Shotton Colliery is a village in County Durham, England, situated north west of

Peterlee Peterlee is a town in County Durham, England. It lies between Sunderland to the north, Hartlepool to the south, the Durham Coast to the east and Durham to the west. It gained town status in 1948 under the New Towns Act 1946. The act also cr ...

. The two villages in the parish of Shotton are

Old Shotton Old Shotton is a village in the parish of Shotton, County Durham, England, The village once lay on the route of the A19, before its bypass to the west of the village. Although Old Shotton retains its own identity, and its own village sign, it n ...

, a small village southeast of the main village, now merged into the town of

History

Old Shotton can be traced back as far as 900 AD, when it was known as Scitton, which in Old English means 'of the Scots', The village name was first recorded in 1165 as 'Sottun'. By the 16th century, when Easington was under the control of Prince Bishops, the village had become known as Shotton. In 1756, the Brandlings built

Shotton Hall Shotton Hall is a Grade II listed building, formerly a mansion house, now operated by Peterlee Town Council as offices and a conference centre. History The Manor of Shotton, near Peterlee, County Durham, was owned by the Thompson family. In 17 ...

and through marriage this eventually passed to the Burdon family.

The Colliery

In 1833, the Haswell Coal Company began to sink a

colliery Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron fro ...

to the west of Old Shotton, near Shotton Grange Farm. This pit began producing coal the following year and the village of Shotton Colliery soon started to develop. The pit was initially prosperous, but closed on 3 November 3 1877, causing people to leave the village to work at other pits in the area. In 1900, the pit reopened and grew rapidly, leading to an increased population in the village. More housing was built, making other industries, including the Coke Works and the Brick Works, less popular. By 1947, the original houses, east of the railway line were in disrepair. Most of the bottom of Front Street was demolished. In 1972, the

National Coal Board The National Coal Board (NCB) was the statutory corporation created to run the nationalised coal mining industry in the United Kingdom. Set up under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946, it took over the United Kingdom's collieries on "v ...

announced that it was closing the colliery, at a cost of 800 jobs. Easington District Council built new housing in the 1970s, pulling down most of the remaining pit houses in an attempt to improve the village. Throughout most of the 1970s, work was done to remove the pit heap, which was at one time the largest in the country. The Brick Works and Coke Works went with the pit. The only pit building left is now used as a second hand car show room. The remains of the pit baths remain semi-derelict.

Present-day

Shotton Airfield/Peterlee Parachute Centre now occupies the colliery site and it is common to see parachutists over the village most days. Most of the parish's pubs, cinemas and the

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in Track (rail transport), tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the ...

are demolished or converted to other uses. A small number of shops are left. The village is now almost empty of work. There are a few industrial units close to the airfield and on the opposite side of the village at Thornley Crossings, but the main sources of employment are

call centre A call centre ( Commonwealth spelling) or call center ( American spelling; see spelling differences) is a managed capability that can be centralised or remote that is used for receiving or transmitting a large volume of enquiries by telephon ...

s which opened east of the village, dividing Shotton Colliery and Old Shotton. Some of the buildings at Grange Farm remain and now overlook fields as they did in the 1840s, some of which contain the hard runway and hangars and other buildings of the parachute centre.

Notable residents

Bill Cockburn William Robb Cockburn (3 May 1937 – August 1995) was an English professional association football, footballer. After a five-year stint at Burnley F.C., Burnley without ever playing for the first team, he joined Gillingham F.C., Gillingham in ...

(19371995), footballer with

Burnley F.C. Burnley Football Club () is an English association football club based in Burnley, Lancashire, that competes in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football, following relegation from the 2021–22 Premier League. Founded on 18 Ma ...

and

Gillingham F.C. Gillingham Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Gillingham, Kent, England. The only Kent-based club in the Football League, the "Gills" play their home matches at Priestfield Stadium. The team compete ...

, was born in Shotton Colliery * Maurice Cullen (19372001), boxer, lived in Shotton Colliery. *

Rebecca Posner Rebecca Posner (née Reynolds; 17 August 1929 – 19 July 2018) was a British philologist, linguist and academic, who specialized in Romance languages. Having taught at Girton College, Cambridge, the University of Ghana, and the University of Yor ...

(19292018), Professor of Romance Languages at the University of Oxford, was born in Shotton Colliery

References

External links

* * {{authority control Villages in County Durham Peterlee