Whittonstall Drift

Overview

A Consett Iron Company drift at Whittonstall, opened in 1907 and employing about 400 in the 1910s-20s; discontinued by 1945, it was reopened by the National Coal Board and closed in November 1966.

History

Whittonstall Drift lay at Whittonstall, in the south of Northumberland about ten and a half miles east-south-east of Hexham, in a district where coal had been worked from bell pits long before. The Consett Iron Company opened it in 1907, and by 1910 it employed 397 people, nearly all underground, working the Five Quarter and Three Quarter seams for coking and gas coal under the manager John English.

It employed 401 in 1921, 322 of them underground, working the Five Quarter, Stone Coal and Three Quarter, and later the Brockwell. The drift was temporarily closed on 27 June 1925 but was working again by 1930 with 315 people under H. Hepburn, who managed it into the 1940s. The Stone and Five Quarter seams were abandoned on 13 March 1936, and by 1945 working had been discontinued.

The National Coal Board reopened it in the Brockwell: 80 men worked there in 1958 and 254 in 1964, under J. F. Meek. The Three Quarter was abandoned in 1965 and the Brockwell in 1966, and the drift closed on 25 November 1966.

Geology

The Five Quarter, Three Quarter, Stone Coal and Brockwell seams.

Workings

A drift worked by the Consett Iron Company from 1907 to the 1940s and reopened by the National Coal Board in the Brockwell seam in the 1950s.

Closure

Temporarily closed in 1925, discontinued by 1945, reopened by the NCB, and closed on 25 November 1966 when the Brockwell was abandoned.

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.

• Operated from 1907 to 1966. ^1,2,3
• Employed 401 people in 1921, 322 of them underground. ^2,3
• Temporarily closed on 27 June 1925. ²
• The Stone and Five Quarter seams were abandoned on 13 March 1936. ⁴
• Employed 254 people in 1964, working the Brockwell. ²
• H. Hepburn was manager from 1925 to 1945. ⁵
• Closed on 25 November 1966; the Brockwell was abandoned in 1966. ^2,6
• Bell pits around Whittonstall show small-scale coal mining in the 17th century or earlier. ³

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) NCB Collieries - England (Northern Mine Research Society) — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (primary) Whittonstall Drift — Durham Mining Museum
3. (secondary) Coal Mining, Whittonstall — Co-Curate (Newcastle University)
4. (primary) Catalogue of Plans of Abandoned Mines: Whittonstall Drift — Durham Mining Museum
5. (primary) Whittonstall Drift: Colliery Management (prior to 1970) — Durham Mining Museum
6. (primary) Whittonstall Drift Mine Plans (Mining Remediation Authority plan D1129, Brockwell 'S', 1966) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority

Record created: 9 October 2026 · Last researched: 9 October 2026