Tudhoe Grange Colliery

Overview

A Weardale Iron Company colliery at Low Spennymoor, sunk to the Brockwell in 1869-70, which employed over a hundred and stopped in March 1885; its buildings and reservoir outlasted it by decades.

History

Tudhoe Grange Colliery lay at Low Spennymoor, about five and a half miles south of Durham. The Weardale Iron Company began to sink it on 5 May 1869 and finished on 2 September 1870, when the shaft reached the Brockwell seam. It belonged to the Weardale Iron and Coal Company Ltd in the 1880s, the Weardale Iron Company Ltd in the 1890s and the Weardale Steel, Coal and Coke Company Ltd in the 1900s. W. Johnson was manager from 1882 to 1890, with J. R. Crone as agent.

It employed 108 people in 1883. Eight deaths are recorded between 1871 and 1880, all single: James Archer, a deputy, was killed in 1871 when the descending cage caught his head as he looked over into the shaft; Stephenson Lax, a pump minder of 15, fell from an intermediate seam to the bottom of the pit the same year; and William Wilkinson, a driver of 12, was run over by tubs in 1873.

The colliery closed in March 1885 and stood idle, with a handful of men kept on in the mid-1890s, until it was returned as not working in 1902. Its buildings and reservoir lasted much longer, and appear on the maps of the 1890s and 1910s. Plans of the Tudhoe and Croxdale workings include Tudhoe Grange: the Brockwell there was abandoned in 1931, and the Harvey, known locally as the Hutton, and the Busty in 1936.

Geology

The Brockwell seam; later plans add the Harvey (known locally as the Hutton) and Busty.

Workings

A shaft sunk to the Brockwell in 1869-70, with an intermediate seam inset, and a reservoir.

Closure

The colliery closed in March 1885; its workings, taken in by Tudhoe and Croxdale, were abandoned in 1931 and 1936.

What remains

The site has been redeveloped; aerial photographs show the reservoir and the remains of a few buildings.

The reservoir and the remains of a few buildings, visible from the air.

Related mines

• Croxdale Colliery — Shared plan: the Tudhoe and Croxdale abandonment plans of 1931 and 1936 take in Tudhoe Grange's workings.
• Tudhoe Colliery — Both were Weardale Iron Company collieries, and Tudhoe Grange's workings appear on the Tudhoe and Croxdale abandonment plans.

Recorded claims

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

• The Weardale Iron Company began sinking Tudhoe Grange Colliery on 5 May 1869 and reached the Brockwell seam on 2 September 1870. ¹
• Tudhoe Grange Colliery employed 108 people in 1883. ¹
• Tudhoe Grange Colliery closed in 1885. ^1,2
• Tudhoe Grange's buildings and reservoir appear on maps of the 1890s and 1910s. ²
• The Tudhoe and Croxdale plans that include Tudhoe Grange record the Brockwell abandoned in 1931 and the Harvey and Busty in 1936. ³

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Tudhoe Grange Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) Tudhoe Grange Colliery — North East Heritage Library (Coals Archive)
3. (primary) Tudhoe Grange Colliery: catalogue of plans of abandoned mines — Durham Mining Museum

Record created: 23 October 2026 · Last researched: 23 October 2026