NEHL - Eden Colliery had established to the west of Leadgate in the 1840s on the crossroads between the aforementioned village and Stony Heap to the south. In the 1850s it was a modest working, with a number of sidings and a small reservoir. It appears a number of small terraces cropped up around the crossroads to accommodate the pitmen, as well as the presence of a Roman Catholic school and chapel. This indicates the likely presence of Irish migrants to work this pit and others.

It was opened by an E Richardson, but was taken on by the Derwent Iron Co. from a similar time. They eventually evolved into the Consett Iron Co, as part of their supply chain alongside their limestone quarries to produce iron and steel.

It was one working on a branch line from Annfield Plain, sitting at the junction to South Medomsley Colliery at Pontop and to Leadgate. It continued operating into nationalisation after WWII, with production until 1980.

"The Eden Colliery, by the Consett Iron Company, is now working the Hutton and the Main coal seams. This pit has been working for about fifty years. The first named seam is met at a depth of 30 feet, and has an average thickness of 7 feet 6 inches of workable coal, and contains a band of from 7 to 9 inches wide, and about 1 foot of bad coal at the foot of the lower section. Six feet below the bad coal is met the Low Hutton seam, which has not yet been worked. The Main coal is 30 feet below the Hutton, and averages 4 feet of clear coal. Besides the above seams, there exist the Townley, Hodge, Hand, and the Tilley, all more or less thin. The Busty, which has not yet been opened out, lies at a depth of 210 feet below the Main coal, and gives a thickness of 5 feet. The output, which amounts to 5500 tons per fortnight, is almost entirely used for making gas for the steel furnaces, the remainder, about one-ninth, being disposed of by land sale. The number of men and boys employed is 261" - Whellan's 1894 Directory of County Durham