Woodifield Colliery

Overview

A Crook colliery sunk in 1843, worked by Bolckow, Vaughan for half a century, nearly idle after 1911, and finally abandoned in March 1944.

History

Woodifield Colliery lay at Crook, in the parishes of North Bedburn and Crook and Billy Row, about eight and a half miles west-south-west of Durham. Its B Pit was sunk between 11 September and 8 November 1843 to the Five Quarter and Main Coal; in 1847 a boring from the Main Coal workings proved the ironstone bands below. T. C. Gibson owned it in the 1840s.

Bolckow and Vaughan held it from the 1850s, and it was one of their Durham collieries for over fifty years, reached by a tramway from the main line north of Beechburn. It was standing in 1884, but employed 246 in 1894 and 411 in 1902, under the managers John Davies and then Moses Hobson, working the Ballarat, Victoria, Constantine, Five Quarter, Little and Main seams for coking coal.

Most of those seams were abandoned on 29 April 1911, and only a handful of men worked it in the 1910s and 1920s under the Woodifield Coal Co. Ltd. The Steels House Colliery Co. revived it in the 1930s, combined with Fir Tree, working the Top Main; 126 were employed in 1940, and the Top Main was abandoned in March 1944.

Geology

Durham Coal Measures near the western outcrop: the Five Quarter, 4 feet 9 inches in the B Pit at about 25 feet, the Main Coal (Brockwell) with ironstone bands below, and the Ballarat, Victoria, Constantine, Little (Busty), Two Feet and Top Main.

Workings

A Pit and B Pit; the B Pit was sunk in under two months in 1843. A tramway linked the colliery with the main line north of Beechburn. Seams were abandoned in stages: the Two Feet in 1891, the Little or Busty in 1909, six seams on 29 April 1911 and the Top Main in March 1944.

Closure

The last seam, the Top Main, was abandoned in March 1944.

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.

• Sinking of the B Pit began on 11 September 1843 and finished on 8 November 1843. ^1,2
• A tramway left the main line north of Beechburn Colliery for Woodifield Colliery, which opened around 1843 and closed in 1944. ³
• The owners were T. C. Gibson in the 1840s, Bolckow & Vaughan from the 1850s, the Woodifield Coal Co. Ltd in the 1910s and the Steels House Colliery Co. Ltd in the 1930s. ^1,3
• Employment was 246 in 1894, 411 in 1902, 42 in 1910 and 126 in 1940. ¹
• The Main, Five Quarter, Ballarat, Victoria, Constantine and Little seams were abandoned on 29 April 1911 and the Top Main in March 1944. ⁴
• John Davies was manager from 1888 to 1896 and Moses Hobson in 1900 and 1902. ⁵

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Durham Mining Museum - Woodifield Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (primary) Durham Mining Museum - Woodifield Colliery: B Pit strata, 1843 — Durham Mining Museum
3. (secondary) Disused Stations: Crook Station — Disused Stations
4. (primary) Durham Mining Museum - Catalogue of plans of abandoned mines for Woodifield Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
5. (primary) Durham Mining Museum - Woodifield Colliery: colliery management — Durham Mining Museum

Record created: 1 October 2026 · Last researched: 1 October 2026