D62204H
Lumley Colliery
Lumley
54.831859, -1.533010
George Pit
Opened:
Closed:
pre-1819
c1850s
Entry Created:
2 Dec 2021
Last Updated:
7 Feb 2025
Reclaimed
Condition:
Owners:
Earl of Durham
Description (or HER record listing)
The George Pit was an early 19th century working located south east of Great Lumley. It was located on the Cocken Branch of the Lambton Railway, and henceforth was certainly owned by the Earl of Durham alongside the other countless pits in the area. The site itself was relatively small with a shaft adjacent to the rope hauled waggonway. There was a row next to the pit, just north and on George Pit Lane with the old back gardens now interestingly allotments.
In 1819, this was the scene of a terrible explosion caused by naked flame and firedamp - as were many. The death toll was at most 13 men and boys, with all of them either from Lumley or New Lambton. There were 80 men and boys down the pit at that time.
The site may still have been operational into the 1850s, but more likely a secondary ventilation or access shaft as there is little above ground infrastructure for a mid 19th century colliery. The shaft is extant as is a heap, but much of the complex was converted into allotments.
Nowadays the site is wooded, and the only visible evidence is the heap on the southern edge of the site. There is no visual indicator of the shaft but you can still traverse the waggonway to and from here. The Cocken engine to wind the rope hauled waggonway was just south east, but the field indicated no earthworks to suggest its former structures.

Ordnance Survey, 1851

Site of George Pit from the north in January 2025. The line of the waggonway is in the foreground.
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The site of the shaft within the wood. Taken in January 2025
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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