, a rope wheel from the fan shaft landed ninety yards away in a school yard and more than two hundred panes of glass were broken in nearby houses. Nobody was hurt, and the cause was never established.

Recorded claims

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

• Redheugh Colliery was sunk in 1872 and closed on 28 May 1927, the last colliery at work in Gateshead. The 1929 inspector’s report gives the sinking as 1871. (disputed) ^1,2
• The owners were John Fleming and John Milling, later the executors of John Fleming and then Redheugh Colliery Ltd. ^1,2
• Whellan’s 1894 directory records the Harvey worked at 61 fathoms and 2 ft 2 in thick, the Busty at 73 fathoms and 2 ft 8 in, and the Brockwell at 95 fathoms and 2 ft 9 in, with the Hutton already worked out. ¹
• The annual output in 1894 was 120,000 tons of house and steam coal, employing 420 men and boys; employment peaked at 863 in 1910 and had fallen to 63 by 1927. ^1,2
• There were two shafts, 16 ft and 10 ft in diameter, both 570 yards deep to the Brockwell seam, and all the seams were worked with safety lamps. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Redheugh Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (primary) Redheugh Colliery (HER 6189) — Tyne and Wear Historic Environment Record
3. (observational) Redheugh — Gateshead History — Gateshead History

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