Tudhoe Colliery

Overview

One of the Weardale Iron and Coal Company’s largest collieries, sunk at Tudhoe from November 1864 and working three seams — the Hutton, the Busty and the Brockwell — from three shafts. It existed to feed coke ovens: by the 1890s it was raising some 1,350 tons a day, half of it converted on site in 432 ovens, and employing well over a thousand people. On 18 April 1882 an explosion in the Brockwell seam killed 37 men and boys and seventy horses and ponies (see Disasters, below). The colliery worked on until September 1935 and reopened after the war as the Tudhoe Park Drift.

History

Sinking began on 7 November 1864 and reached the Brockwell Seam on 7 July 1866. The colliery belonged to the Weardale Iron and Coal Company, which became the Weardale Steel, Coal and Coke Company by the 1900s, and it was worked through three shafts: the East and West pits, 58 yards apart and both downcast, and the Success pit 180 yards away, which was the upcast for the whole colliery and used for nothing else. It was a coking colliery above all. Whellan’s 1894 directory records 1,700 men and boys employed, an output of about 1,350 tons a day, and 432 coke ovens on the site taking half of it; the Busty seam carried a seggar band in the middle that supplied clay to the colliery’s own brickworks. Official returns give 1,192 employed in 1883, 1,243 in 1894, 1,203 in 1900 and 1,165 in 1910 — and, as coal gave way to fireclay, 465 in 1935, that figure including Croxdale. The seams closed one at a time. The Brockwell was abandoned in 1913, its coal exhausted; the Low Main and Hutton on 31 December 1935, and the Harvey — known locally as the Hutton — and the Busty on 16 May 1936. By 1935 the only mineral returned was fireclay. The colliery was abandoned in September 1935 and the ground was reopened at the end of the Second World War as the Tudhoe Park Drift.

Geology

The western part of the Durham Coalfield, where the productive seams lie in descending order with the Hutton at 45 fathoms from the surface, the Busty at 67 and the Brockwell at 87. The Brockwell here was 3 feet 4 inches to 3 feet 6 inches thick and dipped gently north-east at about an inch to the yard; it did not make much gas, firedamp being seen only occasionally near the goaf edge. The Busty ran from 2 feet to 4 feet 6 inches with a seggar band of clay through the middle of it, worked for the brickworks; the Hutton was about 2 feet.

Workings

Three shafts to the Brockwell: the East pit at 12½ feet diameter and the West pit at the same, both downcast and both winding coal, with the 13-foot Success pit as the upcast, ventilated by a Guibal fan 40 feet across and 12 feet wide passing 174,600 cubic feet of air a minute. From the East pit a haulage road ran north and south, with the Shieldfield, Croxdale and Coldstream branches off the northern one; from the West pit a road ran west. In the Brockwell district alone the roadways ran to more than 22,000 yards. Two engines near the shafts, taking steam from the surface, hauled coal from the landings on main and tail ropes. Davy lamps were used principally, with some Clanny and Stephenson lamps; gunpowder was fired in the whole working and in stone but not in the pillars.

Closure

Abandoned in September 1935. The Brockwell had been given up in 1913 with its coal exhausted, and by the mid-1930s the colliery was returning fireclay rather than coal; the Low Main and Hutton seams were formally abandoned on the last day of 1935 and the Harvey and Busty in May 1936. The ground did not stay shut: it was reopened at the end of the Second World War and worked as the Tudhoe Park Drift.

What remains

Nothing of the colliery survives above ground. Tudhoe Colliery is now a village between Tudhoe and Spennymoor, with its primary school on the site’s northern edge and the pit ground returned to open land and housing.

No colliery structure has been identified as surviving.

Nearby mines

• Tudhoe Whinstone Mine — 1.0 km NE
• Dean and Chapter Colliery — 3.5 km SE
• Littleburn Colliery — 4.2 km N
• Thrislington Colliery — 4.3 km SE
• Chilton Colliery — 5.0 km S

Straight-line distance, within 15 km. Show on the map.

Disasters & major incidents

• Tudhoe Colliery Explosion
  18 April 1882 · Explosion · 37 fatalities
  At about a quarter past one in the morning of 18 April 1882, firedamp exploded in the Brockwell Seam at Tudhoe Colliery, near Spennymoor in County Durham, killing 37 men and boys and seventy horses and ponies. It happened in the gap between the night shift and the fore shift, so those below were mostly repairers and stonemen. The blast ran the full length of the intake haulage roads, between landings some 2,500 yards apart, but was confined entirely to that one seam; the Hutton and Busty workings above it, from the same shafts, were untouched. The cause was recorded as ignition probably by a naked light.

Recorded claims

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

• Sinking commenced on 7 November 1864 and the shafts were sunk through the Brockwell Seam on 7 July 1866. ¹
• The colliery was worked by three shafts: the East pit and the West pit, both 12½ feet in diameter, 58 yards apart and both downcast, and the Success pit, 13 feet in diameter and 180 yards away, which was the upcast for the whole colliery and used for nothing else. ²
• Three seams were worked: the Hutton at 45 fathoms from the surface, the Busty at 67 fathoms and the Brockwell at 87 fathoms. ^1,2
• Whellan’s Directory of County Durham for 1894 records the colliery employing 1,700 men and boys, raising about 1,350 tons a day, half of which was converted into coke in 432 ovens on the site. ¹
• The Busty seam ran from 2 feet to 4 feet 6 inches thick with a seggar band through the middle, which provided the clay for the colliery’s brickworks. ¹
• Official returns give 1,192 employed in 1883, 1,243 in 1894, 1,203 in 1900, 1,165 in 1910 and 465 in 1935, the last figure including Croxdale. ¹
• The Brockwell seam was abandoned in 1913 with its coal exhausted; the Low Main and Hutton followed on 31 December 1935 and the Harvey — known locally as the Hutton — and the Busty on 16 May 1936. ¹
• The colliery was abandoned in September 1935 and the ground was reopened at the end of the Second World War, worked as the Tudhoe Park Drift. ¹
• The colliery was also known as Black Horse Colliery. (uncertain) ³

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Tudhoe Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (primary) Tudhoe Colliery Explosion — Explosions in Coal Mines — Durham Mining Museum, reproducing the contemporary account
3. (secondary) Service to remember Tudhoe Colliery disaster — South West Durham News
4. (primary) Colliery Disaster 1882 — Tudhoe — Durham Mining Museum
5. (primary) Tudhoe Colliery Inquest, 23 May 1882 — Durham Mining Museum
6. (secondary) Tudhoe & Spennymoor Local History Society — Industry: Heavy — Tudhoe and Spennymoor Local History Society

Record created: 8 September 2026 · Last researched: 8 September 2026