Shotton Surface Mine was an open cast

coal mine Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

located on the estate of

Blagdon Hall Blagdon Hall () is a privately owned English country house near Cramlington in Northumberland. It is a Grade I listed building. The house and estate have been in the ownership of the White Ridley family since 1698. The present Viscount Ridley i ...

Northumberland Northumberland ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England, on the Anglo-Scottish border, border with Scotland. It is bordered by the North Sea to the east, Tyne and Wear and County Durham to the south, Cumb ...

, UK, operated by

Banks Group The Banks Group Limited is a family owned business headquartered in Durham, but working across Scotland and the North of England, established in 1976. Banks develops and operates in a variety of business areas including property development, ren ...

. The mine was granted permission by the government in 2007, despite being refused permission by

Blyth Valley Blyth Valley was a local government district with borough status in south-east Northumberland, England, bordering the North Sea and Tyne and Wear. The two principal towns were Blyth and Cramlington. Other population centres include Seaton De ...

Council, with an initial agreement to mine 3.4 million tonnes of

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

, 2 million tonnes of

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of Clay mineral, clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g., Kaolinite, kaolin, aluminium, Al2Silicon, Si2Oxygen, O5(hydroxide, OH)4) and tiny f ...

and 750,000 tonnes of

fireclay Fire clay is a range of refractory clays used in the manufacture of ceramics, especially fire brick. The United States Environmental Protection Agency defines fire clay very generally as a "mineral aggregate composed of hydrous silicates of alumin ...

. This was subsequently extended by two years in 2011 to allow an additional 2 million tonnes of coal to be mined, set to end in 2016. An additional expansion approved in 2014 saw two new pits being opened on the site, Shotton Triangle (290,000 tonnes of coal) and Shotton South West (250,000 tonnes of coal), with the end date pushed back a year to October 2017; the land was expected to be restored by 2019. The mine eventually ceased production in summer 2020. Trucks at Shotton Mine

In total, over 8% of British coal output comes from the Shotton site. The mine produced over one million tonnes of coal in 2014 and employs around 150 people. These jobs are temporary, although when the mine closes some former employees may be transferred to Banks' new site at Highthorn, near

Druridge Bay Druridge Bay is a long bay on the North Sea in Northumberland, England, stretching from Amble in the north to Cresswell in the south. Druridge Bay Country Park is situated on the bay, and part of the bay (the section near the farmstead of D ...

. The land on which the mine was developed is owned by science writer and

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

hereditary peer The hereditary peers form part of the peerage in the United Kingdom. As of April 2025, there are 800 hereditary peers: 30 dukes (including six royal dukes), 34 marquesses, 189 earls, 108 viscounts, and 439 barons (not counting subsidiary ...

Matthew White Ridley, 5th Viscount Ridley, who is a prominent

climate change sceptic Climate change denial (also global warming denial) is a form of science denial characterized by rejecting, refusing to acknowledge, disputing, or fighting the scientific consensus on climate change. Those promoting denial commonly use rhetor ...

. As a result, the "Keep it in the Ground"

fossil fuel divestment Fossil fuel divestment or fossil fuel divestment and investment in climate solutions is an attempt to reduce climate change by exerting social, political, and economic pressure for the institutional divestment of assets including stocks, bonds, ...

campaign had protested against the site; they picketed the site on 26 October 2015 and halted operations for the day. Royalties from the site go to the Government, but the Blagdon Estate receives a way leave payment estimated at between three and four million pounds. Over 1.5 million tonnes of waste material from the site was used to build the

Northumberlandia ''Northumberlandia'' (the "Lady of the North") is a huge land art sculpture in the shape of a reclining female figure, which was completed in 2012, near Cramlington, Northumberland, northern England. It is in the care of Northumberland Wildlife ...

sculpture on an adjoining site. Northumberlandia, which takes the form of a naked reclining female figure, was constructed as

planning gain Planning gains (or planning obligations) are ways that local authorities in the United Kingdom can secure additional public benefits from developers, during the granting of planning permission. Planning gains seek to capture some of the uplift in l ...

by the

to allow development of the Shotton site, and was opened as a public park in 2012.

References

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External links

Shotton Surface Mine
Coal mines in England 2008 establishments in England Mines in Northumberland Cramlington