5050
Bewicke Main Colliery
Kibblesworth
54.898998,-1.608705
Opened:
Closed:
1862
1932
Entry Created:
3 Sept 2021
Last Updated:
2 Jan 2024
Redeveloped
Condition:
Owners:
Hunt, Perkins & Co. (1860s), E.M Perkins & Partners (1880s), Charles Perkins & Partners (1890s), Birtley Iron Co. (1910s), Pelaw Main Collieries Co. (1920s -)
Description (or HER record listing)
Shown on OS map of 1890. Site now occupied by caravan site. Was served by wagonway (HER 5051) and linked by a tramway (HER 5052) to a coal drift (HER 5053). Opened in 1862 by Charles Perkins and Partners. Employed 300 men and boys. The village was built close to the pithead. There were 83 houses in five groups - Cross Row, Short Row, Long Row, High Row and The Square. Gas lighting was not installed until 1910. A colliery school was erected in 1873 by Birtley Iron Company to accommodate 120 children. The school closed on 13 November 1931. The Primitive Methodist Chapel opened in 1901, built of bricks and corrugated iron. At the laying of the foundation stone, members and friends bought bricks for a shilling and had their initials inscribed on them. The chapel burned down on 5 November 1938. The colliery was owned by Hunt, Perkins & Co, EM Perkins and Partners, Charles Perkins and Partners, Birtley Iron Company, then Pelaw Main Colliery. Mill Drift closed in 1915, Riding Drift in 1921 and the main colliery seams in 1932. The village disappeared with the closing of the colliery.
NEHL - The Bewicke Main pit can be seen on maps throughout the 19th century. It was connected to the Pelaw Main Waggonway at Birtley for onward shipment between Bill Quay and Hebburn, along with the Union Brick Works on Station Lane. The complex had its own village in a rectangular formation around the pit as well as its own school.
Ordnance Survey, 1898
Bewicke Main Colliery, date unknown. Source: Durham Mining Communities, Facebook
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Bewicke Main Colliery, undated. Unknown source.
Historic Environment Records
Durham/Northumberland: Keys to the Past
Tyne and Wear: Sitelines
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