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

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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