St Lawrence Colliery

Overview

A colliery on the Tyne at St Lawrence, in the eastern suburbs of Newcastle, whose old High Main workings, long drowned, were drained by the Friar's Goose engine and reopened in 1831. Its new pit, Picton Main, was sunk to the Low Main in eight months, shipping its first coal amid gunfire and celebration in August 1833.

History

St Lawrence Colliery stood beside the River Tyne in the eastern suburbs of Newcastle, held of the mayor and corporation of the town. Its High Main, or Wallsend, seam had been worked more than a century before and then lay drowned, until the winning of Friar's Goose Colliery on the opposite bank in 1830: the old workings ran into one another under the river, and the Friar's Goose engine drained St Lawrence too. Robert Todd and the colliery viewer John Watson reopened it in 1831 through an old shaft to the High Main, but the pillars had mostly been worked away, and the High Main plans were abandoned that year.

After Watson's death a new pit, Picton Main, was sunk from the surface from 3 December 1832 to the Low Main seam, 94 fathoms down, in the unprecedented time of eight months, opening a whole suite of Tyne seams; on 7 August 1833 guns were fired in celebration as the first vessel was loaded from the Low Main, six feet thick, and more than 120 tons were raised on the second day of working. The colliery was among the first to use square tubs, the shafts fitted with cages guided by wooden spears and worked by two winding engines; the coal went to an inclined plane 400 yards long and a short waggonway ran north from a staith at St Lawrence's to Picton Main Pit. The workings extended under Sandgate and the Tyne. In November 1834 three men were killed by an explosion of gas while building stoppings (see Disasters, below). By the 1840s the colliery was worked by Messrs Todd, Dunn and Ridley; its Bensham plans were abandoned in 1837, and the pits and their waggonway had closed by the middle of the century.

Geology

Tyne coalfield: the High Main (Wallsend), Metal Coal, Bensham, Six Quarter, Five Quarter and Low Main seams, the Low Main six feet thick.

Workings

An old shaft to the High Main reopened in 1831 and the Picton Main pit sunk to the Low Main in 1832-33; square tubs in cages guided by wooden spears, two winding engines, a 400-yard inclined plane and a waggonway to a staith at St Lawrence's; workings under Sandgate and the Tyne.

Closure

The pits and their waggonway had closed by the mid-19th century (Tyne and Wear HER). The Bensham plans are dated 1837, and plans of the Low Main and Six Quarter were deposited in 1934.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Tyne Main Colliery — The Friar's Goose engine of Tyne Main Colliery, across the Tyne, drained the old St Lawrence workings in 1830-31, allowing the colliery to reopen.

Disasters & major incidents

• St Lawrence Colliery explosion, 1834
  24 November 1834 · Explosion · 3 fatalities
  On the night of 24 November 1834 an explosion of gas at St Lawrence Colliery, Newcastle, killed two masons and a shifter who were building brick stoppings by candlelight.

Recorded claims

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

• The High Main at St Lawrence had been worked over a century before and lay drowned until the winning of Friar's Goose Colliery in 1830, whose engine drained it and led Robert Todd and John Watson to reopen it in 1831. ^1,2
• The new pit was sunk from 3 December 1832 to the Low Main, 94 fathoms, in eight months; on 7 August 1833 guns were fired as the first vessel was loaded. ^1,2
• St Lawrence was one of the first collieries to use square tubs in cages guided by wooden spears, worked by two winding engines, with an inclined plane 400 yards long. ²
• A short waggonway ran north from a staith at St Lawrence's in Byker to Picton Main Pit; the pits and the line had closed by the mid-19th century. ³
• The St Lawrence High Main workings were abandoned in 1831 and the Bensham in 1837. ⁴
• Plans of the St Lawrence Bensham workings are dated 1837, and of St Lawrence and Fryars Goose High Main workings 1831. ⁵

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) St. Lawrence Colliery (also known as Mushroom Colliery) — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) St. Lawrence Colliery (Mushroom Colliery) (HER 6989) — Tyne and Wear HER (Sitelines)
3. (secondary) St Lawrence's (Picton Main) Waggonway (HER 15341) — Tyne and Wear HER (Sitelines)
4. (primary) St. Lawrence Colliery: catalogue of plans of abandoned mines — Durham Mining Museum
5. (primary) BGS mine plan: St Lawrence, Bensham, abandoned 1837 — BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans

Record created: 5 October 2026 · Last researched: 5 October 2026