Risehow Colliery

Overview

A West Cumberland colliery at Flimby, on the coast about two miles south of Maryport and near the northern extremity of the coalfield. It came into production in 1918 — a decade after the older Flimby Colliery next door had closed — under the same company that had run Flimby, and was soon taken over by the Risehow Colliery, Coking & By-Product Co. Ltd. Employment reached 915 in 1925 and was still 474 in its last full years. Two men were killed by a firedamp explosion in 1957 (see Disasters, below). The colliery closed in 1966.

History

Risehow was sunk by the Flimby & Broughton Moor Coal & Firebrick Co. Ltd — the company that had worked the older Flimby Colliery until 1909 — and came into production in 1918. It passed quickly to the Risehow Colliery, Coking & By-Product Co. Ltd, whose name says what the pit was for: coking coal and the by-products that came with it. It grew fast. Thirty-four people were employed in 1915 while the pit was still being opened; 424 by 1921 and 915 by 1925, of whom 720 worked underground. The depression cut that back to 457 in 1930, but it recovered through the 1930s and 1940s — 530 in 1940, when output was 200,000 tons, and 679 in 1950 under the National Coal Board, which took the colliery at nationalisation in 1947. The seams gave way one at a time, as at Flimby before it: the Yard was abandoned on 30 May 1929, the Little Main on 1 August 1930, and an unnamed seam in 1932. The pit went on working the Three Quarters seams and others. On the evening of 26 November 1957 a firedamp explosion, ignited by shot firing, killed two men (see Disasters, below). The colliery closed in 1966, still employing 474 people.

Geology

The West Cumberland Coalfield near its northern limit, on the Solway coast. Risehow worked the Little Main in 1915; the Lickbank, Little Main and Three Quarter in 1921; and by the 1930s the Lower and Upper Three Quarters and the Allbrighton, as the older seams were abandoned. It is the same sequence the neighbouring Flimby Colliery had worked out a decade earlier, taken up from a new shaft in ground the older pit had not reached.

Workings

Two shafts, No. 1 and No. 2, with a coking plant and by-product works on the surface — the business the second owning company was named for. The colliery produced about 500 tons of coal a day around the time of the 1957 explosion, and its output grades ran from coking and gas coal through household, manufacturing, steam and bunker coal.

Closure

Risehow closed in 1966 with 474 people still employed, 325 of them underground. It had outlasted the older Flimby Colliery by nearly sixty years and was among the last of the Cumberland coast pits.

What remains

No specific present-day description of the colliery site has been established from the sources read.

No surviving surface structure has been identified from the sources read. The Durham Mining Museum holds photographs of the colliery and of a memorial to it.

Related mines

• Flimby Colliery — The same company and the same ground: the Flimby & Broughton Moor Coal & Firebrick Co. worked Flimby Colliery in the 1890s and is listed as Risehow’s owner in the 1910s, Risehow coming into production in 1918 nine years after Flimby closed. The 1932 abandonment plan catalogued for Flimby covers ground under Broughton Moor, Dearham, Flimby, Ellenborough and Risehow together.

Nearby mines

• Flimby Colliery — 1.6 km SE
• Gillhead Colliery — 2.0 km S
• Workington Colliery — 7.6 km SW
• Brayton Domain Colliery — 13.7 km NE
• Moresby Colliery — 14.2 km S

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

Disasters & major incidents

• Risehow Colliery Explosion
  26 November 1957 · Explosion · 2 fatalities
  Two men died at Risehow Colliery, Flimby, on the evening of 26 November 1957 when firedamp was ignited in a cross-measure drift as a round of shots was fired. The gas came from a feeder in the roof about 30 yards back from the face and had been detected repeatedly through the shift whenever the auxiliary fan stopped; the ignition came not from the explosives, which never fired, but from a spark in shotfiring cables carrying nearly forty crude, bare joints between them. The Inspector concluded that both deaths would have been avoided had the two simple distance conditions attached to the exploder’s Approval been observed.

Recorded claims

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

• Risehow Colliery at Flimby opened in 1918 and closed in 1966, working through No. 1 and No. 2 pits. ¹
• The colliery was owned by the Flimby & Broughton Moor Coal & Firebrick Co. Ltd and then the Risehow Colliery, Coking & By-Product Co. Ltd in the 1910s, passing to the National Coal Board in 1947. ¹
• Employment was 34 in 1915, 424 in 1921 and 915 in 1925, of whom 720 worked below ground; it fell to 457 in 1930, recovered to 530 in 1940 — when output was 200,000 tons — reached 679 in 1950, and was 474 in 1966 and 1967. ¹
• Risehow Colliery is situated at the village of Flimby, on the coast of Cumberland about two miles south of Maryport, near the northern extremity of the coalfield. It had been in production since 1918 and at the time of the explosion produced about 500 tons of coal per day. ¹
• The Yard seam was abandoned on 30 May 1929, the Little Main on 1 August 1930, and an unnamed seam in 1932. The colliery worked the Little Main in 1915; the Lickbank, Little Main and Three Quarter in 1921; and the Lower and Upper Three Quarters and Allbrighton by the 1930s. ¹
• On 26 November 1957 at 8:50 p.m. an explosion of firedamp, ignited by shot firing, killed two men at the colliery: Joseph Lancaster Armstrong, aged 50, a drifter, and Joseph Grierson Banton, aged 42, a deputy. ²
• The Durham Mining Museum records no disaster of five or more killed at Risehow Colliery; thirteen deaths are listed in all, from 1840 to 1960. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Risehow Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (primary) Colliery Accident, 26 November 1957, Risehow — Durham Mining Museum

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