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3040

Chartershaugh Colliery

Washington

54.875755, -1.522710

Chaytor's Haugh

Stable End Pit

Opened:

Closed:

18th c

pre-1890s

Entry Created:

3 Sept 2021

Last Updated:

29 Apr 2024

Reclaimed

Condition:

Owners: 

Edward Smith (1730s), W. Peareth, Esp. (1780s)

Description (or HER record listing)

Opened before 1756. There were four other pits - Dolly Pit, Hedge Pit (NZ 305 533), Scrog Pit and Stable End Pit (HER 3040). Owners were Edward Smith and later W. Peareth Esq. On 17 November 1771 a great flood on the River Wear flooded colleries at Chartershaugh, North Biddick and Low Lambton. Over 30 horses drowned and several wagons and horses were swept away. The colliery fire engines were destroyed. On 8 December 1778, 24 miners were killed in an explosion.

NEHL - The The Stable End Pit was situated adjacent to the main pit in the village, as highlighted on both the 1850s and 1890s maps. There was a pumping engine to prevent flooding and a waggonway leading through the streets of Biddick and Chartershaugh with small staiths for onwards shipment in keels. The waggonway originated from Beamish and Harraton.

A small village also developed out of the pit alongside other related industries. Most notably lampblack, a powered black soot used for pigment, was produced here from the coal. There was at least two pubs and a Wesleyan chapel on the road to the Lambton estate.

The pits were up for sale in the 1840s from Whitfield, Burnett & Co. It worked the Five Quarter Seam comprising a royalty of about 80 acres of coal. It featured 3 steam engines (one of 114 horse power and another 160), coal waggons, coal tubs, coal screens and a coal drop. It also featured 50 cottages owned by the pit. It certainly closed before the 1890s.

Nothing remains of the village or pit except the riverside masonry.

Ordnance Survey, 1898

Ordnance Survey, 1898

Site of the Chartershaugh pits in 2024

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Riverside stonework at Chartershaugh, undoubtedly constructed as part of the collieries.

Riverside stonework at Chartershaugh, undoubtedly constructed as part of the collieries.

Historic Environment Records

Durham/Northumberland: Keys to the Past

Tyne and Wear: Sitelines

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HER information as described above is reproduced under the basis the resource is free of charge for education use. It is not altered unless there are grammatical errors. 

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Historic Maps provided by

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Historic Ordnance Surveys provided by National Library of Scotland

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