Whitworth Park Colliery

Overview

A Spennymoor colliery sunk on the Shafto estate of Whitworth from 1839, which first drew coal on 10 July 1841; it ruined the Durham County Coal Company, was worked out by 1882, and was reopened in 1928 to work until 29 July 1974.

History

Whitworth Park Colliery was sunk on the royalty of R. E. D. Shafto of Whitworth by the Durham County Coal Company. Sinking began on 15 June 1839 and the first coal was got on 10 July 1841, when the Hutton seam was reached at 86 fathoms, 516 feet; the shaft was 12½ feet across. It had a 120-horsepower condensing pumping engine and a 40-horsepower drawing engine, and its railway joined the Byers Green branch of the Clarence Railway about 500 yards away, about 21 miles from the drops at Port Clarence on the Tees. Robert Eden Duncombe Shafto backed both the Clarence Railway and the sinking, and the census of 1841 found New Spennymoor a distinct place of about 150 people, sinkers, excavators and pitmen among them.

The pit proved a disastrous speculation. The Durham County Coal Company laid it in and dismantled it in 1842 after spending nearly £40,000, and it was soon re-let. The West Dock Co. and then R. S. Johnson and T. M. Reay held it in the 1840s and Surtees and Co. in the 1850s. Whellan's directory of 1894 records that the old Whitworth Park Colliery, opened in 1841, was exhausted in 1882. It was standing in 1883, Brown and Oliver worked it in the 1890s with fewer than a hundred men, and its Low Main was abandoned by 1905.

The Whitworth Park Coal Co. reopened the colliery in 1928 in the Harvey seam. It employed 146 in 1930 and 280 in 1940, and under the National Coal Board from 1947 about 300, latterly in the Harvey and Top Busty. It was still producing when most of south-west Durham's collieries and railways had closed, and it closed in July 1974. The museum's list of those killed holds 47 names, among them two men who fell from the cage on 16 October 1854 and two hewers killed by a fall of stone on 17 September 1874 (see Disasters, below).

Geology

Durham coalfield: the Hutton (3 ft 10 in at 86 fathoms), Low Main, Harvey, Top Busty and Brockwell; the sinking passed into whin below 715 ft, cut at half an inch in 24 hours.

Workings

One shaft 12½ feet across, sunk 1839-41 to the Hutton at 516 ft and on to 725 ft; reopened in 1928.

Closure

Worked out in 1882 and abandoned by 1905; reopened in 1928 and closed on 29 July 1974 under the National Coal Board.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Disasters & major incidents

• Whitworth Park Colliery roof fall, 1874
  17 September 1874 · Collapse / Roof Fall · 2 fatalities
  Two hewers, Edward Codling and William Graham, were killed together by a fall of stone at the Whitworth pit near Spennymoor, then worked by Johnson and Reay, on 17 September 1874.

Recorded claims

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

• Sinking began on 15 June 1839 and the first coal was got on 10 July 1841. ^1,2
• The Durham County Coal Company laid the colliery in and dismantled it in 1842 after spending nearly £40,000. ¹
• The old Whitworth Park Colliery was exhausted in 1882. ¹
• The Whitworth Park Coal Co. reopened the colliery in 1928. ¹
• Closed in July 1974. ^1,2,3
• The 1839 sinking reached 725 ft 6 in, ending in whin. ⁴

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Durham Mining Museum: Whitworth Park Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) Tudhoe & Spennymoor Local History Society: History — Tudhoe & Spennymoor Local History Society
3. (secondary) Tudhoe & Spennymoor Local History Society: Timeline 1973-1999 — Tudhoe & Spennymoor Local History Society
4. (primary) Durham Mining Museum: Whitworth Park Colliery shaft details — Durham Mining Museum

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