Whitburn Colliery
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Whitburn Colliery was a coal mine located about three miles south of South Shields, North East England, located on the North Sea coast.
Marsden was originally a small village, consisting of farms, a few cottages and a lighthouse at Souter Point. Local industry consisted of a small limestone quarry.[1]
Development
In the 1870s, the Whitburn Coal Company bought the five quarries, two of which were developed as the Lighthouse (Marsden) Quarries.[2]
On 14 July 1874 the company began sinking the Whitburn winnings, a bore-hole put down below the Brockwell Seam. However, the company failed to find any coal, and was faced with large amounts of water ingress from the North Sea.
In 1877, a new shaft was developed using the Kind-Chaudron process, its first deployment in the UK coal industry. The section through the water-fissured strata is lined with iron tubing, although throughout its life the electric pumps were required to extract 12,000 imperial gallons (55,000 L; 14,000 US gal) per day. Both shafts had a diameter of 13 feet (4.0 m), with No.1 shaft having a depth of 180 fathoms (1,080 ft; 330 m), and No.2 with a depth of 115 fathoms (690 ft; 210 m), to enable access to the Bensham seam, with thicknesses between 4 feet (1.2 m) to 6 feet 6 inches (1.98 m).[2]
Marsden village
The industrial development of the area required additional workers. The company built a new Marsden village, located between the Lighthouse Quarries and Whitburn Colliery. Designed to house 700+ people, there were: 135 houses; nine streets; a church and a Methodist chapel; co-op store; post office; school; and a Miners Institute. Located directly on the cliff top, resulting in an exposed and often weather-beaten experience, many wives refused to move to the village, meaning that most miners lived in South Shields and commuted daily using the newly constructed railway.[1]
Operation
The company built the twin-track South Shields, Marsden, and Whitburn Colliery Railway, leaving the North Eastern Railway line at Westoe Lane, South Shields and travelling to Marsden via two intermediate stations.[1] Built to serve the colliery and opened in May 1879, the line served the Lighthouse limestone quarry, a paper manufactory, and local farms. On 19 March 1888 the line opened to the public.[1]
The railway allowed colliery output to quickly rise to 1,500 tonnes (1,700 tons), employing 1,600 workers.[2] Coal from the colliery initially fueled the lime kilns, which closed at the same time as the mines.[2]
In 1891, the Whitburn Coal Company was bought by the Harton Coal Company, and by 1921 the system employed over 3,500 men.[2] The company shut Marsden railway station in 1926, due to a lack of traffic and its proximity to the alternate station located within the colliery. On 16 May 1934 the developed Five Quarter seam was abandoned.[2]
By the time of nationalisation in 1945 into the National Coal Board, the site employed just under 1,500 miners.[2] The railway line itself became the first nationalised passenger line on 1 January 1947. The service for miners was replaced by bus from 16 November 1953, but public trains remained running until withdrawn with effect from Monday 23 November.[1]
