Sutty Row Colliery

Overview

A small hand-worked colliery near Wark-on-Tyne, run by the Charlton family on their own land from the 1880s, which outlived nationalisation in private hands and was still raising household coal with nine men in 1974.

History

Sutty Row Colliery lay near Wark-on-Tyne, in the parish of Birtley, and is also recorded as Birtley or Sutty Row. The Charltons were farming landowners who mined the coal on their own land: F. A. and W. Charlton worked it in the 1880s and W. Charlton, who also managed it, in the 1890s. A few wooden houses stood close to the mine, and there were a number of shafts in the area. It was a small pit, raising landsale coal and fireclay, and almost everything was done by hand.

It employed five men in the 1890s and between eleven and eighteen through the 20th century, working the Limestone Coal until the 1920s and then the Two Feet seam for household coal; in 1940 it raised 2,800 tons. By the 1940s it belonged to Charlton Collieries Ltd, and it stayed in private hands, managed by R. Williams in the 1920s and 1930s, T. Robson in the 1940s and 1950s and V. Cherryman in the 1960s and 1970s. Nine men still worked it in 1974, and it closed in the 1970s.

Geology

The Limestone Coal, worked until the 1920s, and then the Two Feet seam, with fireclay.

Workings

A number of small shafts in the area, worked largely by hand.

Closure

Still working with nine men in 1974; closed later in the 1970s.

What remains

Unknown.

Recorded claims

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

• Sutty Row was worked by the Charltons, farming landowners who mined the coal on their own land: F. A. and W. Charlton in the 1880s and W. Charlton in the 1890s. ^1,2
• In 1940 Sutty Row raised 2,800 tons of household coal with 13 men. ¹
• Sutty Row still employed nine men in 1974, working the Two Feet seam. ¹
• Sutty Row was a small rural pit where almost everything was done by hand; it closed in the 1970s. ²
• Plans of the 'Birtley or Sutty Row' workings were listed among abandoned mines in 1888. ^3,4

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Sutty Row Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) Sutty Row Colliery — North East Heritage Library (Coals Archive)
3. (primary) Sutty Row Colliery: catalogue of plans of abandoned mines — Durham Mining Museum
4. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan 21875974: Birtley or Sutty Row, unnamed seam — British Geological Survey

Record created: 22 October 2026 · Last researched: 22 October 2026