West Bitchburn Colliery

Overview

A Snowdon family colliery in the Beechburn valley between Tow Law and Crook, where the Brockwell lay only 108 feet down; worked later by the West Beechburn Coal and Whinstone Company, it closed in April 1926.

History

West Bitchburn Colliery, also written West Beechburn, lay in the valley of the Beechburn Beck between Tow Law and Crook, close to the North Eastern Railway, near Howden-le-Wear. The account of its shaft records the Five Quarter, 3 ft 9 in thick, only 21 feet down and the Brockwell, 7 ft 3 in of coal with a band, at 108 feet. Thomas Snowdon owned it in the 1860s and C. W. and T. Snowdon in the 1880s; the 1880 list of mines gives West Beechburn, Tow Law, under C. W. and T. Snowdon.

The colliery employed 45 men in 1883, and its Brockwell workings were abandoned on 22 September 1886. By the 1910s it belonged to the West Beechburn Coal and Whinstone Company, working the Victoria seam for steam coal with 96 men in 1915, 116 in 1921 and 127 in 1923, and later the Marshall Green as well. The Victoria and Marshall Green were abandoned on 12 April 1926, and the colliery closed. Two deaths are recorded there, both by falls of stone: George Parkin, a hewer of 20, in 1870, and Thomas Pearson, a driver of 18, in 1918.

Geology

Durham coalfield, western side: the Five Quarter (3 ft 9 in) at 21 ft 3 in, a thin coal at 54 ft 8 in and the Brockwell (7 ft 3 in, with a band) at 108 ft 1 in; the Victoria and Marshall Green seams were worked in the 1910s and 1920s.

Workings

A shaft to the Brockwell, close to the North Eastern Railway between Tow Law and Crook.

Closure

The Brockwell was abandoned in 1886; the Victoria and Marshall Green were abandoned on 12 April 1926, when the colliery closed.

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.

• C. W. and T. Snowdon owned West Beechburn colliery in 1880. ^1,2
• The Brockwell, 7 ft 3 in of coal, lay at 108 feet; it was abandoned on 22 September 1886. ^3,4
• The colliery employed 127 in 1923, working the Victoria and Marshall Green. ²
• West Bitchburn Colliery closed in 1926; its seams were abandoned on 12 April 1926. ^5,2,4

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) List of coal mines UK 1880 — Coalmining History Resource Centre
2. (primary) West Bitchburn Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
3. (primary) West Bitchburn Colliery: section of strata — Durham Mining Museum
4. (primary) West Bitchburn Colliery: catalogue of plans of abandoned mines — Durham Mining Museum
5. (secondary) The North East 1920-1938 (England's North East) — England's North East (David Simpson)

Record created: 6 October 2026 · Last researched: 6 October 2026