Netherton Opencast

[Richard Pyle]

When going through the old maps of the Bedlington area I see there was a relatively small opencast mine where Netherton Colliery once stood. I cannot find any information about this at all online. My guess is that it was given some fancy rural name to distract attention away from it. It looks to have been in operation in the 1980's. Does anyone have any details about it? Does anyone know it's dates? Who operated it? Thanks for any help you can give. Richard.

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

1 hour ago, Richard Pyle said:

When going through the old maps of the Bedlington area I see there was a relatively small opencast mine where Netherton Colliery once stood. I cannot find any information about this at all online. My guess is that it was given some fancy rural name to distract attention away from it. It looks to have been in operation in the 1980's. Does anyone have any details about it? Does anyone know it's dates? Who operated it? Thanks for any help you can give. Richard.

@Richard Pyle - could you post an image from one of the maps and the year the map was produced?

[Richard Pyle]

It is from the old-maps.co.uk site and labeled 1984-1993 but I have found their dating to be a little unreliable sometimes. I hope that this helps!

 

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

4 hours ago, Richard Pyle said:

It is from the old-maps.co.uk site and labeled 1984-1993 but I have found their dating to be a little unreliable sometimes. I hope that this helps!

Never looked at the more recent maps before, normally always looking at the maps prior to the 1960's. I see the words 'Opencast Workings' don't appear on the maps for 1951 and earlier but are on the 1961 map and subsequent. I will ask around to see if anyone knows anything about an opencast site around Netherton Colliery.

 

[Richard Pyle]

Thanks!

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

13 hours ago, Richard Pyle said:

Thanks!

@Richard Pyle - I had a word (via facebook group) with Alan Dickson. Alan used to be a member on this site (

 ) and before that was a miner for most of his working life. 

 

Alan's reply was :- 

 

It would be the late seventies early eighties Alan, wasn't exactly an open cast,
They landscaped the whole area with dozers etc , and put the whole pit heap area through a coal reclamation plant,
Netherton Colliery never had a washing plant and lots of coal was wasted.
Remember they uncovered the old Victorian tip and hundreds of Victorian bottles were thrown up.

• Laura Corina Davison Alan Dickson What had been in the bottles ?.

  Hide or report this

   
• 

  Alan Dickson Laura Corina Davison All kinds Laura, medicines , beer, sauces, ointments, bottles made of China for stouts and ginger beers, poisons,
  Very collectable,

  1

  Hide or report this

   

  Then & Now (Google 2020) :-

  

Edited June 15, 2020 by Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)

[Richard Pyle]

That is great Alan. Thank you very much for your help!

[Oneofthevillageschoolkids]

22 hours ago, Richard Pyle said:

When going through the old maps of the Bedlington area I see there was a relatively small opencast mine where Netherton Colliery once stood. I cannot find any information about this at all online. My guess is that it was given some fancy rural name to distract attention away from it. It looks to have been in operation in the 1980's. Does anyone have any details about it? Does anyone know it's dates? Who operated it? Thanks for any help you can give. Richard.

I seem to remember there was an open cast around about 1960 opposite the new houses and chapel at Netherton  as I can remember the 'yuks' going past and I think it stretched across the fields to the road from Netherton village to Bedlington because I can remember Doctor Milligan's car going off the road down into the opencast bedside what used to be Raisbeck's garage. 

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

@Oneofthevillageschoolkids - just checked on the maps that @Richard Pyle has been looking at and on every piece of open land from Nedderton down to where the Ewart Hill Open Cast site at the south end of Bedlington is labelled 'Opencast Workings'.

I will have to have a search on Ewart Hill Open Cast - after a cuppa

[Richard Pyle]

That is very interesting. What is also strange is that on the identical site, the identical map is labelled 1962 on my computer and 1961 on yours!

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

@Richard Pyle - another member on the Barrington Facebook group added this comment :- 

 

Bill TalbotHoward opencast coal site opened 1980 ish for about 4 years,hole left to be back filled with skip rubbish and some nasty stuff too if i mind right.

