Wallsend Colliery

Overview

Wallsend Colliery, also known as Russell's Wallsend, worked the ground four miles east-north-east of Newcastle from about 1778 until 1935 through a group of seven pits. Its High Main seam, nearly six feet thick, produced coal of such quality that 'Wallsend' passed into the language as a grade of household coal long after the colliery itself had ceased to supply it. John Buddle, who did more than anyone to improve colliery ventilation and who worked with Humphry Davy on the safety lamp, managed it from 1806. It was also among the deadliest pits on Tyneside: the Durham Mining Museum records ten separate incidents here with five or more killed, the worst of them the explosion of 18 June 1835 in which 102 men and boys died (see Disasters, below).

History

The colliery was sunk from about 1778, and by 1782 was at work. Sinking was difficult and expensive, and the Russell family who owned it are said to have come close to abandoning the attempt; they persevered, and the pit became the foundation of the family fortune. In the 1820s the pits were incorporated as Russell's Colliery, William Russell being recorded as owner; by the 1850s it had passed to Losh, Wilson, Bell & Co., and by the 1890s to the Wallsend & Hebburn Coal Company Ltd. Seven pits were worked in all — A, C or Gas (sinking begun 18 October 1784), Church, Edward, F, G or George, and finally Rising Sun, sunk from 9 July 1906 and opened in 1908. John Buddle was manager for some years from 1806, in the period when the ventilation of Tyneside pits was being transformed and the Davy lamp developed. The colliery's later output was household and steam coal, gas and manufacturing coal, and from 1925 clay as well. Employment figures survive patchily: 124 were on the books in 1894, 55 of them below ground. The last of the pits, Rising Sun, outlived the Wallsend colliery itself and did not close until 26 April 1969.

Geology

The colliery worked the Coal Measures of the Northumberland and Durham coalfield, and its reputation rested on one seam in particular: the High Main, here nearly six feet thick. The High Main was the uppermost and most valuable of the Tyneside seams, and its combination of thickness and quality is what made Wallsend coal a byword — the name was later applied as a grade to coal from quite different pits. Later working took gas and manufacturing coals from lower seams, and clay was raised alongside the coal from 1925.

Geological setting: Sedimentary Beds and Seams (well documented example)

Workings

A group of seven separate shafts rather than a single pit, sunk over more than a century and worked as one concern. The earliest, A and C (or Gas) pit, date from the 1780s; the last, Rising Sun, from 1906-08. The colliery's ventilation was of more than local importance: John Buddle's management from 1806 fell in exactly the years when the coursing of air through Tyneside workings was being rethought, and the repeated explosions here — 1785, 1786, 1790, 1799, 1803, 1821, 1835, 1838 and 1925 — are a measure of how dangerous the deep High Main workings remained despite it.

Closure

The colliery was active between 1778 and 1935. The Durham Mining Museum's record leaves the closure date blank, and its individual pits closed at very different times: Rising Sun pit, sunk last, continued until 26 April 1969 and is treated as a colliery in its own right. No source located gives a reason for the final closure of the Wallsend pits.

What remains

Nothing of the colliery survives as working plant. The site of C Pit is now part of Richardson Dees Park in Wallsend. The ground of the last pit, Rising Sun, is now Rising Sun Country Park, where the grassed-over spoil heap is the most conspicuous surviving feature of the whole enterprise. The dead of the 1835 explosion lie in the churchyard of St Peter's, Wallsend, many in unmarked graves.

No colliery buildings are recorded as surviving. What remains is landscape rather than structure: the reshaped spoil heap in Rising Sun Country Park, and the park ground at Richardson Dees which covers C Pit.

Related mines

• Hebburn Colliery — Both collieries were owned by the Wallsend & Hebburn Coal Co. Ltd from the 1890s — the company took its name from the two pits, and worked them as a single concern into the twentieth century.

Nearby mines

• Hebburn Colliery — 4.4 km E
• Backworth Colliery — 5.5 km N
• Boldon Colliery — 5.6 km SE
• Springwell Colliery — 7.9 km S
• Usworth Colliery — 8.1 km S

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

Disasters & major incidents

• Wallsend Colliery Explosion
  18 June 1835 · Explosion · 102 fatalities
  At about two o'clock on the afternoon of 18 June 1835, an explosion tore through Wallsend Colliery on Tyneside and killed 102 men and boys — the worst of ten separate disasters recorded at a pit already notorious for them. The youngest of the dead was eight. Among them were trappers and putters of eleven, seventeen and nineteen, and whole families were hit: the Applebys lost Henry, a putter of seventeen, and James, a trapper of eleven. Many of the dead lie in unmarked graves in the churchyard of St Peter's, Wallsend.

Recorded claims

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

• The High Main seam here was nearly six feet thick, and the term 'Wallsend coal' was at one time widely used, reflecting the richness of the seam. ¹
• John Buddle, the mining and railway engineer who improved colliery ventilation and helped develop the Davy lamp, was manager of the colliery for some years from 1806. ¹
• William Russell is recorded as owner in the 1820s, Losh, Wilson, Bell & Co. in the 1850s and the Wallsend & Hebburn Coal Co. Ltd in the 1890s. ²
• Seven pits are recorded: A, C or Gas (sinking begun 18 October 1784), Church, Edward, F, G or George, and Rising Sun (sinking begun 9 July 1906, opened 1908, closed 26 April 1969). ²
• The Durham Mining Museum records ten incidents at this colliery with five or more killed, between 1767 and 1925, including 52 dead in the explosion of 23 October 1821 and 102 in that of 18 June 1835. ²
• Co-Curate gives the colliery as active between 1778 and 1935; the Durham Mining Museum records it as opened before 1782 and leaves the closure date blank. (disputed) ^2,1

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Wallsend Colliery (1778-1935) — Co-Curate, Newcastle University
2. (secondary) Wallsend Colliery — Durham Mining Museum

Record created: 4 September 2026 · Last researched: 4 September 2026