Blackhall Colliery is a village on the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

coast of

County Durham County Durham ( ), officially simply Durham,UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. is a ceremonial county in North East England.North East Assembly �About North East E ...

, in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It is situated on the A1086 between

Horden Horden is a village and electoral ward in County Durham, England. It is situated on the North Sea coast, to the east of Peterlee, approximately 12 miles south of Sunderland. Horden was a mining village until the closure of the Horden Collier ...

and

Hartlepool Hartlepool () is a seaside and port town in County Durham, England. It is the largest settlement and administrative centre of the Borough of Hartlepool. With an estimated population of 90,123, it is the second-largest settlement in County ...

. To the south of the Blackhall Colliery's Catholic church is

Blackhall Rocks Blackhall Rocks is a village on the North Sea coast of County Durham, North East England. It is situated on the A1086 between Horden and Hartlepool, and just south of Blackhall Colliery which it adjoins. It is sometimes referred to by locals ...

. Built around the once extensive mining industry, Blackhall's

colliery Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

closed in 1981. Daniel Hall was one of the founding fathers of the colliery and invested heavily in the establishment of the mining infrastructure in the area. It is believed but unconfirmed that the name Black-Hall was established as a result of Daniels alias 'Black' due to his association with the mining of coal and his surname Hall. In 1991 a local campaign to erect a statue of Mr Hall was unsuccessful due to a lack of available funding from the local Authority. There is now an

industrial estate An industrial park (also known as industrial estate, trading estate) is an area zoned and planned for the purpose of industrial development. An industrial park can be thought of as a more "heavyweight" version of a business park or office park, ...

built over part of the old colliery buildings, the colliery itself was pulled down in the 1980s."Blackhall Colliery"
, SINE project (Structural images of the north east),

Newcastle University Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a UK public university, public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is ...

Blackhall Colliery is on the edge of

Castle Eden Dene Castle Eden Dene is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and National Nature Reserve in the Easington district of County Durham, England. It is located mostly in Peterlee, between the A19 and A1086 roads. The dene is the largest, and biolo ...

, and Castle Eden Dene Mouth. Over the past couple of decades, there have been many changes. Following the closure of the colliery, the once busy village has economically gone downhill. As time has passed since the closure, other industries have now begun to emerge to once again create employment in the region. With both Blackhall Colliery and Blackhall Rocks being on the main road to

Peterlee Peterlee is a town in County Durham, England. It lies between Sunderland to the north, Hartlepool to the south, the Durham Coast to the east and Durham to the west. It gained town status in 1948 under the New Towns Act 1946. The act also create ...

and Hartlepool. This has meant that these villages have become commuter villages, supplying workers for the now busy and expanding

call centre A call centre ( Commonwealth spelling) or call center (American spelling; see spelling differences) is a managed capability that can be centralised or remote that is used for receiving or transmitting a large volume of enquiries by telephone. ...

s in the nearby towns of Hartlepool and Peterlee.

Blackhall beach

Blackhall beach made a notable appearance in the 1971 film ''

Get Carter ''Get Carter'' is a 1971 British crime film Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detecti ...

''; in the climactic scenes the main character is involved in a chase across a coal-strewn beach."The 50 best beach scenes in the movies"
''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'', 23 August 2008"Hoping to get Caine for coastal spectacle"
''

The Northern Echo ''The Northern Echo'' is a regional daily morning newspaper based in the town of Darlington in North East England, serving mainly southern County Durham and northern Yorkshire. The paper covers national as well as regional news. In 2007, its t ...

'', 28 August 2000. The film shows the beach black with coal spoilings, dumped there by mine's conveyor system. Since the mine closed, £10 million has been spent removing the conveyor and its massive concrete tower and cleaning tons of coal waste from the beach, which is now pristine."Northern revival"
Richard Nelson, ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', 16 February 2002 Blackhall beach, along with the village itself, was used for the setting of the 2019 book ''Tainted Water'' by Dan Farrell. Neighbouring beaches of Blackhall Colliery is a narrow strip of Peterlee then Horden beach (North) and Crimdon beach (South), both are within 30 minutes of walking distance each way from the beach. The continuation of the improving regenerative beach can be seen via the coastline.

Photo gallery

Image:Blackhall_seaham.JPG, Looking North from Blackhall Image:blackhall gardens.jpg, Overlooking Blackhall gardens Image:blackhall allotments.jpg, Blackhall gardens Image:blackhall hartlepool.JPG, Facing Seaton and Hartlepool Image:blackhall train.JPG, Standing on top of Blackhall bridge facing towards Hartlepool Image:Winter at Blackhall colliery.jpg, Blackhall colliery Image:Blackhall Colliery pitwheel.jpg, Monument to the mining industry at Blackhall Colliery

References

External links

Blackhall Colliery
from the

Durham Mining Museum Spennymoor is a town and civil parish in County Durham, England. It is south of the River Wear and is south of Durham. The civil parish includes the villages of Kirk Merrington, Middlestone Moor, Byers Green and Tudhoe. History Origins The la ...

{{authority control Villages in County Durham Coal mines in County Durham Populated coastal places in County Durham Mining communities in England Former mines in England

Blackhall beach

Photo gallery

See also

References

External links