A medium scale working owned by the Earl of Durham could be found north of Cocken Cottage and Finchale Priory. This mine only operated for a few decades in the 19th century, and was certainly still operational into the 1870s. A newspaper piece in the Sunderland Daily Echo indicates, owing to a dispute about the royalty, all the men and boys employed at Cocken Colliery "have received notice to terminate their engagements". The unscreened coal was later shipped alongside the idle Brasside Colliery also owned by the Earl of Durham.

It was connected via waggonway to the Lambton Railway and featured a number of buildings and a brick field to the south. By the 1890s it was disused. There was a pumping engine in Bowburn Wood which was likely connected.