Byker, St. Lawrence Colliery (Mushroom Colliery)

HER Number:
6989

District:
Newcastle

Site Name:
Byker, St. Lawrence Colliery (Mushroom Colliery)

Place:
Byker

Map Sheet:
NZ26SE

Class:
Industrial

Site Type: Broad:
Coal Mining Site

Site Type: Specific:
Colliery

General Period:
Post Medieval

Specific Period:
C18

Form of Evidence:
Documentary Evidence

Description:
Opened 1833 by Messrs Todd, Dunn and Ridley. On 7 August 1833 guns were fired to celebrate the loading of the first vessel at the colliery. The shaft had been sunk to a depth of 94 fathoms in only 8 months. Whellan said the colliery originally opened in the 1700s, but it flooded with water. Friar's Goose engine (HER 1012) was used to drained it so that it could be reopened in 1833. The workings extended under Sandgate and the River Tyne. This was one of the first colleries to introduce a system of square tubs - the shafts were filled with cages and tubs guided by wooden spears placed one above the other, pulled up and down by two winding engines. The coals were then put on an inclined plane 400 yards long.

Easting:
268

Northing:
640

Grid Reference:
NZ268640

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
Durham Mining Museum www.dmm.org.uk; T.H. Hair, 1844, Views of the Colleries in The Counties of Northumberland and Durham; Whellan, 1894, Directory of County Durham