Usworth Colliery

Overview

A Durham-coalfield colliery at Usworth, west of Sunderland, sunk from April 1845 and worked for almost 130 years until August 1974. It raised gas coal for most of its life, and was the scene of two explosions — thirteen killed in 1850 and forty-two in 1885, the latter set off by shotfiring in a stone drift.

History

Sinking began on 7 April 1845 and the colliery opened the same year under G. Elliott, later Sir George Elliot, whose partnerships with J. Johansson held it through the 1840s and 1850s. John Bowes & Partners took it over in 1882, and it passed afterwards through Johansson, Gordon & Co., Leverson's Wallsend Collieries and the Washington Coal Company before nationalisation in 1947. Three further shafts were added over time — the Frederick Pit in 1874, the Victoria in 1910, and the Wellington. Two explosions mark the colliery's record. On 5 June 1850 an outburst of gas ignited by a naked light killed thirteen. On the evening of 2 March 1885 a build-up of methane was fired by shotfiring in a stone drift, and the resulting coal-dust explosion killed forty-two men and boys (see Disasters, below) and threw hundreds of Usworth miners out of work. The annual returns record plain coal to 1890, gas coal from 1894, steam coal added by 1935 and bunker coal by 1940, when the colliery raised 285,000 tons. It closed on 1 August 1974.

Geology

The colliery worked the Coal Measures of the east Durham coalfield, its 1885 explosion occurring in the Maudlin Seam. The coal was returned as gas quality from the 1890s — the trade that took most of the output from this part of the coalfield — with steam and bunker coals added later as the market changed.

Workings

Sinking began in April 1845, and the colliery worked through several shafts — the west pit, wrecked in the 1885 explosion, the Frederick Pit of 1874, the Victoria of 1910 and the Wellington. The 1885 explosion was in the Maudlin Seam. The colliery's output was returned as gas coal from 1894 onward, with steam and bunker coal added in the twentieth century.

Closure

Closed on 1 August 1974 under the National Coal Board.

What remains

The colliery site has been cleared and built over as part of Washington. Memorials to the men killed in 1885 stand in Holy Trinity churchyard at High Usworth and at Our Blessed Lady in Washington Village, where the Anglican and Roman Catholic dead were buried separately.

No colliery structures survive; two churchyard memorials to the 1885 dead.

Disasters & major incidents

• Usworth Colliery Explosion, 1885
  2 March 1885 · Explosion · 42 fatalities
  At 8.58 on the evening of Monday 2 March 1885, methane that had built up in a stone drift at Usworth Colliery was ignited by shotfiring. The coal dust, gas and air explosion that followed killed forty men outright; two more died of afterdamp while trying to reach them. Hundreds of Usworth miners were suddenly out of work.

Recorded claims

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

• Sinking began on 7 April 1845 and the colliery opened that year. (high) ¹
• The Frederick Pit opened in 1874 and the Victoria Pit in 1910; a Wellington Pit is also recorded. (high) ¹
• The colliery's returns record gas coal from 1894, with steam coal added by 1935 and bunker coal by 1940, when output was 285,000 tons. (high) ¹
• An outburst of gas ignited by a naked light on 5 June 1850 killed thirteen. (medium) ¹
• The colliery closed on 1 August 1974. (high) ¹
• The explosion of 2 March 1885 killed forty-two and threw hundreds of Usworth miners out of work; the Anglican dead were buried at Holy Trinity, High Usworth, and the Roman Catholic dead at Our Lady's, Washington Village, where memorials stand. (high) ^1,2

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Durham Mining Museum: Usworth Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) The Usworth Colliery Disaster, 2nd March 1885 — Raggy Spelk: Washington, County Durham

Record created: 3 September 2026 · Last researched: 3 September 2026