The A-Z Listings provides information on County Durham mines from c.1850 to c.1990. This has been collated from a range of sources. The listings can be viewed alphabetically '
by place name' or '
by mine name', by clicking on the links in the left hand navigator under '
A-Z Listings'.
Browsing Mines by Name
The names used for mines in the A-Z Listings are derived from Ordnance Survey maps. Where two or more mines share the same name, for example where a pit had two shafts, each has been given a separate number in square brackets [1]. Click on the name of a mine for further information such as:
- Mine name and location
- Date sunk or opened
- Date closed
Browsing by Place Name
This is a list of all of the places which had mines and is not intended to be a list of all towns in County Durham. Where an area had more than one mine, these will listed alphabetically. Simply click on the mine name for further information.
Detail Screens
The following is an explanation of the kind of information you can find in each of the mine 'Detail Screens' within the A-Z Listings:
Location
The location of a mine is given in miles and kilometres in a given direction from a main town. The first, second, third and fourth editions (c.1856 to c.1940) of the Ordnance Survey maps were used to identify these locations and to county the number of unnamed shafts. Please note that, only a partial survey of the county was undertaken for the fourth edition of c.1940 so it has been impossible to include information for mines at that date in areas where no maps were produced.
Date Sunk or Opened
Where the sinking date of a mine could be found it is shown under 'Date sunk or opened'. Please bear in mind that there could be a period of time (sometimes months or years) between a sinking date and the production of coal from a mine.
Date of Closure
This is the date that a mine was closed. This information was gathered mainly from a National Coal Board Press Office document, complied in the 1970s (ref:NCB 24/117). Closure dates were difficult to determine since mines could close, re-open and close again.
Sources of Reference
Please note that, all sources of reference for the information given in the A-Z Listings are given in brackets.
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