Coal Mining Prints - Whitburn Colliery 1879 - 1968

38 x 28cm signed print

"No 1 Shaft 180 fathoms deep (330 meters or 1082ft)

No 2 Shaft 115 fathoms deep (210 meters or 688ft)

1892 Coal Production commenced

1921 Employed 3497 men and boys

1921 Set a world record producing 18,000 tons of coal per week with a work force of 1,600 = 11.25 tons per man

1968 Due to high water ingress as faces were developed almost three miles East under the North Sea resulting in high costs of operating, union militancy, its geographical location, sandwiched between two super pits Westoe Colliery to the North and Wearmouth Colliery to the South, Whitburn Pit closed.  The final production shift came up from the shaft bottom 31st May 1968.

During its 89 year life the colliery claimed the lives of more than 302 men and boys with thousands more injured."