Woodhorn Colliery And Museum

Woodhorn Colliery was opened in 1894 and closed in 1981. Originally coal was extracted using its shaft, but from 1966 it was transferred by underground conveyor to nearby Ashington Colliery where it was brought to the surface. At its peak, over 2,000 people worked underground producing 600,000 tonnes of coal each year. When it closed in 1981 the workforce was transferred to other pits. 

The site was opened as a museum in 1989. This was eventually redeveloped incorporating a facility for the Northumberland County Archives and was opened in 2009. The building is known as ‘The Cutter’ due to a dramatic  architectural piece above the entrance that resembles coal cutting machinery. 

Stables And Workshop

Before entering the new museum, I visited the old Stables. This contained the Blacksmiths area where tools could be made and repaired. The ponies also needed shoes too. I was surprised to read that the pit had 200 ponies and the farrier would go underground to fit them, rather than dragging the poor things to the surface. The ponies were tiny, about 1m high, but could pull half a ton of coal. Amazingly, the last one was retired from nearby Ellington Colliery in 1994. By 1913, there were 70,000 ponies working in the pits. They got just 2 weeks above ground per year. All the manure had to be shifted from down below to the surface. 

Next door to the Stables was the Workshop. This is where the joiners and fitters would work. They’d repair and service the equipment. 

Mik Critchlow

I went into the entrance of the main building. It was very impressive. The County Archives could be seen in a large office on the other side of the building. The entrance was separated from them by a large hole that revealed the lower level. I could see that this was the main museum area. On this level there were two exhibition galleries. The first one I visited was one that displayed photographs by local photographer Mik Critchlow. There was a large selection of his black and white prints that documented the life of the local community and the pit. Part of the collection was the ‘The Last Shift’ which showed evocative images of the Woodhorn Colliery’s last day. I recognised some of the locations in his photographs from my walks in this area. They were excellent photos and I spent a good half hour perusing them. 

Ashington Group Gallery

On the same floor was another gallery that displayed paintings from miners. In 1934 Robert Lyon, from Armstrong College in Newcastle, came to Ashington to encourage miners to create some paintings. The miners painted scenes from their own lives, both above ground and below. The best of their efforts were on display in the gallery. I was amazed at the quality of the work. Maybe not surprisingly, I found the work to be quite dark, both visually and subject wise. The lights had been turned down in the gallery and so that might have darkened the atmosphere somewhat. The paintings certainly gave an insight into the miner’s life. 

Banners

There was a long, gradual ramp that led to the lower floor. Above this area were four miners’ banners. I remember seeing these at various demonstrations during the 1980s miners’ strike. An information board said that only 23 remain from the 200 Northumberland pits.     

There was a gift shop and a café on the ground floor and so I stopped for some coffee and cake. They'd really done a great job creating this place, but it was a bit disappointing that there weren’t many visitors. I’d seen about the same number of staff serving the museum as I’d seen actual customers. Maybe they got more punters coming along at the weekend. Such a shame. 

Museum

I entered the main museum area on the ground floor. This was based around a meandering walkway that took you through a timeline of mining from its start to the closure of the industry. It was very well presented with informative notes and excellent displays. I particularly liked the examples of the conditions of working at the coal face. It really did give an impression of the conditions in which the miners worked. The museum also gave examples of the conditions back home. One of the displays showed a lifesize dummy of a miner taking a shower and bearing his arse. Apparently some miners didn’t like to wash their backs since they thought they’d lose their strength if they did. A large photo of Arthur Scargill made an appearance of course. I found it quite amusing that he had the arm of a light protruding from his forehead. It looked like somebody had fired one of those pretend arrows at him with a sucker on the end. Eventually, I got to the end of the museum walkway. The tour had been excellent. 

Fan House

It was still raining outside, but I decided to venture out to the remaining colliery buildings. The first one I came to was the Capell Fan House. It was built in 1900 and only used until 1919. By then it was too small to properly ventilate the mine workings and was replaced by the Walker Fan. I looked through a wire grill at the Capell Fan. It looked pretty big to me.     

The Walker Fan was driven by a steam engine until 1942, when the Luftwaffe dropped a bomb on the place. The Capell Fan was un-mothballed (if that’s a real word) and the engine converted so that it was electrically powered. 

Disasters

On the 13th of August 1913, Woodhorn suffered its worst disaster. An explosion due to an accumulation of firedamp killed 13 miners. The colliery had 102 fatalities in a little less than a century. 

That wasn’t Northumberland’s worst mining disaster though. That is claimed by Hartley Colliery near Seaton Sluice near the coast. On the 16th of January 1862 a beam of a pumping engine broke and fell down the shaft. This caused a lot of debris to fall down and this blocked the shaft. The blockage was about 27m deep and rescuers had to dig through this to reach the shaft below. It took days to break through and once they did, carbon monoxide drifted upwards from below. All 204 miners that were below the blockage died. There were so many bodies that the local graveyard wasn’t big enough and it had to be extended to a nearby field. There was such an outcry after this accident that a law was introduced that required collieries to have 2 shafts. An information board shows a final letter written by one of the miners (James Armour) as they slowly suffocated. 

Jack Engine

The last building I entered was the Jack Engine house. This was the oldest building of the colliery (1894) and contained a steam engine that helped sink No. 2 shaft. After the shaft was completed in 1897 the engine was shut down and never used again. The miners who sank the shafts were known as ‘sinkers’ and were a specialised trade. They worked in terrible conditions with water continually pouring down the shaft. Maybe that’s why they measured the depth of the shaft in fathoms. They had a hat with a flap at the back to prevent water pouring down their collars. The engine was used to lower and raise the sinkers to the bottom of the shaft in a ‘kibble'. James Rogers fell out of the wooden tub to his death in 1896. The shaft were about as deep as the Eiffel Tower is high. I felt vertigo just thinking about it.

There was a large TV in the engine room that showed an interview with two ‘winders’ who were employed during the colliery’s final days. It was a good job it had subtitles since I could only catch half of what they were saying. It was an interesting watch. The ‘winders’ had the responsibility of getting the miners up and down the shafts safely. They were the most highly paid of the surface staff which reflected their significant responsibilities. When working they could never be disturbed; even the site manager would have to knock on the door and wait before it was okay to enter the winding room. The procedure seemed a bit basic though with chalk marks being drawn on to winding wheels for exact measurement. The wire would also stretch over time and the blacksmiths had to reduce its length.     

It had been a fascinating tour of the Woodhorn Museum. It had been far better than expected with a good mixture of in situ buildings and machinery, and exhibits in the museum. The galleries showing the photographs and paintings were interesting and provided great insights too. Woodhorn Museum is a great facility; it seems a pity that it doesn’t seem to get many visitors (well, not on the day I visited).