[Richard Pyle]

21 minutes ago, Alan Edgar (Eggy1948) said:

@Richard Pyle - another member on the Barrington Facebook group added this comment :- 

 

Bill TalbotHoward opencast coal site opened 1980 ish for about 4 years,hole left to be back filled with skip rubbish and some nasty stuff too if i mind right.

That's great. Now I know the name, I might be able to find out something more about it. Thank you for all your help.

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

@Richard Pyle - had a look around, on the old maps, and I see just about every piece of land, that isn't farmland, is marked  'Opencast Workings'. as a kid in the 1960's I can always remember the Ewart Hill Opencast (Acorn Banks) that we had to pass to get to Humford baths. Never really took any interest in the opencast, apart from the massive inner tubes, from the massive Dragline machines they used on the Opencast. 

So I had a look on the Durham Mining Museum site to see if they had any info on the Opencast. I was amazed to find that the Ewart Hill Deep Opencast entry shows links to 103 different mining sites ie. Opencast - Colliery - Pit - Brickworks - Quarry & Drift.     

Edited June 16, 2020 by Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)

[Canny lass]

On 15/06/2020 at 13:39, Alan Edgar (Eggy1948) said:

@Oneofthevillageschoolkids - just checked on the maps that @Richard Pyle has been looking at and on every piece of open land from Nedderton down to where the Ewart Hill Open Cast site at the south end of Bedlington is labelled 'Opencast Workings'.

I will have to have a search on Ewart Hill Open Cast - after a cuppa

That site, on the south side of the B133 between West Lea and Nedderton Village, was in use during the late 50s, early 60s and was mined by Wimpey.  I remember that they had on site a small building, towards the West Lea end of the site, where they retreaded the huge tyres from the Euclid trucks. My brother worked there for a while. He used to come home with burns all over from the molten rubber. I'm not sure just how far south the site went but it was a huge site. I also have a strong recollection of visiting the site to see one of the huge machines "walking". I think it may have been 'Big Geordie', but I'm not 100% on that.

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

3 hours ago, Canny lass said:

That site, on the south side of the B133 between West Lea and Nedderton Village, was in use during the late 50s, early 60s and was mined by Wimpey.  I remember that they had on site a small building, towards the West Lea end of the site, where they retreaded the huge tyres from the Euclid trucks. My brother worked there for a while. He used to come home with burns all over from the molten rubber. I'm not sure just how far south the site went but it was a huge site. I also have a strong recollection of visiting the site to see one of the huge machines "walking". I think it may have been 'Big Geordie', but I'm not 100% on that.

I'll dig out and post some info CL - Big Geordie was never at Bedlington. It was put together at the Widdrington site. Over the years, especially on the local Facebook groups, I have seen many comments from members  saying in the late 50's & earlt 60's they were taken to see Big Geordie at Bedlington eg .

Carol Telford Remember Big Geordie coming to netherton colliery and Bill Cook (Cookie) driving it

 Every time a comment, like the one above from Caroll, was posted there were many more comments like this one 

Paul Thoburn Sorry, but the dragline " Big Geordie" was never at Bedlington, it worked most of it's time near Widdrington Village,then Butterwell, and laid to rest at Stobswood. 

Extract from the Chronicle :- 

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

@Canny lass - the construction of 'Big Geordie' - hope one of these links work :- http://www.yorkshirefilmarchive.com/film/big-geordie

https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-big-geordie-1970-online

Edited June 17, 2020 by Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

@Richard Pyle - another member, John Johnson, of the Barrington Facebook group commented :- 'There was an open cast along there in 1980 run by diggergaylord it lasted approximately four years'

Checked, via Google, and and the company name is :-

 

[Oneofthevillageschoolkids]

I was talking yesterday to a man who worked at the opencast at Westlea. This was on the right hand side of the road coming from Nedderton Village towards Bedlington. From that road you turned right into Netherton Lane towards Westlea. However he did say there was also an opencast on the left hand side of the road from Nedderton Village to Bedlington which went from the road side where you turned into Netherton Colliery and across the fields to Netherton Colliery . This would have been the 1960s. I said that it was  Dr Milligan's car which had gone down into the opencast, however it was Doctor Stone and I think it was his son. Maybe in the mid 60s?

