Lynne - West Thornley Colliery was located between Tow law and Sunniside, Co Durham. It was listed in Hagar's Directory for County Durham, 1851 as being owned by the Weardale Iron Company - they had ironworks at Tow Law. The depth of the seam being worked at that time was 18 fathoms.
Whellan's Directory for County durham, 1894 gives the following information:
West Thornley Colliery. Owned by the Weardale Iron and Coal Company, the seams worked were the Five Quarter seam, the Top Coal seam, the Ballarat, the Three Quarter seam, which was at a depth of 54 feet above the Ballarat, and the Main Coal seam, the total depth of the shaft being 25 fathoms. there were about 350 men and boys employed in coal-getting and coke-making when the pit was in working order.
---
The Weardale Iron and Coal Company was founded by Charles Attwood in 1845 with iron works at Tudhoe (near Spennymoor, Co Durham) and Tow Law. There is a photograph of West Thornley Colliery, c. 1900 in 'Tow Law', a book of photographs produced by Tow Law Loal History Society. The accompanying text says that the colliery began working in 1879 (this differs from the Hagar date) and finally closed in 1879 and at its height employed over 400 men and boys, finally closing in 1936.
My grandfather was a winding engineman at the colliery.
Alan Vickers.
|