"South Tanfield Colliery, by the same owners [James Joicy & Co.], is situated at Ox Hill, where there are six seams being worked : the Shield Row, 5 feet ; Five Quarter, 4½ feet ; Brass Thill, 5 feet ; Hutton and Maudlin, 5 to 10 feet with hard band ; Main coal, 2 feet 9 inches ; Top Busty, 2 feet 10 inches ; Bottom Busty, 2 feet 6 inches ; and the Brockwell, 2 feet 3 inches. This colliery is worked by a shaft 150 fathoms, with a relief shaft about the same depth, and another working shaft of 86 fathoms. The pit is ventilated by a powerful Guibal fan. The annual output averages about 250,000 tons employing 500 hands."

Whellan's 1894 Directory of County Durham, via Durham Mining Museum