Shankhouse Colliery

Overview

A Cramlington colliery whose Amelia Pit belonged to the Cramlington Coal Company and, from 1929, Hartley Main Collieries, employing 601 people in 1894 and 518 in 1940; an inrush in November 1866 flooded the shaft almost to the top and drowned a man.

History

Shankhouse Colliery stood at the hamlet of Shankhouse in Cramlington parish, 9 miles north of Newcastle. The Durham Mining Museum lists the Cramlington Coal Company Ltd as owner in the 1890s, returns the Amelia Pit from 1900, and gives Hartley Main Collieries Ltd, formed in May 1929 by amalgamating the Cramlington and Seaton Delaval companies, as owner from that year. Employment was 601 in 1894, 224 at the Amelia in 1900, 474 in 1929 and 518 in 1940. The output was steam coal, with fireclay in 1902 and household coal from 1935, from the High Main, Main Coal, Yard, Low Main and Five Quarter seams; the High Main was abandoned on 12 October 1937.

In November 1866 the colliery, then the property of Messrs Taylor and Lamb, was flooded with two shifts down. Four Cornishmen, brought in during industrial unrest, were working towards old workings on Wellington Flat when the water rushed in and rose to a few feet from the top of the shaft. A man who tried to save others fell from the scaffold in the shaft and drowned. The viewer, Mr Telford, and the engineer, Mr Maughan, rigged a temporary pulley and most of the men got out. The first reports spoke of a very great loss of life and appeared as far away as Yorkshire and Manchester.

The museum lists nine men killed, from 1866 to 1934: falls of stone in 1866, 1873, 1881, 1897 and 1928, a 15-year-old driver found dead in front of a set of tubs in 1896, an onsetter who died after a cage accident in 1929, and a man who died in 1934 after an accidental underground explosion of Rockite.

Geology

The High Main, Main Coal, Yard, Low Main and Five Quarter seams were worked; the High Main was abandoned on 12 October 1937. Old workings on Wellington Flat lay near the shaft in 1866.

Workings

The Amelia Pit is returned separately from 1900.

Closure

Unknown.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Hartford Colliery — Both were Cramlington Coal Company collieries and passed to Hartley Main Collieries Ltd in 1929.

Recorded claims

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

• The Cramlington Coal Company Ltd owned the colliery in the 1890s and Hartley Main Collieries Ltd from May 1929. ¹
• Hartley Main Collieries Ltd was formed in May 1929 by amalgamating the Seaton Delaval Coal Company and the Cramlington Coal Company. ²
• Employment was 601 in 1894, 224 at the Amelia Pit in 1900, 474 in 1929 and 518 in 1940. ¹
• The High Main seam was abandoned on 12 October 1937. ¹
• In November 1866 water rushed in when four Cornishmen worked towards old workings on Wellington Flat and rose to within a few feet of the top of the shaft. ³
• The colliery was the property of Messrs Taylor and Lamb in 1866. ³
• One man who tried to save others fell from the scaffold in the shaft and was drowned; most of the men got out. ³
• The Durham Mining Museum lists nine men killed at the colliery between 1866 and 1934. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Durham Mining Museum - Shankhouse Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (primary) The Hartley Main Collieries Limited, Durham Mining Museum — Durham Mining Museum
3. (secondary) Shankhouse Colliery Inrush - Cramlington - 1866 (Northern Mine Research Society) — Northern Mine Research Society

Record created: 29 September 2026 · Last researched: 29 September 2026