Walker Colliery

Overview

One of the oldest deep collieries on the Tyne, opened at Walker in 1762 with horse winding and among the first to take steam winding and a Watt pumping engine, worked out of its High Main by 1811 and kept going on poorer seams until about 1920.

History

Walker Colliery, on the north bank of the Tyne east of Newcastle, began with the West Engine Pit, which opened in January 1762 and reached coal at 600 feet. It was wound by eight horses, raising a corf of coal in two minutes; in 1769 the horses were partly replaced by steam, the early steam winder was then replaced by a water gin, and in 1784 a rotative steam engine was installed, with a James Watt pumping engine following in 1796. Further pits followed: the Jane Pit from February 1790, the King Pit from May 1794, sunk 577 feet, the Charlotte Pit from November 1801, and the Ann and East pits. The Charlotte found the High Main at 600 feet and was carried on through the Bensham at 817 feet to the Low Main, six feet thick, at 962 feet. By 1795 only creep-damaged pillars of coal were left in the High Main seam, and by 1811 it was exhausted. In 1842, when the High Main was abandoned and tubbed off at Tyne Main, Walker's owners joined those of Felling, Wallsend, Willington and Heaton in paying to keep the great Friar's Goose pumping engine at work.

The colliery's disasters began early: explosions killed eight in April 1765 and ten in March 1766, and a fall of stones killed six in June 1823. The Ann shaft had been shut for several years when, about 1861, it was reopened and deepened to the Low Main. On 22 November 1862, the day after the lower furnace had been damped down so that a shaft could be retubbed, an explosion killed sixteen of the twenty-eight men sent down to blast at a geological fault; a faulty lamp was blamed. Owned by Lambert and Company in the 1850s, N. G. Lambert and Company in the 1860s and the Walker Coal Company Ltd from the 1890s, it worked the Low Main at 165 fathoms, the Beaumont at 190 and the Brockwell at 206 in 1887; on 24 October 1887 an explosion in the Brockwell killed eight (see Disasters, below).

Henry White managed the colliery from the late 1880s until about 1902 and Edward S. Fawcett, his under-manager, from 1905 to the end. Employment peaked at 1,312 in 1905. The Bensham, Low Main, Beaumont and Brockwell seams were abandoned in 1919 and the High Main in 1920, and the colliery closed about then; the plans of the five seams were deposited as abandoned in November 1918.

Geology

The High Main seam, worked out by 1811, then the Bensham, Low Main (165 fathoms), Beaumont (190 fathoms), Busty and Brockwell (206 fathoms) seams. In the Charlotte Pit the High Main lay at 600 feet, the Metal Coal at 638, the Yard at 705, the Bensham at 817, the Five-Quarter at 909 and the Low Main at 962 feet; the East Pit cut the High Main at 551 feet.

Workings

The West Engine Pit (1762) and the Jane, King, Charlotte, Ann and East pits; horse winding replaced by steam from 1769, a rotative engine in 1784 and a Watt pumping engine in 1796. In 1887 the Ann Pit was the downcast and coal-drawing shaft, the Jane Pit an upcast with a Guibal fan.

Closure

The Tyne and Wear HER gives both 1918 and 1920 for the end of working and DMM 1920; the Bensham, Low Main, Beaumont and Brockwell seams were abandoned in 1919 and the High Main in 1920. The catalogue of abandoned-mine plans dates the abandonment of the Bensham, Beaumont, Brockwell, High Main and Low Main to November 1918.

What remains

The colliery has gone; the Tyne and Wear HER records the B Pit only as an old shaft on the second edition Ordnance Survey map.

A square-column monument with an urn, erected by the colliery to the eight men killed at the Ann Pit in October 1887, stands at Christ Church, Walker.

Related mines

• Felling Colliery — From 1842 both collieries' owners shared the cost of the Friar's Goose pumping engine to keep water from reaching the dip workings.
• Tyne Main Colliery — Walker's owners shared the cost of Tyne Main's Friar's Goose pumping engine from 1842.
• Wallsend Colliery — From 1842 both collieries' owners shared the cost of the Friar's Goose pumping engine to keep water from reaching the dip workings.

Disasters & major incidents

• Walker Colliery explosion, 1765
  2 April 1765 · Explosion · 8 fatalities
  In April 1765 Walker Colliery, near Newcastle, fired at a depth of about a hundred fathoms and badly burnt the men at work, none fatally. The next day overmen and others went down to examine the mine and it fired a second time, killing eight of them and seventeen horses.
• Walker Colliery explosion, 1766
  18 March 1766 · Explosion · 10 fatalities

  Ten people were killed at Walker Colliery on the Tyne on 18 March 1766, eleven months after an explosion at the same pit had killed eight. The Durham Mining Museum records both among the colliery's disasters and names the dead; neither entry gives a cause for the 1766 accident.

