The Mines of Prudhoe (4th August 2016)

[@SloopyDog]

That was the brick works. There is not much left of the colliery. Both my grandfathers, my father and all my uncles worked at West Wylam colliery. I applied to work there when I left school but I was turned down as the colliery was being closed.

[@TheWacoKid1963]

My great grandparents worked that colliery at the turn of the century, The McDines & Cairns families of Low Prudhoe & Eltringham areas of Prudhoe.

[@TheWacoKid1963]

@@NorthernWayfarer-Alice McDine's would have been low Prudhoe & Eltringham, Cairns would have been West Wylam. I don't know of any distant relations left in Prudhoe apart from one uncle on the Cairns side of the family.

[@SloopyDog]

I knew them well. Were you related to George, John, or Patrick? The McDines were of Irish descent and they still have family in Ireland. Many of the mining families at West Wylam Colliery were of Irish descent, mine were.

[@jakobgrimminger]

I was on a funeral as a driver/bearer at Edgewell New Cemetery last year and got talking to the gravedigger while waiting for the hearse to arrive. He showed me a hole a few inches in diameter running up the side of the grave, ending in the wall of the grave about a foot below ground level. He said it was wierd as it goes down a long way. We both put a couple aof stones down it and these things just kept going. I have a funny feeling that this could be part of the shaft for the pit. It was one of the graves past the end of the loop road at the Highfield end. You seem to know more about the pit than i do, and wondered what your take was on this.

[@NorthernWayfarer-Alice]

I got the mine shaft in the wrong place on this video for Edgewell... it should've have been across the road closer to the chapel of rest. Very interesting about finding the possible shaft. It is always tricky to work out where the shafts are on the old maps because the landscape changes sometimes. James pit is now buried into the side of the hill because of the former landfill site. The shaft to West Wylam pit I got wrong on this video... it is at the bottom of the path and capped with concrete. The new road to the estate confuses the map, especially as there is nothing easily visible of the old road. I should perhaps to do this video again.

[@SloopyDog]

There was mining in that area and the ground was very unstable where the cemetery is now.