Woodhorn Colliery

Overview

One of the Ashington group of collieries, sunk in 1894 and worked for 87 years, whose two winding houses and headgear survive as a museum, a scheduled monument and the home of the Northumberland Archives. Thirteen men died here in a single morning in 1916.

History

The Ashington Coal Company began sinking Woodhorn in 1894, in a district it already dominated, and the colliery worked for 87 years before closing in 1981. At its height around two thousand people worked there, in the graded hierarchy the Northumberland coalfield ran on — hewers at the face, putters moving the coal, trappers on the ventilation doors. On the morning of Sunday 13 August 1916 an explosion in the Main Seam killed thirteen men of a repairing shift (see Disasters, below).

Geology

Woodhorn worked the Northumberland coalfield's Coal Measures seams, among them the Main Seam and the Low Main, in ground the Ashington Coal Company had been developing since the 1860s.

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

Workings

Two shafts: No. 1 the downcast and No. 2 the upcast, each with a substantial winding house, lowering the men in cages and raising the coal. Both winding houses and their headgear survive.

Closure

Woodhorn closed in 1981 after 87 years, part of the long contraction of the Northumberland coalfield rather than any single failure.

What remains

The site is now Woodhorn Museum — a scheduled monument, and the home of the Northumberland Archives, holding over 800 years of the county's records alongside the mining collections. The surviving colliery buildings were joined in 2006 by The Cutter, a museum building by the architect Tony Kettle whose form is based on a coal-cutting machine. A narrow-gauge heritage railway runs from the site, and the 1923 memorial to the men killed in 1916 stands here, moved from Hirst Park in 1991.

Both winding houses and headgear, colliery buildings, the 1923 disaster memorial and a narrow-gauge railway, all within the museum site.

Abandoned workings can be dangerous — unstable ground, uncapped shafts, flooding and bad air are common even where a site looks safe from the surface. This entry describes history and general location only; it is not an access guide.

Disasters & major incidents

• Woodhorn Colliery explosion
  13 August 1916 · Explosion · 13 fatalities
  A repairing shift of thirteen men was setting steel roof girders in the Main Seam at Woodhorn when firedamp, accumulated over a weekend of reduced ventilation, was ignited by a naked light. All thirteen died.

Recorded claims

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

• The Ashington Coal Company began sinking Woodhorn’s shafts in 1894; the colliery worked for 87 years and closed in 1981. (high) ¹
• Two shafts served the pit — No. 1 the downcast and No. 2 the upcast — each marked by a substantial winding house. (high) ¹
• Around two thousand people worked at Woodhorn, in a hierarchy of hewers, putters and trappers. (medium) ¹
• The site is a museum and scheduled monument and houses the Northumberland Archives; The Cutter, a museum building based on the form of a coal-cutting machine, was added in 2006. (high) ¹
• BGS and the Coal Authority hold catalogued mine plans under Woodhorn; scans exist but are not publicly visible. (high) ²

Photographs & further reading

This page doesn't try to reproduce everything — these are the best original sources found for this mine.

Images

Sources

1. (secondary) Woodhorn Museum — Fabulous North
2. (primary) BGS mine plans catalogue: Woodhorn (record 21875178) — British Geological Survey / The Coal Authority

Record created: 25 August 2026 · Last researched: 25 August 2026