  Walker Colliery, sunk on the north bank of the Tyne below Newcastle in the 1750s, was one of the deepest pits of its day. On 2 April 1765 an explosion there killed eight people. Less than a year later, on 18 March 1766, ten more were killed. The colliery went on to lose six men to a fall of stones in 1823 and sixteen to a firedamp explosion in 1862.

• Walker Colliery fall of stones, 1823
  19 June 1823 · Collapse / Roof Fall · 6 fatalities

  In June 1823 six men clearing rubbish from the bottom of an old shaft at Walker Colliery, on the Tyne below Newcastle, were killed when stones and rubbish fell on them.

  The men were cleaning rubbish from the bottom of an old shaft when stones and rubbish fell on them. Four of the dead are known from the burial registers: William Southran, 28, William Bambridge, 31, and Thomas Copeland, 26, all of Bigges Main, and Forest Mitcheson, 35, of Walker; three were buried on 22 June and one on the 23rd. George Johnson, viewer at Heaton Colliery, recalled the accident to the 1835 Select Committee.

• Walker Colliery explosion, 1862
  22 November 1862 · Explosion · 16 fatalities
  Word reached Newcastle on the morning of 22 November 1862 that Walker Colliery had exploded and that sixteen of the people working in it -- fourteen men and two boys -- were dead. The pit belonged to the Corporation of Newcastle and was worked under lease. Among the dead were two pairs of brothers, and several of the men left widows with young families; some were buried in Christ Church churchyard at Walker.
• Walker Colliery explosion, 1887
  24 October 1887 · Explosion · 8 fatalities
  An explosion in the Brockwell seam of Walker Colliery's Ann Pit on 24 October 1887 killed eight men, six at once and two who were found alive but died later. The inspector concluded that a shot had raised coal dust carrying a little firedamp, and that the coal dust alone would probably have carried the flame.

Culture

• Byker Hill (Walker Pits) (Music)
  The song's earliest title is 'Walker Pits', and its verse says 'Walker pit's done well by me'.

What's uncertain

Points where sources disagree or the record could not be settled; both accounts are kept. All open questions in the archive.

• The Tyne and Wear HER says the colliery lasted until 1918 and, in the same entry, that it closed in 1920; DMM gives 1920 and records seams abandoned in 1919 and 1920. (disputed) ^2,1

Recorded claims

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

• The West Engine Pit opened in January 1762, reaching coal at 600 feet, wound by eight horses; steam partly replaced them in 1769, a rotative engine came in 1784 and a Watt pumping engine in 1796. ¹
• By 1795 only creep-affected pillars were left in the High Main seam, exhausted by 1811; the colliery then worked lower, poorer seams. ¹
• From 1842 Walker's owners contributed, with Felling, Wallsend, Willington and Heaton, to keeping the Friar's Goose pumping engine at work. ²
• Explosions killed 8 in 1765, 10 in 1766, 16 in 1862 and 8 in 1887; a fall of stones killed 6 in 1823. ^2,1,3,4
• The Tyne and Wear HER says the colliery lasted until 1918 and, in the same entry, that it closed in 1920; DMM gives 1920 and records seams abandoned in 1919 and 1920. (disputed) ^2,1
• The King Pit, sunk from 5 May 1794, went down 577 feet; the Charlotte Pit, sunk from 2 November 1801, cut the High Main at 600 feet, the Bensham at 817 feet and the Low Main at 962 feet. ^2,5,6
• By 1862 the Ann shaft had been closed for several years and had been reopened about a year earlier, when it was deepened to the Low Main seam. ⁷
• Plans of the Bensham, Beaumont, Brockwell, High Main and Low Main seams were deposited as abandoned in November 1918. ⁸
• Henry White was manager from 1888 to 1902 and Edward S. Fawcett from 1905 to 1915. ⁹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Walker Colliery B Pit (HER 4206) — Tyne and Wear Historic Environment Record (Sitelines)
2. (primary) Walker Colliery (Durham Mining Museum) — Durham Mining Museum
3. (secondary) Walker Colliery Explosion – Walker – 1887 — Northern Mine Research Society
4. (primary) Disasters – Names: Walker, 22nd November 1862 — Durham Mining Museum
5. (primary) Durham Mining Museum - Walker Colliery shaft details: Charlotte Pit — Durham Mining Museum
6. (primary) Durham Mining Museum - Walker Colliery shaft details: King Pit — Durham Mining Museum
7. (primary) Walker Colliery, Anne Pit (HER 4207) — Tyne and Wear HER
8. (primary) Durham Mining Museum - Walker Colliery, catalogue of plans of abandoned mines — Durham Mining Museum
9. (primary) Durham Mining Museum - Walker Colliery management — Durham Mining Museum
10. (primary) Christ Church, monument to Walker Colliery disaster (HER 13244) — Tyne and Wear Historic Environment Record (Sitelines)
11. (primary) Walker Colliery, Jane Pit (HER 4200) — Tyne and Wear HER

Record created: 17 September 2026 · Last researched: 1 October 2026