Mainsforth Colliery was situated between

Ferryhill Ferryhill is a town in County Durham, England, with an estimated population in 2018 of 9,362. The town grew in the 1900s around the coal mining industry. The last mine officially closed in 1968. It is located between the towns of Bishop Auckland ...

and the small hamlet of

Mainsforth Mainsforth is a small village in County Durham, England. It is to the east of Ferryhill, and lies within the ecclesiastical parish of Bishop Middleham. The earliest settlement in Mainsforth may have been on Marble (Narble Hill). It has been sugge ...

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 ...

, England, United Kingdom. It was adjacent to the former

Ferryhill railway station Ferryhill was a railway station located in Ferryhill in County Durham, Northeast England. It was located on what became the East Coast Main Line between and , close to the junctions with several former branches, including the extant freight- ...

in the

Ferryhill Station Ferryhill Station is situated to the south east of Ferryhill, next to Chilton Lane and near the site of Ferryhill railway station Ferryhill was a railway station located in Ferryhill in County Durham, Northeast England. It was located on wh ...

area of the town. Mainsforth Colliery operated from 1872 to 1968, mining coal in the UK, deep

underground Underground most commonly refers to: * Subterranea (geography), the regions beneath the surface of the Earth Underground may also refer to: Places * The Underground (Boston), a music club in the Allston neighborhood of Boston * The Underground (S ...

Name

The name ‘Mainsforth’ is thought to mean the ford of someone called Maino (a Germanic name) and the ford probably crossed the boggy land called ‘The Carrs’ to the west.

Operating life

In 1872 Mainsforth Colliery opened. In 1873 two shafts, the East and the West, were sunk 270 ft to the Five Quarter seam. It was worked until 1876 before being laid in. These workings were abandoned by 1877 and the shafts used as a rubbish dump. 23 years later, in 1900 the Carlton Iron Company re-excavated the abandoned shafts and de-watered the workings. The Colliery reopened in 1904 and the company deepened the shafts to the Harvey seam and to prove the Busty and Brockwell seams.

Ownership

The Mainsforth Coal Company operated the mine initially. The Carlton iron Company took over in the 1890s. Ownership passed to Dorman and Long of Middlesbrough in the 1920s. In 1947 the

National Coal Board The National Coal Board (NCB) was the statutory corporation created to run the nationalised coal mining industry in the United Kingdom. Set up under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946, it took over the United Kingdom's collieries on "v ...

took over, following nationalisation of the mines.

Closure

When the Dean & Chapter Colliery closed on 15 January 1966, it stopped pumping and the water ran to Chilton, Leasingthorne and Mainsforth, reaching Mainsforth in September 1967. This caused Mainsforth Colliery's closure in December 1968. The last shift at Mainsforth Colliery was on December 6, 1968.

Economic importance

The Dean and Chapter Colliery and Mainsforth Colliery were the main employers in the area. Coal from the mine kept

very busy. The railway station closed in the

Beeching cuts The Beeching cuts (also Beeching Axe) was a plan to increase the efficiency of the nationalised British Rail, railway system in Great Britain. The plan was outlined in two reports: ''The Reshaping of British Railways'' (1963) and ''The Develop ...

. The demolition contractors for the colliery in the 1970s also demolished the residual station building structures. The area has been in economic decline since the mine and the railway station closed.

The mine and local culture

Mineworkers contributed towards supporting the town band, cricket team, bowls team and many more activities that were associated with the colliery at that time. Without their support so many organisations and activities would never have existed. The legacy lives on with the following:

Welfare institute

Mainsforth Colliery Welfare Institute, Ferryhill Station, County Durham is a venue for arts music and theatre. It is currently home to the Mainsforth Community Centre.

Art

Norman Cornish Norman Stansfield Cornish (18 November 1919 – 1 August 2014) was an English mining artist. Career Cornish was the last surviving member of the "Pitman's Academy" art school at the Spennymoor Settlement in County Durham in North East Engla ...

redeployed to Mainsforth Colliery in 1962 from the Dean and Chapter Colliery before its closure. It was in this period that Norman painted the celebrated ‘

Durham Miners' Gala The Durham Miners' Gala, founded by Pete Doherty, is a large annual gathering and labour festival held on the second Saturday in July in the city of Durham, England. It is associated with the coal mining heritage (and particularly that of miners ...

