About Woodhorn Museum

Woodhorn Museum sits on the site of Woodhorn Colliery, which operated between 1894 and 1981.   

Woodhorn Colliery was the third pit to be opened by the Ashington Coal Company. The sinking of duplicate shafts began on 16 May 1894 and coal was drawn from 1 February 1901.  

By 1912, there were over 2,000 men employed both underground and, on the surface, producing 2,300 tons of steam coal used for producing electricity, per day. 

In 1890, Ashington was home to 5,000 people. With its five pits, the population grew to 30,000 by the 1920s and it soon became the largest pit village in the world. However, there wasn’t much for miners and their families to do outside of the pit, as amenities, especially for washing were severely lacking.  

By 1920, the Board of Trade had established a Miners’ Welfare Fund. Financed by levies on coal, it raised £30 million between 1920 and 1951. The coal company donated land, and the miners funded the maintenance through their pay packet. Ashington became a ‘model’ mining town.  

The Welfare Fund paid for the Miners’ Institute, recreation grounds for sport, hospitals, community magazines and educational opportunities. The most important and welcome of them all was the Pithead Baths, which allowed the miners to get a proper wash before they went home. Although, it is said that older miners found it difficult to adapt to the new baths, as they were too used to a traditional tin bath in front of the fire. They were shy, and did not believe in washing their backs, as it weakened you. 

At 6am on Sunday 13 August 1916, a repairing shift set to work in the main seam of Woodhorn Colliery. The men were installing steel girders as roof supports which was a specialist job requiring the support of eight deputies assisted by five men, three Stonemen, a Shifter and a Putter.  

Ventilation in the area they were working on using an air compressor and a fan had not been operating correctly over the previous 24 hours. Instead of safety lamps, the miners worked with naked flame candles, with disastrous results; the naked flames came into contact with patches of accumulated firedamp causing a massive explosion. Eleven men were killed instantly and two died later, having never regained consciousness. 

The Journal Newspaper reported “The belief at first was that a belated Zeppelin had come on the scene, but it was soon known that a disaster had occurred in the mine.” 

The First World War had a massive impact, with a reduction of 33% of employees leaving Woodhorn Colliery to fight on the front line. Men were working extra shifts to help the war effort and maximise coal production. It was reported, only a few days before the explosion, an application to the Minister of Munitions had been pleading that Major EW Milburn from the 7th Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers return as Manager of the Woodhorn Colliery.  

The list of casualties:  

David Armstrong, deputy, aged 47 and a father of six 

Thomas Armstrong, deputy, aged 43, a father of three and David Armstrong’s brother  

George Blair, stoneman, aged 46 and a father of five  

Daniel Harrison, deputy, married with no children  

Joseph Harrogate, putter, aged 29 and single  

Robert Hindmarsh, deputy, aged 38, married with no children  

Ralph Howard, deputy, aged 44 and a father of five  

George R. Hudson, deputy, aged 38 and a father of two 

George Marshall, deputy, aged 43 and father of one  

Edward Walton, stoneman, aged 48 and father of nine  

John Geoge Patterson, stone cutter, aged 21 and single  

John George was a Sunday School teacher at Hirst Primitive Methodist School.  

Walter Hughes, stoneman, aged 38 and a father of two  

Walter was a Sergeant in the 7th Northumberland Fusiliers. He was gassed in France and spent several months in hospital. He had returned to Woodhorn Colliery the week before the disaster. He received military honours at his funeral.  

As a sad postscript to this tragedy, the homes the victims and their families lived in were property of the colliery owners and reserved for working miners. In the wake of the disaster, seven bereaved families left destitute without a wage were evicted from their homes, within weeks. In those days, there was no compensation scheme, and it was left to struggling neighbours, friends and family to offer financial support and shelter.  

Each year, a memorial service is held for Northumberland miners who have lost their lives in service. It takes place on or around Picnic Day.  

