Ellington Colliery

Ellington Colliery, known locally as ‘The Big E’, was one of five collieries that were run by the Ashington Coal Company. The others being Linton, Lynemouth, Woodhorn and Ashington. The sinking of the pit started in 1909 and was completed by 1913.  It began with a workforce of approximately 800 people, reaching its peak with 2,179 workers at the time of the 1984 strike.

During the 1970s the coal waste from  the collieries at Ellington and Lynemouth was tipped into the sea. The coal floated up to the surface and washed up on local beaches where it was collected by locals and became part of a local seacoaling industry.

The deepest part of the mine at Ellington was 800m (2,600ft) and it extended out 15 miles out from the Northumberland coast under the North Sea. Ellington and Lynemouth collieries were linked together underground and, in the 1980s, together they formed the biggest undersea mine in the world. 'The Big E' produced 69% of the mined coal in Northumberland and in 1983 the mine produced 1 million tonnes of coal in 29 weeks!

Pit ponies were used to haul the full tubs from the coal face where it was cut, to the landings where the coal was transferred to conveyor belts right up until 1994, when the site was acquired by RJB mining. The colliery was repeatedly threatened with closure due to finances and eventually closed on 26^th January 2005 after flooding made mining operations unsafe. An estimated £8 million worth of equipment was left underground in the floodwaters as it could not be salvaged. It was the last operating deep coal mine in the North East. Shortly after closure, the colliery buildings were demolished and the land has since been repurposed for housing. A monument to the miners stands within the new development.