Wallshield Colliery

Overview

A small colliery near Greenhead, worked by two to five men for household coal from 1900, later in the Thirlwall seam under a succession of small owners and licensees, and still working with four men in the mid-1980s.

History

Wallshield Colliery, also written Wall Shield or Wallshields, lay near Greenhead, about fourteen and a half miles west-north-west of Hexham; old coal workings there are marked on the first edition Ordnance Survey map. James Mitchell owned it in the 1900s and managed it himself, without a certificate, until at least 1921, raising household coal from the Limestone Coal with two to five men.

A. Leyland and Sons held it in the 1920s, when the seam was known as the Wallshields, and the Wallshields Colliery Company and W. T. Dodd in the 1930s. Work was discontinued in December 1934, and from the late 1930s it worked the Thirlwall seam, with 21 people in 1940; a plan of the Thirlwall workings is dated 30 November 1940. It was worked under a small mines licence from 1953 to 1963, with Matthew Mitcheson and J. Little as owners in the 1950s, and its workings appear on combined plans with Rushey Hill in 1954 and with the neighbouring Ventners Hall drift in 1959. In the 1980s Treloar Brothers worked a Wallshield drift in the Thirlwall seam with four men, for household and industrial coal; its plan is dated April 1984.

Geology

The Limestone Coal, called the Wallshields seam in the 1920s, and later the Thirlwall seam.

Workings

Drift workings, the last of them the Wallshield Drift of the 1980s.

Closure

Discontinued in December 1934 and resumed; licensed 1953-63; the last drift's plan is dated 7 April 1984, with four men listed to 1985.

What remains

The site has been reclaimed.

Related mines

• Ventners Hall Colliery — Wallshield's Thirlwall-seam workings share an abandonment plan of 1959 with the Ventners Hall or Robin Rock Drift.

Recorded claims

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

• James Mitchell owned Wallshield in the 1900s and managed it without a certificate until at least 1921. ^1,2
• Work at Wallshield was discontinued in December 1934; it employed 21 in 1940 in the Thirlwall seam. ^1,3
• Wallshield was worked under a small mines licence from December 1953 to December 1963. ⁴
• Wallshield's workings appear on a combined abandonment plan with the Ventners Hall or Robin Rock Drift dated 23 February 1959. ⁵
• In the 1980s Treloar Brothers worked a Wallshield drift in the Thirlwall seam with four men; its plan is dated 7 April 1984. ^1,6

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Wall Shield Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (primary) Wall Shield Colliery: colliery management — Durham Mining Museum
3. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan 21945610: Wallshield, Thirlwall seam, 30 November 1940 — British Geological Survey
4. (primary) Wall Shield Colliery: further research (record office references) — Durham Mining Museum
5. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan 21875343: Ventners Hall or Robin Rock Drift / Wallshields, Thirlwall, 23 February 1959 — British Geological Survey
6. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan 21874965: Wallshield Drift, Thirlwall, 7 April 1984 — British Geological Survey

Record created: 22 October 2026 · Last researched: 22 October 2026