South Birtley Colliery

Overview

A small landsale and household colliery at Birtley, beside the South Birtley brick and tile works, worked by William Allison and then F. J. Allison with fifteen or so men until 1922, on ground whose old shafts were mapped in the 1760s and 1770s.

History

South Birtley Colliery lay at Birtley, about five and a half miles south-south-east of Newcastle, beside the South Birtley brick and tile works. The ground had long been worked: plans of South Birtley workings in the Maudlin, Five Quarter, Main, Low Main and Hutton seams are dated 1768 and August 1773, and list some twenty old shafts by name, among them the Bounder, Clover East and West, Dayhole, Fortune, Friendship, Goodspeed, Lucky, Prosperous and Stubble pits. The record office gives the later colliery's opening as 1866 or 1802; it is not on the maps of the 1850s, but coal was returned there in 1865.

J. F. Swinburn and Allison and Cockburn owned it in the 1880s, William Allison in the 1890s and F. J. Allison in the 1910s. William Allison managed it himself in 1894-96, without a certificate, followed by Thomas Hudson and others. It sold its coal as landsale and household coal and employed between 10 and 18 people from 1894 to 1921, working the Maudlin seam and, in 1915, the Main.

The Maudlin seam was abandoned on 8 February 1922. A small working returned in 1950, with four men in the Main seam, and a roof collapse at South Birtley Colliery was reported in 1951. The site has since been redeveloped.

Geology

The Maudlin and Main seams; older plans of the ground show the Maudlin, Five Quarter, Main, Low Main and Hutton.

Workings

Unknown; the 18th-century plans of the ground name some twenty old shafts.

Closure

The Maudlin seam was abandoned on 8 February 1922; a four-man working in the Main seam is recorded in 1950.

What remains

The site has been redeveloped.

Related mines

• Blackhouse Colliery — The abandonment plans of both name the same old shafts on the ground, among them the Bounder, Clover East and West, Dayhole, Lucky, Prosperous and Stubble.

What's uncertain

Points where sources disagree or the record could not be settled; both accounts are kept. All open questions in the archive.

• The Durham Record Office gives South Birtley Colliery's opening as 1866 or 1802. (disputed) ³

Recorded claims

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

• Plans of South Birtley workings in the Maudlin, Five Quarter, Main, Low Main and Hutton seams are dated 1768 and 1773. ^1,2
• The Durham Record Office gives South Birtley Colliery's opening as 1866 or 1802. (disputed) ³
• Allison and Cockburn, William Allison and F. J. Allison owned South Birtley Colliery between the 1880s and the 1910s. ^4,3
• The Maudlin seam at South Birtley was abandoned on 8 February 1922. ^4,1
• South Birtley Colliery stood beside the South Birtley brick and tile works. ³

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) South Birtley Colliery: catalogue of plans of abandoned mines — Durham Mining Museum
2. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan 21866827: Birtley South, Maudlin, Five Quarter, High Main, Low Main and Hutton, 1768 — British Geological Survey
3. (secondary) South Birtley Colliery — North East Heritage Library (Coals Archive)
4. (primary) South Birtley Colliery — Durham Mining Museum

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