Mural’.

Music

Ferryhill Town Band The miners of the Mainsforth Colliery formed the Ferryhill Town Band in 1909. (This was initially named the Mainsforth Colliery Brass Band). In the early years the miners contributed 1/2d per week to support the band.

Sport

Cricket Miners from the nearby Mainsforth colliery founded the Mainsforth

Cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

Club in the early 1900s. Bowls Mainsforth Bowling Club was first established in the early 1900s to play lawn

bowls Bowls, also known as lawn bowls or lawn bowling, is a sport in which the objective is to roll biased balls so that they stop close to a smaller ball called a "jack" or "kitty". It is played on a bowling green, which may be flat (for "flat-gre ...

, with the majority of players also working at the pit.

Wartime

War memorial In 1925, a

war memorial A war memorial is a building, monument, statue, or other edifice to celebrate a war or victory, or (predominating in modern times) to commemorate those who died or were injured in a war. Symbolism Historical usage It has ...

that erected to commemorate those men who worked for the Mainsforth Colliery officially opened. War Memorial Cottage, Lough House Bank/Mainsforth Road, Ferryhill Station (Ferryhill) is Grade II listed and has a polished marble plaque securely attached to the front wall. The plaque is rectangular grey marble, topped by curved moulded cornice. The centre contains a carved laurel wreath surrounded by the inscription: MAINSFORTH COLLIERY AND FERRYHILL STATION, WAR MEMORIAL, 1914–1919. Below, three columns of text list the names of all those who died and beneath that is inscribed: THEIR NAME LIVETH FOREVER. Bevin Boys During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

conscripts Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day un ...

worked the mine. The

Bevin Boys Bevin Boys were young British men conscripted to work in coal mines between December 1943 and March 1948, to increase the rate of coal production, which had declined through the early years of World War II. The programme was named after Erne ...

were based at a camp established off Dean Road at the southern edge of Ferryhill, near the A167.

The colliery area today

Current land usage

Much of the former colliery area is now a Durham County Council Wood. In 1974 land which is part of the former site of Mainsforth Colliery was conveyed to the then Sedgefield District Council before being transferred in 1998 to Ferryhill Town Council, who maintain a park and sports complex on the site. Mainsforth Sports Complex The facilities on offer at Mainsforth Sports Complex include: * Cricket field with pavilion - this is run by Mainsforth Cricket and Social Clu
Mainsforth CC
In recent years the cricket ground has played host to many representative games involving Durham County Cricket Club, and is regarded as one of the best in the county with six teams currently playing for the club as well as youth teams. * Bowling green with pavilion - this is run by Mainsforth Bowls Clu
Mainsforth Bowls Club
Currently Mainsforth is home to five different teams with each taking part in various leagues in the county, including the Durham District, South West Durham and Rural Leagues. * Football field with changing rooms (inside bowls pavilion) - currently home to one team. * Play equipment for younger children and picnic area. There is also the opportunity to take countryside walks. A pathway leads to the Durham County Council owned fishing pond which is leased to the Ferryhill and District Angling Club. More details of the facility are available fro

Light Industrial usage A number of small businesses operate from part of the site. Potential housing An area of the former mine site has been granted outline permission for housing development, despite objections from local residents.

Mineral extraction

Mineral extraction is still a key industry for the area. The nearby Thrislington Quarry provides sand and dolomite (magnesian limestone). The colliery site and the quarry are adjacent to the

Thrislington Plantation Thrislington Plantation is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a national nature reserve in the Sedgefield district of County Durham, England. It is situated about 1 km east of Ferryhill, between the East Coast Main Line railway and t ...

. The quarry is destined to become a

landfill A landfill site, also known as a tip, dump, rubbish dump, garbage dump, or dumping ground, is a site for the disposal of waste materials. Landfill is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of the waste ...

site.

Science

Flooded mine A flooded mine is one of the direct results of a mine's closure procedure. When a mine stops operating, its maintenance systems also stop, in which the dewatering systems are included. Without these systems the mine will get flooded by water that ...

works The flooded mine works have been studied and the mine has provided a case study of mine water quality deterioration. Ecological study Ecological reports commissioned for planning applications on the site have shown that the area is biodiverse. ''link and reference to follow''.

References

{{reflist Mining in England Ferryhill