Acklington Colliery
 

The Coordinates of Acklington Colliery from the Durham Mining Museum website give us this locaton:

http://binged.it/LxI5dF


which is in the fields west of the Trap??

Anyone know anything about this mine?

Earliest reference I can find regarding this colliery is the death of Robert Purvis aged 13, from the effects of Blackdamp, Dec 1849:

On Tuesday last, the 25th instant, an inquest was held at the house of Mr John Dryden, innkeeper,
Acklington, in the parish of Warkworth, before Thos. Adams Russell, Esq., coroner, on the body of Robert
Purvis, a lad 13 years of age, who worked in Acklington Colliery, and on the morning of the preceding day
had, in company with five other persons, gone to his work between four and five o'clock. One of the others
who was also working in the pit, about 70 yards from the shaft, left the place where he was working for the
purpose of sending the coals to bank, and found the deceased lying at the bottom of the shaft, and quite dead.
There was foul air in the pit, and he had died from suffocation; the other person at work with him
got out without any injury, Verdict—Accidental death


[The Newcastle Courant, Friday, December 28, 1849]

Coquet, I was speaking to someone who worked on the opencast for years and he said that they came across old workings towards Woodside, somewhere near the bends on the Woodside/Acklington road.

He also thought there was the remains of an old drift mine at Newton on the Moor, past the Swarland crossroads (with the school) and then off to the right, towards Newton on the Moor village, just into a field. The Explorer map shows a disused pit on the western edge of the village and to the north of Newton Hall.

The two deaths recorded for Acklington in addition to Robert Purvis, are Christopher Robertson Copland (1899) and Daniel Rutherford (1900). Both are buried in Amble East Cemetery. The register states that Copeland was killed at Togston Colliery, although the Mines Inspectorate states Acklington. The register is silent with regard to Rutherford only saying that he was of Hope House.
The Shields Gazette has a report of Daniel Rutherford's death but mistakenly quotes his age as 22 instead of 72, the Mines Inspector states that he is 68. Daniel was baptised at Warkworth in 1828, born at Amble Low Hall.

My earliest reference for Acklington Colliery is now 1730.
It will take a trip to the NEIMME Library in Newcastle to find out more. Will try and get there next week.

Probably Broomhill workings, although could be from any of the myriad of mining efforts over the last few centuries!

I have a vertical section from a bore in that area that is allocated to Broomhill Colliery anyway.

I recall that Woodhorn museum have some old mining artifacts recovered from the opencast sites - Togston Colliery I think for one, don't know if they are on display though. Probably lots of interesting objects from the deep mining roadways end up dumped from the opencast coaling operations. Bullock's Hall colliery will have just had that treatment under the Maiden's Hall opencast operations. All those lovely mining artifacts for the Amble museum lost forever. :)



About 75 meters down to the Yard seam ( Probably the NCB letter "G" Seam) there:

http://www.coquetandcoast.co.uk/imag...dside_farm.jpg

Ah Amble Museum, what a dream:)

I recall my opencast man suggesting that the strata was running the wrong way to be Broomhill, on the basis all the Broomhill workings were running towards the sea? Unless there's a fault round there.

Now I think about it, it's likely it wasn't Broomhill workings; because he would be familiar with uncovering those all over the place and at different levels, more likely he's mentioned these workings because it was something different and unexpected. Could be some 17th /18th century operation at Woodside perhaps??
I'll have to double check but I think it did not become a requirement to to permanently record abandoned workings until the 1870s or 80s so anything before that can be lost and the opencast operator could be unaware of old workings until they actually uncovered them.

Have had a look at the original material re Acklington Colliery, dated 1811, which covers its earlier history (it's complicated :) )
Also have some information regarding the establishment of Hauxley Colliery in 1753. This obviously being the one Hodgson refers to in his History rather than the recent colliery we tend to think of.

Think I have about 100 images of pages of handwritten text regarding the above two collieries plus a very nice plan of the early Acklington mining zone. We do have a problem regarding showing images of original material from NEIMME Library online though. They want £10 for each original piece shown. I can type out text and put it online no problem, but (for instance) producing the Acklington map in its original form will cost £10.

