"Here [Lynesack and Softley township] are the Butterknowle and Copley Collieries, Craik Scar and West Pits, which, with Land's Collieries, occupy the south western angle of the Durham coalfield, and give employment to the greater portion of the inhabitants. The seams are the "Hutton," four feet thick; the "Harvey," two feet to three feet eight inches ; the "Busty," five feet to six feet, containing a band of sagger of ten inches. The "Brockwell" is the thickest, being six feet. These seams are wrought by both shaft and drifts, which, owing to the great Butterknowle fault, are thrown down a depth of eighty fathoms on the south. In the Butterknowle pits there are nearly 700 men and boys employed."

- Whellan's 1894 Directory of County Durham (via Durham Mining Museum)