This colliery is situated about 3 miles north from Newcastle, and on the west bank of a romantic dean, through which the Ouse Burn winds its way to the Tyne. The sinking was commenced in 1825; and coal was won on Saturday, January 31, 1829. Great expense was incurred in this undertaking, from circumstances which have given a peculiar character to the pit. The High Main coal was come to at 25 fathoms below the surface; but, near it, the seam was thrown down in an inclined direction, by a dyke, to the depth of 1100 or 1200 feet. Hence, the quality of the coal, where it was originally met with, was so deteriorated by the proximity of the dyke, that it was necessary to sink the shaft perpendicularly to the depth of 181 fathoms, in order to come at the level of the lower range of the seam. In this operation, many of the succeeding seams of coal were passed, all more or less shattered by the dyke, and singularly placed at a higher level than the High Main, which, in a geological point of view, they underlie. On reaching the necessary depth, a horizontal drift, 700 yards long, was worked through the face of the dyke to the seam of coal, a little above its junction with the dyke. A great part of the above excavations was cut through solid rock.
The seam of coal, where it was first met with, had a rise of nearly 12 inches in a yard, down which the corves are conveyed on self-acting inclined planes; but, further on, the workings gradually become more level. The seam, which is of the first quality of Tyne coals, averages from 4 to 4½ feet thick; and the workings are not much incommoded with foul air. The coal on the south side has been worked out at a former period. To expedite the drawing of the corves, there are two shafts, contiguous to each other, each having a machine of 50-horse power; besides which there is a pumping-engine of 150 horse power. The waggon-way to the Tyne is about 3½ miles in extent; and the waggons are drawn thither principally by fixed engines.
The colliery is the property of the Rev. R. H. Brandling. The coals are called, in the London market, "Gosforth Wallsend."
Views of the Collieries (1844)
Taken from Durham Mining Museum http://www.dmm.org.uk/colliery/g009.htm