Twizell Colliery

Overview

A Joicey colliery at Grange Villa near Pelton, on ground where coal was being bored for in 1739; its Engine Pit was sunk in 1843-44, it employed over 450 in the 1920s, and it closed in August 1938.

History

Twizell Colliery lay at Grange Villa, near Edmondsley and Pelton, about seven miles north-north-west of Durham. Coal was worked at Twizell long before the colliery of that name: a boring was in progress below the Main Coal in a pit at Twizell in 1739, a staple sunk from the surface in 1795 proved four thin seams, and a boring below the Hutton was made in an Engine Pit in 1799.

The colliery's Engine Pit, near Gingling Gate, was sunk from March 1843 to April 1844, reaching the Hutton, six feet thick, at about 328 feet; the Gate Pit was the other shaft. James Joicey owned it in the 1850s and James Joicey and Co. Ltd from the 1860s, with John Humble as manager from 1882 to 1896 and William Severs from 1900. In 1896 a boring below the Hutton in the Gate Pit proved the Harvey, Tilley, Busty, Three-Quarter and Brockwell seams to about 728 feet.

Twizell raised coking and gas coal and some fireclay, employing 173 in 1894, 373 in 1910 and 454 in 1923. Its older Low Main, Hutton, Main, Five Quarter and Maudlin workings, planned with Pelton West, were abandoned in November 1909. Lambton, Hetton and Joicey Collieries Ltd held it in the 1930s, when its seams were given up one after another: the Main in 1930, the Busty in 1934, the Hutton, Maudlin and Tilley in 1937, and the Low Main, Beaumont or Towneley and Brockwell on 4 August 1938, when the colliery closed.

Geology

The Main Coal, Maudlin, Low Main and Hutton (six feet at about 328 feet) in the Engine Pit, and below them the Harvey, Tilley or Constantine, Busty, Three-Quarter and Top and Bottom Brockwell proved in the Gate Pit in 1896.

Workings

The Engine Pit and the Gate Pit, working up to six seams at once in the 1920s.

Closure

Seams were abandoned from 1909 onwards; the last, the Low Main, Beaumont or Towneley and Brockwell, on 4 August 1938.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Recorded claims

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

• A boring was in progress below the Main Coal in a coal-pit at Twizell in 1739. ¹
• The Engine Pit was sunk from March 1843 to April 1844, reaching the Hutton seam at about 328 feet. ^1,2
• A boring in the Gate Pit in 1896 proved the Harvey, Busty and Brockwell seams below the Hutton. ³
• Employed 454 people in 1923. ¹
• The Pelton West and Twizell workings in the Low Main, Hutton, Main, Five Quarter and Maudlin were abandoned in 1909. ^4,5
• John Humble was manager from 1882 to 1896. ⁶
• Closed on 4 August 1938, when the Low Main, Beaumont or Towneley and Brockwell were abandoned. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Twizell Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (primary) Account of Strata sunk through in the Engine Pit, near Gingling Gate, Twizell Colliery, March 1843 to April 1844 (An Account of the strata of Northumberland & Durham as proved by Borings & Sinkings) — North of England Institute of Mining & Mechanical Engineers, via the Durham Mining Museum
3. (primary) Account of Strata sunk and bored through below the Hutton Seam in the Gate Pit, Twizell Colliery, 1896 (An Account of the strata of Northumberland & Durham as proved by Borings & Sinkings) — North of England Institute of Mining & Mechanical Engineers, via the Durham Mining Museum
4. (primary) BGS mine plan: Pelton West and Twizell, 1909 — British Geological Survey
5. (primary) Catalogue of Plans of Abandoned Mines: Twizell Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
6. (primary) Twizell Colliery: Colliery Management (prior to 1970) — Durham Mining Museum

Record created: 4 October 2026 · Last researched: 9 October 2026