The coal mining industry dominated the North East's history. Visit our 1900s Colliery to see what life was like for miners and take a trip underground

Experience life in The 1900s Pit Village, showing a colliery community at the time of peak coal production in the North East. The Francis Street cottages came to Beamish from Hetton-le-Hole, on Wearside, and were originally built in the early 1860s by Hetton Coal Company.

00:00 History 5:35 - Going into the mine 18:36 Beamish Village If you are around Durham or Newcastle I would HIGHLY recommend coming to visit Beamish Coal Mining village.

In the coal mine area of the museum is the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel of 1854 that actually came from the real Beamish village (Pit Hill) that lies just outside the museum grounds while the museum school came from the nearby village of East Stanley.

Nov 22, 2016 · A pit village is a mining community – the place where men who worked in the coal mines lived with their families. Because coal was a big business in Northern England during the early twentieth century, Beamish featured just such a village for us to wander through.

Apr 6, 2024 · The Drift Mine at Beamish offers a rare glimpse into the gritty reality of coal mining in the early 20th century. Unlike traditional shaft mines, which descended vertically into the earth, drift mines followed horizontal seams of coal, extending deep beneath the surface.

Aug 26, 2022 · 'The Great Northern Coalfield' explores the story of mining across this millennium span, and serves as a guide to the collections related to coal held in the North of England Open Air Museum at Beamish

The deep mine at Beamish Museum, County Durham. Presented as Beamish Colliery (owned by James Joicey & Co., and managed by William Severs), the colliery represents the coal mining industry which dominated the North East for generations – the museum site is in the former Durham coalfield, where 165,246 men and boys worked in 304 mines in 1913 ...

Oct 18, 2021 · NEHL - The Second Pit, also known as the Chophill Pit, was a working on the edge of the Annfield Plain branch between Pelton and Stanley. It utilised a small branch coming off the Beamish Waggonway which led over the Annfield Plain Branch into a small settlement next to Beamish Station.

Some of the names of mining fatalities on this page have been kindly provided by Ian Winstanley of the Coal Mining History Resource Centre (CMHRC) and are marked with . The CMHRC is available here.