This is the site of an 18th century coal mine known as Favourite Pit. The first major phase of coal extraction at West Hartford took place in the 18th century under the Ridley family. Although collieries were established here from about 1720, purchases of coal from the estate are documented from 1689. Large scale extraction does not seem to have begun until permission for a waggonway across the Delaval Estate to the sea at Blyth was obtained in 1719. The pits were largely worked out by 1812 and the Ridleys were paid compensation in 1813 to close them. Recent excavations have found the top edge of the pit shaft and the mineshaft has now been capped.