The Ashington Miners’ Memorial was commissioned and paid for by mining unions and the Ashington Coal Company. It was designed by Henry William Knowles (1857 – 1943) and sculpted by John Reid (born c. 1890), Master of Sculpture at Armstrong College, Newcastle. It was unveiled in a ceremony on 18 August 1923 by Scottish born, Labour MP Robert Smillie and located on Sixth Avenue in Hirst Park, Ashington. In 1991, it was moved and re-erected at Woodhorn Museum.  

The Grade II listed memorial is in the style of a First World War memorial but is unusually dedicated to a civilian accident. It is a bronze figure of a mining deputy holding a safety lamp in an outstretched hand. The figure stands on a white granite plinth and pedestal with low relief bronze panels and two drinking fountains.  

The inscription reads: “ERECTED BY/ THE MINERS AND/DEPUTIES TRADE-/UNION BRANCHES IN THE ASHINGTON GROUP/OF COLLIERIES (ASSISSTED/BY DONATIONS FROM THE/ASHINGTON AND CO. LTD., THE NORTHUMBERLAND/MINERS ASSOCCIATION, THE NORTHUMBERLAND/DEPUTIES ASSOCCIATIONS AND FRIENDS)/IN MEMORY OF THEIR FELLOW WORKMEN WHO LOST THEIR LIVES IN THE WOODHORN COLLIERY EXPLOSION ON SUNDAY, AUG. 13 1916.” 

During the Second World War, mining was considered essential to the war effort and was a reserved occupation, so the pits remained fully staffed. Ashington collieries contributed 25% of all the coal mined in Northumberland.  

However, on 21 December 1941, a jettisoned German bomb hugely disrupted the work of the miners at Woodhorn Colliery. The bomb seriously damaged the Walker Fan and damaged the drain pipes on the Crab Engine House.  

The bomb fell on the northern wing of the Fan House destroying the main drive motor and its main shaft needed to be re-straightened before it was rehoused in a new building.  

The once described as “indestructible” fan was designed and installed by Walker Brothers of Wigan between 1917 and 1919. It replaced the Capell Fan which was used in the Central Fan House until the Woodhorn Colliery Disaster of 1916. It was designed as centrifugal fan drawing air up the fan drift running diagonally into the Number 2 pit shaft.  

Luckily, the 19th century Capell Fan had been retained as a reserve, but it had a much smaller capacity than the Walker Fan and was very much a stopgap. The Capell Fan had several modifications to make it more efficient, including the replacement of its outdated Robey fan engine with an electric motor.  

On 27 February 1981, Woodhorn Colliery closed, and the remaining workforce were transferred to other pits.  

From 1966 coal was no longer brought to the surface at Woodhorn but went by underground conveyor to Ashington Colliery. The screening plant was demolished and the two steam powered winding engines were replaced by a less powerful electric winder.  

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Throughout the 1970s coal production was confined to the lower, thinner seams. Production and manpower steadily dropped until it finally ended. The winding engines and shafts remained in use, as they were vital to the operations of Ashington Colliery, but these too closed in 1986.  

Clearance and reclamation began on parts of the site during this winding down period and continued after final closure. Four pit ponies were brought back to Woodhorn Colliery to assist with salvage underground. Equipment and useful items from across the complex were removed and plans were made to turn the site into a museum dedicated to the history of coal mining.  

The landscape of the colliery changed drastically, spoil heaps and ponds were removed or filled, railway sidings were dismantled and buildings demolished. 

In 1989, the Colliery reopened as a mining museum.   

Woodhorn Museum celebrates Northumberland’s proud mining history and represents the North East’s last remaining coal mining built heritage.  

Woodhorn buzzes with stories linked to over 1000 years of coal production here by local people. 

The museum features an impressive banner collection, chronicles the life of the Ashington coal mining community and showcases the iconic Ashington Group Collection of artworks featuring life above and below ground for Northumberland miners. Visitors can experience the Scheduled Ancient Monument Colliery complex and enjoy a programme of temporary exhibitions throughout the year. 

Be sure to look at the wall of the Cutter Building which features a moving sculpture made up of 98 birds, fashioned from moulded miners’ gloves – each of which sadly represent a life lost at Woodhorn Colliery throughout its history.