Tanfield Lea Colliery

Overview

A colliery at Tanfield Lea, near Stanley, begun for the Marquis of Bute in 1829 and worked by the Joicey family from 1847; with its Margaret Pit of 1903 it employed nearly 1,700 in 1910, and it closed under the National Coal Board on 25 August 1962.

History

Tanfield Lea Colliery was opened in 1829 by the Marquis of Bute. Its Engine shaft was begun on 3 March 1830 and finished on 25 November 1831 at the Main Coal, about 412 feet down, and the Old Engine Pit was sunk in 1831. On 30 September 1839 sinking began on a new colliery 600 yards west of the first pit, to the Five Quarter seam. James Joicey held the colliery from 1847.

By 1894 James Joicey and Co. Ltd worked Tanfield Lea through two shafts, 65 and 31 fathoms deep, in the Hutton, ten feet thick, the Main Coal, the Brass Thill and the Five Quarter; these seams employed 670 men and boys and raised 305,540 tons a year. The Ann and Bute pits then employed about 690. The Wind Pit was deepened from the Main Coal to the Victoria seam between 1898 and 1900, and the Margaret Pit opened in 1903. In 1910 the colliery employed 1,685, more than a thousand of them at the Wind and Margaret pits.

Lambton, Hetton and Joicey Collieries Ltd held it in the 1940s and the National Coal Board from 1947. It still employed about 800 through the 1950s, in the Hutton, Busty, Beaumont and Victoria seams, and 630 in 1961. It closed on 25 August 1962; plans of its Beaumont or Harvey workings were deposited as abandoned in 1963.

The museum's list of those killed at the colliery holds 57 names; two stonemen were killed together by a fall of stone on 10 September 1923. Tommy Armstrong, the 'Pitman's Poet', lived at Tanfield Lea.

Geology

Durham coalfield: the Shield Row, Five Quarter, Brass Thill, Main Coal (reached at about 412 ft in the Engine shaft) and Hutton (ten feet thick in 1894), with the Beaumont, Tilley, Busty, Brockwell and Victoria worked from the Wind Pit's deepening.

Workings

Engine shaft (1830-31), Old Engine Pit (1831), Ann, Bute and Wind pits, the Margaret Pit (1903), and a new winning of 1839 600 yards west of the first pit.

Closure

Closed on 25 August 1962 under the National Coal Board.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Culture

• Tommy Armstrong, the Pitman's Poet (Music)
  Armstrong lived for most of his life at Tanfield Lea, the colliery's village, and wrote of its band and its pits.

Recorded claims

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

• Opened in 1829 by the Marquis of Bute. ^1,2
• The Engine shaft was sunk from 3 March 1830 to 25 November 1831, reaching the Main Coal. ^2,3
• The colliery employed 1,685 in 1910. ²
• The Margaret Pit opened in 1903. ²
• Closed on 25 August 1962. ^4,5,2
• Tommy Armstrong, the 'Pitman's Poet', lived at Tanfield Lea. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Stanley Town Council: History of Tanfield — Stanley Town Council
2. (primary) Durham Mining Museum: Tanfield Lea Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
3. (primary) Durham Mining Museum: Tanfield Lea Colliery Engine Shaft shaft details — Durham Mining Museum
4. (secondary) Wikipedia: Tanfield, County Durham — Wikipedia
5. (secondary) Co-Curate: Tanfield — Newcastle University (Co-Curate)

Record created: 6 October 2026 · Last researched: 6 October 2026