Eden Colliery

Opened in 1844, Eden Colliery produced coal until it was closed on 18 July 1980.

During it’s working life, the colliery had the following owners:

• 1844 – E. Richardson
• 1840s – Derwent Iron Co.
• 1840s – Consett Iron Co. Ltd.
• 1850s – Edward Richardson & Co.
• 1947 – National Coal Board (N.C.B.)

Employing 325 men in 1896 to a peak of 951 in 1959, only 194 remained upon closure in 1980.

Whellan’s 1894 Directory of County Durham describes the colliery as follows:

The Eden Colliery, by the Consett Iron Company, is now working the Hutton and the Main coal seams. This pit has been working for about fifty years. The first named seam is met at a depth of 30 feet, and has an average thickness of 7 feet 6 inches of workable coal, and contains a band of from 7 to 9 inches wide, and about 1 foot of bad coal at the foot of the lower section. Six feet below the bad coal is met the Low Hutton seam, which has not yet been worked. The Main coal is 30 feet below the Hutton, and averages 4 feet of clear coal. Besides the above seams, there exist the Townley, Hodge, Hand, and the Tilley, all more or less thin. The Busty, which has not yet been opened out, lies at a depth of 210 feet below the Main coal, and gives a thickness of 5 feet. The output, which amounts to 5500 tons per fortnight, is almost entirely used for making gas for the steel furnaces, the remainder, about one-ninth, being disposed of by land sale. The number of men and boys employed is 261.

Further information on the colliery and it’s history can be found on the Durham Mining Museum website.

The colliery air shaft, some distance away near to Stoney Heap, remains to this day as shown in the photos below: