Springwell Colliery

Overview

A Durham colliery between Gateshead and Washington, sunk from May 1821 and drawing its first coal in January 1826 for Lord Ravensworth and partners — the same partnership behind the Bowes Railway that served it. Two catastrophic explosions marked its early years: forty-seven killed in the B Pit in 1833, most of them boys, and twenty-seven in 1837. It closed in June 1932.

History

Sinking began on 8 May 1821 and the colliery drew its first coal on 17 January 1826, working two pits — A and B — which shared a single shaft divided down its length by a brattice. It belonged to Lord Ravensworth and partners, and passed later to John Bowes & Co., to the Marley Hill Coal Company in the 1860s, and to John Bowes & Partners Ltd from the 1880s. On 9 May 1833 an explosion in the B Pit killed forty-seven outright — only nine or ten of them adults, the rest boys (see Disasters, below). Ventilation was substantially improved afterwards, including a new connection from the Springwell pit to a shaft on Black Fell to give a proper downcast and upcast, and the pitmen no longer considered the pit fiery. It made no difference on 6 December 1837, when a second explosion in the Hutton seam killed twenty-seven of the twenty-nine men and boys at work in that district. A third explosion on 29 January 1869 killed five. The colliery closed in June 1932.

Geology

The colliery worked the Coal Measures of north-west Durham, taking coal from both the Hetton and Hutton seams. The Hutton dips eastward here at about a foot in sixteen. What the 1837 inquest brought out is how the geology shaped the danger: the broken workings, where the supporting pillars were being taken out, were always reckoned the likeliest place for foul air to gather, which is why safety lamps were used there and nowhere else.

Workings

Two pits, A and B, which shared one shaft divided by a strong brattice. The colliery worked the Hetton seam at 120 fathoms and the Hutton at 128, the latter dipping east at about one foot in sixteen. Its workings were divided into districts, one of them a mile from the shaft. Both whole-coal and broken (pillar) working were carried on; safety lamps were used exclusively in the pillar workings while candles were still used for blasting the whole coal. After 1833 a connection was driven from the Springwell pit to a shaft on Black Fell, making one the downcast and the other the upcast.

Closure

The colliery closed in June 1932.

What remains

The colliery site has been cleared. The Bowes Railway, built to carry coal from Springwell and its neighbours to the Tyne, survives in part as a preserved railway with its workshops at Springwell.

No colliery structures; the Bowes Railway workshops at Springwell survive as a preserved railway.

Nearby mines

• Usworth Colliery — 3.0 km E
• Harraton Colliery — 5.0 km S
• Chartershaugh Colliery — 5.9 km SE, County Durham
• Herrington Colliery — 7.8 km SE
• Hylton Colliery — 8.0 km E

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

Disasters & major incidents

• Springwell Colliery Explosion, 1833
  9 May 1833 · Explosion · 47 fatalities
  An explosion in the B Pit at Springwell Colliery on 9 May 1833 killed forty-seven people instantly. Only nine or ten were adults; the rest were boys, some of them eight years old. The mine had been examined and declared safe that morning, and safety lamps ordered as a precaution when a blower was pricked. Thirty-nine of the dead were still underground the following night.
• Springwell Colliery Explosion, 1837
  6 December 1837 · Explosion · 27 fatalities
  Four years after an explosion killed forty-seven at Springwell, the ventilation had been rebuilt and the pitmen no longer thought the mine fiery. On 6 December 1837 a second explosion in the Hutton seam killed twenty-seven of the twenty-nine men and boys at work in that district. The likeliest cause was a safety lamp dropped across the rolley way and run over.

Recorded claims

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

• Sinking began on 8 May 1821 and the colliery drew its first coal on 17 January 1826. (high) ¹
• The colliery consisted of two pits, A and B, although containing but one shaft, which divided them by a strong and formidable piece of woodwork termed a brattice. (high) ²
• The 1833 explosion occurred in the Hetton seam at a depth of 120 fathoms; the 1837 inquest gave the depth of the pit to the Hutton seam as 128 fathoms, the seam dipping east at one foot in sixteen. (high) ^2,3
• After the earlier accident every available means was adopted to improve the ventilation, the most expensive being a communication driven from the Springwell pit to another shaft on Black Fell, the former the downcast and the latter the upcast. (high) ³
• In the pillar or 'broken' workings safety lamps were used exclusively, and the men were supplied with locked lamps as they went down; but when working the unbroken seam the custom was to blast it with gunpowder, and for that the men used candles. (high) ³
• The colliery closed in June 1932. (high) ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Durham Mining Museum: Springwell Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) M. A. Richardson, Local Historian's Table Book (1844), on the Springwell B Pit explosion of 1833 — Durham Mining Museum, quoting Richardson
3. (secondary) M. A. Richardson, Local Historian's Table Book (1844), on the Springwell explosion of 1837 — Durham Mining Museum, quoting Richardson

Record created: 3 September 2026 · Last researched: 3 September 2026