 

[Canny lass]

34 minutes ago, Oneofthevillageschoolkids said:

However he did say there was also an opencast on the left hand side of the road from Nedderton Village to Bedlington which went from the road side where you turned into Netherton Colliery and across the fields to Netherton Colliery . This would have been the 1960s.

That's perfectly correct except for the date. This site was at the top end of the colliery rows stretching from Fail's farm (Blue House farm) as far as North Ridge.  This was in the late fifties before the works on the other side of Netherton Lane.

[Canny lass]

On 17/06/2020 at 15:53, Alan Edgar (Eggy1948) said:

@Canny lass - the construction of 'Big Geordie' - hope one of these links work :- http://www.yorkshirefilmarchive.com/film/big-geordie

https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-big-geordie-1970-online

Edited yesterday at 15:55 by Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)

Thanks Eggy! Good film. It definitely wasn't this that I saw. Same shape and possibly size (hard to tell from a photo with nothing to compare it with). However, it definitely wasn't white. it was yellow, same as the Euclid trucks. I remember going to see it with my father and brother together with half of Netherton Colliery and their grannies! I understood it's 'walking' to be something of a 'one-off' occasion on the day. Netherton Lane was lined three-deep from Raisbecks Garage and half way to Nedderton Village to be able to witness the event!

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

1 minute ago, Canny lass said:

 I remember going to see it with my father and brother together with half of Netherton Colliery and their grannies! I understood it's 'walking' to be something of a 'one-off' occasion on the day. Netherton Lane was lined three-deep from Raisbecks Garage and half way to Nedderton Village to be able to witness the event!

Magic

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

44 minutes ago, Canny lass said:

Thanks Eggy! Good film. It definitely wasn't this that I saw. Same shape and possibly size (hard to tell from a photo with nothing to compare it with). However, it definitely wasn't white. it was yellow, same as the Euclid trucks. I remember going to see it with my father and brother together with half of Netherton Colliery and their grannies! I understood it's 'walking' to be something of a 'one-off' occasion on the day. Netherton Lane was lined three-deep from Raisbecks Garage and half way to Nedderton Village to be able to witness the event!

Unfortunately no colour shots around of the gear at Bedlington - just a black and white and a shot of the 'bucket' with some info from the Villageguides Facebook group :- 

Edited June 18, 2020 by Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

B

17 minutes ago, Alan Edgar (Eggy1948) said:

 

Better view of what I believe is the Bucyrus 1150B

 

 

[Anne Gilbert]

On 15/06/2020 at 11:54, Oneofthevillageschoolkids said:

I seem to remember there was an open cast around about 1960 opposite the new houses and chapel at Netherton  as I can remember the 'yuks' going past and I think it stretched across the fields to the road from Netherton village to Bedlington because I can remember Doctor Milligan's car going off the road down into the opencast bedside what used to be Raisbeck's garage. 

I wonder if this is the same opencast area that I know about. It was behind our house in Netherton Lane (on the map now it says Westlea in that area). In 1963 my brother George drowned  in a trench in an old opencast site which hadn't been filled in. It was soon filled in after that. Does anyone remember anything about that, please?

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

1 hour ago, Anne Gilbert said:

I wonder if this is the same opencast area that I know about. It was behind our house in Netherton Lane (on the map now it says Westlea in that area). In 1963 my brother George drowned  in a trench in an old opencast site which hadn't been filled in. It was soon filled in after that. Does anyone remember anything about that, please?

I can't help you @Anne Gilbert . I can remember looking at the old maps and there appeared to be 'opencast' from West Lea all thee way along to Nedderton and Netherton Colliery.