Elsdon : Coal Mining

The economic and demographic decline was somewhat mitigated by the revival and development of coal mining in the locality in the later 19th century. Small scale coal mining and prospecting had taken place around Elsdon in previous centuries, some of it in or adjacent to the Mote Hills.

The new Elsdon Colliery was a small mine on the western outskirts of the village next to the road to Otterburn. The pit opened in the 1880s, initially as a shaft mine, with a drift mine being sunk nearby in about 1900. The drift mine was developed by Wakes of Darlington and saw a series of subsequent owners, Mr G Dent of Elsdon and Cummin and Hunter of Carlisle. It employed up to 25 miners.

Following nationalisation of the coal mining industry after World War II, Elsdon pit was allowed to carry on as a licensed mine employing under 25 people and continued to provide significant employment in the village up until 1972 when it finally closed.

Largely as a result of opening of the mine, the population of Elsdon civil parish rose during the decades around the turn of the 19th century increasing from 192 in 1891 to 243 in 1911, reversing what had been a pronounced decline through the second half of the 19th century.

Picture : Remains of Pit Near Elsdon