Boldon Colliery

A colliery village in its own right

Unlike its much older neighbours East and West Boldon, both recorded in the 1183 Boldon Book, Boldon Colliery is a product of the 19th century, growing up around a single pit sunk into the Bensham and Hutton coal seams. At its late-Victorian peak the colliery employed up to 1,600 men, and the settlement that housed them developed its own distinct identity within what's collectively still known as "the Boldons." The colliery finally closed in 1982, one of the last working pits on this stretch of the Durham coalfield, and Boldon Colliery is remembered today largely as a residential town within South Tyneside.