Swalwell Garesfield Colliery

Overview

A Swalwell colliery of the 1880s with the Henry and Edith pits, worked by G. R. Ramsay and then Dunston Garesfield Collieries; over 300 worked there in the 1900s, 124 of its miners were jailed in a dispute of 1909, and it closed in August 1940.

History

Swalwell Garesfield Colliery, also known as Swalwell Colliery, lay at Swalwell, about three miles west-south-west of Newcastle. Its Henry Pit was opened around the 1880s at the south of the village on Miller's Lane, with a drift as well as a shaft whose headgear dominated the townscape, and sidings on a branch from the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway by the river. The smaller Edith Pit stood behind the school on Market Lane, reached by a footpath and probably a second way into the Henry Pit's workings. There was no pit village; the men lived in the existing cottages of a village already given over to a paper mill and metal works.

George R. Ramsay owned it in the 1890s, raising coal and fireclay. In April 1896 a hewer was killed and another injured by an explosion of firedamp in the Five Quarter seam. Dunston Garesfield Collieries Ltd took it over in the 1900s, when it employed 340 to 368 people, under Jackson Swindle as manager from 1902 to 1921. The pit had persistent trouble with industrial relations: in 1909 miners who stayed away from work, many in sympathy with men already sent to Durham Gaol, were imprisoned in batches, the first of them 124 men jailed for seven days, with hundreds of villagers supporting them.

The Brockwell was abandoned at the Henry Pit in December 1920 and the Five Quarter in August 1921. In 1927 a stoneman died of burns after going into a nearby place, apparently curious about a fault, and the owners prosecuted the master shifter and the deputy, who were both convicted. The Tilley, Stone or Busty and Five Quarter seams were abandoned on 10 November 1933, and the colliery, still employing about 190, closed in August 1940. The site is now an industrial zone.

Geology

The Brockwell, Five Quarter, Tilley and Stone or Busty seams, with fireclay.

Workings

The Henry Pit, with a shaft and a drift, and the smaller Edith Pit.

Closure

The Brockwell was abandoned in December 1920, the Five Quarter in August 1921, the Tilley, Stone or Busty and Five Quarter in November 1933; the colliery closed in August 1940.

What remains

The Henry Pit site is an industrial zone and the Edith Pit site a light industrial yard; nothing of the colliery remains.

None.

Related mines

• Dunston Colliery — Both were Dunston Garesfield Collieries pits, and Swalwell's Brockwell workings are catalogued with Dunston's on the 'Dunston & Swalwell' plan of 1924.

Recorded claims

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

• Swalwell Garesfield Colliery had two pits, the Edith and the Henry; the Henry Pit opened around the 1880s with a shaft and a drift. ^1,2,3
• George R. Ramsay owned Swalwell Colliery in the 1890s and Dunston Garesfield Collieries Ltd from the 1900s. ^1,2
• In 1909 batches of Swalwell miners were imprisoned for absenting themselves from work, the first 124 of them for seven days. ³
• On 27 April 1896 an explosion of firedamp in the Five Quarter seam at Swalwell killed one man and injured another. ⁴
• After a stoneman died of burns at Swalwell Garesfield in 1927, the master shifter and the deputy were prosecuted and convicted. ⁵
• Swalwell Garesfield Colliery closed in August 1940. ^1,2
• A combined Dunston and Swalwell plan of the Brockwell seam is dated 1924. ⁶

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Swalwell Garesfield Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) Swalwell Garesfield Colliery (HER 5982) — Tyne and Wear HER (Sitelines)
3. (secondary) Swalwell Garesfield Colliery (Henry Pit) — North East Heritage Library (Coals Archive)
4. (primary) Swalwell Colliery: explosion of firedamp, 27 April 1896 — Durham Mining Museum
5. (primary) Swalwell Garesfield Colliery: accident, 15 August 1927 — Durham Mining Museum
6. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan 21897173: Dunston and Swalwell, Brockwell, 1924 — British Geological Survey

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