Whitburn Colliery

Whitburn Colliery was a coal mine located about three miles south of South Shields, North East England, located on the North Sea coast.

Marsden was originally a small village, consisting of farms, a few cottages and a lighthouse at Souter Point. Local industry consisted of a small limestone quarry.

In the 1870s, the Whit burn Coal Company bought the five quarries, two of which were developed as the Lighthouse (Marsden) Quarries.

On 14 July 1874 the company began sinking the Whitburn winnings, a bore-hole put down below the Brockwell Seam. However, the company failed to find any coal, and was faced with large amounts of water ingress from the North Sea.

In 1877, a new shaft was developed using the Kind-Chaudron process, its first deployment in the UK coal industry. The section through the water-fissured strata is lined with iron tubing, although throughout its life the electric pumps were required to extract 12,000 imperial gallons (55,000 l; 14,000 US gal) per day. Both shafts had a diameter of 13 feet (4.0 m), with No.1 shaft having a depth of 180 fathoms (1,080 ft; 330 m), and No.2 with a depth of 115 fathoms (690 ft; 210 m), to enable access to the Bensham seam, with thicknesses between 4 feet (1.2 m) to 6 feet 6 inches (1.98 m).

The industrial development of the area required additional workers. The company built a new Marsden village, located between the Lighthouse Quarries and Whitburn Colliery. Designed to house 700+ people, there were: 135 houses; nine streets; a church and a Methodist chapel; co-op store; post office; school; and a Miners Institute. Located directly on the cliff top, resulting in an exposed and often weather-beaten experience, many wives refused to move to the village, meaning that most miners lived in South Shields and commuted daily using the newly constructed railway.

The company built the twin-track South Shields, Marsden, and Whitburn Colliery Railway, leaving the North Eastern Railway line at Westoe Lane, South Shields and travelling to Marsden via two intermediate stations. Built to serve the colliery and opened in May 1879, the line served the Lighthouse limestone quarry, a paper manufactory, and local farms. On the line 19 March 1888 when the line opened to the public.

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