Stagshaw Bank Colliery

Overview

A small landsale colliery at Stagshaw Bank, near Corbridge, working a thin coal among the limestones from the 1880s. Run by the Halls, the English brothers and Matthew Mitcheson, it passed to the Coal Board only in 1953 and closed on 4 October 1958.

History

Stagshaw Bank Colliery lay at Whittington, north-east of Hexham, and raised landsale and household coal from the 1880s. Its working shaft, sunk from about 730 feet above sea level, passed through freestone, plate and the Little Limestone to a coal of about 20 inches at 122 feet. John Hall worked it in the 1880s, followed by John Hall and Sons, T. and John Hall, Hall and English Brothers and, from the 1910s, English Brothers. It was always small: ten to twenty men for most of its life, though 62 in 1925, working the Acomb seam and Limestone coal and, from 1925, the Little Limestone.

By the 1940s Matthew Mitcheson worked it, and it was not until 1953 that the National Coal Board took it over. Under the Board it grew for a short time, to 37 men in 1955 and 86 in 1957, before it closed on 4 October 1958; the plan of its Little Limestone workings is dated two days later.

Geology

Carboniferous limestone coal: the Acomb seam, Limestone Coal and Little Limestone coal, beneath freestone, plate and the Little Limestone.

Workings

A working shaft about 122 feet deep to the Little Limestone coal; landsale working.

Closure

Taken over by the NCB in 1953 and closed on 4 October 1958; the Little Limestone plan is dated 6 October 1958.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Recorded claims

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

• Stagshaw Bank's owners were John Hall in the 1880s, the Halls and English Brothers, English Brothers in the 1910s and Matthew Mitcheson in the 1940s; the NCB took it over in 1953. ¹
• Its working shaft passed through the Little Limestone to a coal at about 122 feet. ²
• It employed 11 people in 1894, 62 in 1925, 14 in 1950 and 86 in 1957. ¹
• Stagshaw Bank Colliery closed on 4 October 1958. ^3,1
• Its Little Limestone workings were abandoned on 6 October 1958. ⁴

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Stagshaw Bank Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (primary) Stagshaw Bank Colliery shaft details — Durham Mining Museum
3. (secondary) NCB Collieries - England (Northern Mine Research Society) — Northern Mine Research Society
4. (primary) BGS mine plan: Stagshaw, Little Limestone, abandoned 6 October 1958 — BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans

Record created: 4 October 2026 · Last researched: 4 October 2026