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Old 13-06-2012, 11:36 AM
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Default 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?
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Old 13-06-2012, 12:22 PM
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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]
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Old 17-06-2012, 02:55 PM
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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.

Last edited by janwhin; 17-06-2012 at 03:44 PM.
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Old 17-06-2012, 03:40 PM
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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.
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Old 22-06-2012, 08:00 AM
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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.
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Old 29-06-2012, 09:19 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Coquet View Post
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.

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.
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Old 22-06-2012, 09:16 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by janwhin View Post
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.
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:

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Old 22-06-2012, 10:32 AM
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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.
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Old 22-06-2012, 03:22 PM
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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.
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