Research Projects

by David Land

From1838 when shaft sinking started until final closure in 1925 the Framwellgate Moor colliery was the dominant organisation in the district. My account which follows relies heavily on George Brown’s (1974) history of the parish. The shaft, situated 700 yards south-east of the Lambton Hounds Inn at Pity Me, at NZ 2699 4510, 315ft (96m) above sea level, was sunk by the Northern Coal Mining Co, formed in 1837 with a capital of half a million pounds. Sinking started on 5th January 1838 and immediately ran into difficulties in coping with quicksands 120ft thick. Starting with a diameter of 30ft (9.1m), successive rounds of piling enabled the shaft to be 14� ft (4.4m) in diameter at rock head at a depth of 147ft (44.8m).

Coal seams proved in the shaft were as follows:

Seam	thickness ft-in	depth ft-in	thickness m	depth m
Low Main	2-7	151-10	0.79	46.28
Brass Thill	2-6	171-6	0.76	52.27
Hutton	3-6	219-1	1.07	66.78
Harvey	1-8	346-4	0.51	105.56
Busty	4-0	467-3	1.22	142.42

The shaft was sunk to a total depth from surface of 480ft (146m) for a sump. In 1845 a borehole was drilled from the shaft bottom to a total depth below surface of 699ft (213m) but the only coals intersected were each only 16in (0.41m) thick at depths of 526ft (160m) and 687ft (209m).

The Northern Coal Mining Co lost its money in this shaft sinking. The colliery was taken over by Lord Londonderry, and latterly by the Framwellgate Moor Coal & Coke Co. Coal was first wound to bank on 5th May 1841.

It is not immediately obvious why the pit was sunk where it was. Factors which appear to favour the site are, first it is approximately central in its take, second the land would be cheap as part of Carr Moor rough pasture, third there was an easy downhill route for a railway to join the Frankland wagonway, fourth it was adjacent to a public road, fifth the low lying Carrs was a convenient site for a waste heap.

A second shaft was sunk in 1894 (date not certain) at Cater House (NZ 2586 4513); (Borings & Sinkings no 932) 1240 yards (1130m) west of the first shaft, which thereafter was known colloquially as the Old Pit, with Cater House as the New Pit. It is sometimes called Cator House and also Dryburn Grange. None of the difficulties experienced in sinking the Old Pit afflicted the New Pit. Unconsolidated drift deposits were clayey and only 36ft (11m) thick, compared with 120ft of running sand.

Coal seams in New Pit were similar to those in the Old Pit, except that with the dip of the strata they were lower down by some 40ft (12m).

Both pits were rail connected above and below ground, which made for flexibility in operation, improved ventilation and gave an extra outlet for winding coal and manriding. All coal was screened at the Old Pit. On the east side of Front Street and on the north side of the railway there was a small landsale depot.

Coking and gas coal were produced as well as steam and household coal. Slightly more than half of the output went to making coke in 239 beehive coke ovens. About the end of the 19th century 700 men were employed and output was nearly 1000 tons a day. Pumping out ground water was necessary, about 1000 gallons per hour or 100 tons per day.

Coke making was hard, hot and dangerous work requiring a good measure of skill and a large measure of brawn, as Heslop (1994 p57-59) vividly describes. The oven was charged from the top and the coal was burnt for three days, after which the side door was broken open and the coke cooled with a water jet. Once the “hissing, screaming and scorching” had died away, the hot coke was broken up and loaded into railway wagons. A principal customer for coke was the Stockton Steel Co. Coke making finished about 1910 (1914 in some sources). Each stage of making coke was a special job: small runners teemed into the oven top; levellers levelled the coal; daubers sealed the side aperture; burners kept a check on progress; drawers took coke out of the oven; and fillers loaded the railway wagons.

Firebricks were made from shale from the mine until 1890.

After the first world war output decreased and the pit closed in 1925, when fewer than 200 men were employed because all economically workable coal seams were exhausted. The pit chimney was felled in 1926. Nowadays the site of the pit is an industrial estate and nothing remains to show it was once a colliery, except a row of houses called Old Pit Terrace, and the embankment of the railway to New Pit.

Coal and coke were taken to the market by railway which went past Low Newton to join the Lambton railway near East Moor Leazes, and after 1857 to the North Eastern Railway at Frankland.

In its 87 year life, 53 men died in individual accidents. Six were lads aged between 12 and 13; and the oldest man was 61 years old (Durham Mining Museum). Considering the safety standards of the time and the inherent dangers in mining, this is not a bad record, though nonetheless tragic for those involved.

Digitised by George Muncaster

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