Worked there myself in the 80s but have not been keeping up to date with the recent history of the place.
I do know when it sold to the private mining company in the 1990s they went for the easy option - removed the coal pillar between the two arterial west drivage roadways (also main intake and return roadways) thus removing access to coal in the west, and collapsing several miles of tunnel as 'goaf'
The Drift I assume has been at least partly filled in - no trace on google maps of the entrance. A second means of egress & ventilation shaft existed a few hundred metres or so north of the drift, this also appears to have gone. A third ventilation shaft at a place called 'Overgrass' at a mile or so the other side of the A1 was sunk in the 80s - what has happened to that I dont know. (you could shout up and down this shaft between the bottom and the surface. I recall the booster fan at the bottom of this shaft - it was a monster (for Whittle) with a 500kw motor.
The Whittle workings were connected to Shillbottle Colliery workings underground too but I think Shillbottle shafts are filled in.
Not to mention the flooding, gas etc. problems facing anyone trying to reopen assumming some form of access still exists. Basically a near impossible task.
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