I'm not sure to what level of detail there will be an interest in this material; probably not very great for the average visitor to the site? Anyway, the above is just the tip of the iceberg regarding what is available across the various archives.

The 1730s operation at Acklington was 'drained by a wind-mill'. A most interesting contraption I bet, but what happened when the wind didn't blow :confused:

Wonder what the "Fox holes" are about? They are drawn slightly differently to the other shafts on the map - I'm guessing these are some even earlier mining efforts - bell pits perhaps? The 5ft seam is quite shallow there.

The whinstone quarries now lie under the old RAF houses I believe.

Redhead appears to be running the Amble salt pans in 1793, I guess this Redhead, and Capt Redhead mining at Acklington are the same person and an ancestor of the farming Redheads?

Looks like Mr R. Lisle owed 12 shillings for some Amble salt in 1793 :)

Newcastle Courant advertisement 14 April 1798:
"Wanted at Shilbottle Colliery, near Alnwick, against May day or Whitsuntide next:
A number of hewers and putters who will meet with constant employment and great wages.
Also, at Acklington Colliery, near Warkworth, some men to hew and put their own coals-Shilbottle coal is near three feet, and Acklington about six feet high, and the putting will be very good at both collieries, as the coal will be wrought out of pits lately sunk.
Apply to J. Wales, Shilbottle; or to G Forster, Newburn Hall, near Newcastle upon Tyne.
NB Men with families, and having putters of their own, will meet with extraordinary encouragement at Shilbottle.
Shilbottle April 12 1798"

Could this chap Wales at Shilbottle be the John Wailes named on the map?

And another one:) Newcastle Courant 19 March 1791:

"Acklington Farm and Colliery to let. To be let and entered upon at Lady day 1791.
All those lands in the township of Acklington, commonly called or known by the name of the Colliery Farm, containing 61 acres, or thereabouts.
Also all the current going colliery, called Acklington Colliery, to enter to at Michaelmas 1791-The premises are now in the possession of the Assignees of the Estate and Effects of Mr Robert Readhead, late of Togston New Hall, which will be let for 7, 14 or 21 years, as may be agreed on; and for further particulars, application to be made at the Audit of his Grace the Duke of Northumberland, at Alnwick Castle, and which will be held at Mr Loftus's, Newcastle, from 21st to 26th instant."

Capt Redhead?

Great stuff Janwin, you always find something interesting.



Do you think this means he's dead by this date? if so the Salt pans Redhead is a different person as the notebook page says 1793


Shocking. "bring your kids with you down the mine, we love it!"



Highly likely, spelling becomes progressively more slack as you head back in time from the mid 19c. (I would be quite at home!)

I guess Mr Readhead would be dead, given it is talking about his estate and effects. I suppose there is an outside chance he was a bankrupt. I'll have another furtle:D

Shilbottle must have been doing a fair bit of advertising back then, my 4 times great grandfather went there from Whickham before 1790 (he married at Shilbottle in that year, a local lass). Only produced one surviving son for the pits.

By the way, I forgot to mention, Coquet, that is a great map. Interesting the course of the road from Acklington to Broomhill.

Well, Capt Readhead was a bankrupt. He was the son of Gabriel Readhead (died 1779), a well to do stock farmer of the Lee, near Rothbury and had been a captain in the Northumberland Militia. Robert was of Amble New Hall. The Newcastle Courant of Saturday, 7 March 1789, has a notice to creditors to meet at the White Swan in Alnwick, where there was to be a plan set out for discharging his debts. If the creditors couldn't get there then they could send an account of their demands to Thomas Readhead of the Lee (his brother?)

On that basis, he could be the same Readhead who had the salt pans. It's amazing how bankrupts resurrect themselves.

By the date of the Newcastle Courant of 21 May 1791, it looks like Acklington colliery had been sold as there was to be a meeting of the creditors in Morpeth to receive an update. The estates left unsold were: small freehold estate at West Thriston (Thirston) at Felton; the remainder of a lease of a "Landsale" Colliery on Rothbury North Forest, called Debdon Colliery.