Stormont Main Colliery

Overview

The King Pit at Wrekenton, on Gateshead Fell, at work by 1831 and owned in the 1840s by John Grace and partners. An explosion on 5 April 1843, after days of foul air, killed twenty-seven men and boys.

History

Stormont Main Colliery, also called the King Pit, stood at Wrekenton on Gateshead Fell, three miles south-south-east of Newcastle. It was at work by July 1831, when an explosion of gas killed two men, John Boggon and John Dakers. In the 1840s it belonged to John Grace and his partners.

On 5 April 1843 the pit fired again. There had been foul air in the workings for some days and the men had been told to take extreme care; one left half an hour before the explosion saying his life was in danger. About fifty were below. Twenty-six were brought out alive, four of whom died of their injuries, and the dead numbered twenty-seven or twenty-eight, men and boys in nearly equal number, the overman Thomas Charlton among them. The blast itself was said to have been slight; gas in a working place was thought to have been lit by a candle as someone passed.

The pit is marked on the first Ordnance Survey of about 1855. A plan of its abandoned workings, in the parish of Gateshead, was deposited in 1928.

Geology

Unknown.

Workings

Unknown.

Closure

Unknown.

What remains

Unknown.

Disasters & major incidents

• Stormont Main Colliery explosion, 1843
  5 April 1843 · Explosion · 27 fatalities
  At 7.45 a.m. on 5 April 1843 gas exploded at J. Grace and Partners' Stormont Main Colliery at Wrekenton, near Gateshead, killing 27 men and boys. Foul air had stood in the workings for days, and one man had left the pit half an hour earlier saying his life was in danger.

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 explosion of 1843 claimed twenty-eight lives, sixteen men and twelve boys. (disputed) ¹

Recorded claims

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

• The colliery was also known as the King Pit, Wrekenton. ^1,2,3
• In the 1840s the colliery was owned by J. Grace and Partners. ^1,2,3
• An explosion of gas on 9 July 1831 killed two men. ²
• An explosion on 5 April 1843 killed 27 men and boys. ^2,3
• The explosion of 1843 claimed twenty-eight lives, sixteen men and twelve boys. (disputed) ¹
• There had been foul air in the pit for some days before the 1843 explosion, and about fifty men were below when it fired. ¹
• The colliery is shown on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of about 1855. ³
• A plan of the abandoned Stormont Main workings, in the parish of Gateshead, was received in 1928. ⁴

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Stormont Main Colliery Explosion - Wrekenton - 1843 — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (primary) Stormont Main Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
3. (secondary) Stormont Main Colliery, King Pit (HER 3887) — Tyne and Wear Sitelines (Historic Environment Record)
4. (primary) Catalogue of Plans of Abandoned Mines for Stormont Main Colliery — Durham Mining Museum

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