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4207

Walker Colliery

Walker

54.975084,-1.545086

Anne Pit

Opened:

Closed:

1760s

1920

Entry Created:

3 Sept 2021

Last Updated:

21 Mar 2025

Redeveloped

Condition:

Owners: 

Lambert & Co. (1850s), Walker Coal Co. Ltd. (1890s)

Description (or HER record listing)

The Ann Pit was one of Walker's oldest pits, and is likely founded upon the original Engine Pit in the 1760s. It stood on Mitchell Street (now partly Titan Road), and was a fairly modest working until modernisation. There were around 3 ground level buildings crammed into a site no bigger than 40 x 40, adjacent to a pit heap and reservoir to store all the pumped water. It also featured a number of pit terraces, a colliery school for pitmens children and a Methodist chapel nearby opened around the 1840s. It was connected to a waggonway connecting the site via a short branch to 2 staiths on the riverside, wedged next to Mitchell's shipyard and the Low Walker Ferry to Hebburn.

By the 1890s it had expanded greatly, with the whole portfolio employing nearly 1000 people. By this time the coal was being provided for gas, domestic use and industrial which helped instigate the developments at Walker. There was copious sidings at this site, as well as a ground level connection with the Jane Pit via Whitworth Street.

It was also the site of multiple terrible tragedies. 1887 was the most recent and like many due to firedamp. 8 lives were lost on the 24th October in the Walker colliery workings, and a memorial stands in the Walker Church Yard.

The site is unrecognisable today - all housing development. There is no visible trace of coal workings.

Ordnance Survey, 1890s

Ordnance Survey, 1890s

Photograph of Annie Pit. Courtesy of the Alan Yeats Collection.

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Historic Environment Records

Durham/Northumberland: Keys to the Past

Tyne and Wear: Sitelines

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HER information as described above is reproduced under the basis the resource is free of charge for education use. It is not altered unless there are grammatical errors. 

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