Middridge Colliery was 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 ...

based in and near the village of

Middridge Middridge is a village in County Durham, North East England. It is situated east of Shildon and north-west of Newton Aycliffe. The village is situated near a quarry that was mined by the people many generations ago. There is one public house in ...

in County Durham, England. The colliery, which was owned by The

Weardale Iron and Coal Company The Weardale Iron and Coal Company, established in the 1840s, produced iron and steel at Tow Law and Tudhoe in County Durham in England, where it also owned collieries. History The founder of the company, Charles Attwood (1791–1875), was born in ...

, consisted of two mines: Eden Pit, sunk in 1872 and Charles Pit, sunk in 1874. At its height, the pit employed 420 people, who routinely mined 600 tons of coal per day.

Charles Pit

Charles Pit reached a maximum depth of 590 feet (180 metres), and contained the Brockwell coal seam at approximately 400 feet deep (roughly 119 metres). Charles Pit closed in 1914. The remains of Charles Pit can be seen in Charles Row and the spoil tip, still referred to in the village as "the pit heap". The pit heap contains part of the park/recreational area.

Eden Pit

Coal from Charles Pit was transported here on the Tramlines; Eden had an area where the coal was then dropped down onto the

Stockton and Darlington Railway The Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR) was a railway company that operated in north-east England from 1825 to 1863. The world's first public railway to use steam locomotives, its first line connected coal mining, collieries near Shildo ...

. The pit closed in 1894 A nearby settlement, consisting of 37 houses, provided homes for the miners. However, after the pit closed, the ex-miners (now almost all unemployed) and their families remained in Eden. At this stage, Eden was described as a 'stagnant, suffering village'. Despite attempts to regenerate Eden, the situation did not improve, and the entire village was demolished in the 1950s. Today, along with nearby Riseburn, little if any trace remains.

The Tramlines

A narrow gauge tramway (known as "The Tramlines") ran between the two pits. The embankment on which the railway sat still remains largely intact; including the retaining wall, which is around 3 metres high at its highest point and now forms a boundary at the edge of a public footpath. The Tramline, Middridge, County Durham, UK.jpg, The Tramlines embankment in October 2019 Middridge_Tramlines_straight_path_Oct_2019.jpg, The straight path and Middridge Tramlines embankment in October 2019

References

External links

"Middridge Colliery"
at Durham Mining Museum {{coord missing, County Durham Coal mines in County Durham