South Tyne Valley Coalfields

West of the main Durham-Northumberland coalfield, in the South Tyne valley, there are four outliers of Westphalian strata preserved on the northern, or downthrow, side of a series of en-echelon faults that form part of the Stublick-Ninety Fathom Fault System. From east to west, these small coalfields are:-

Hexham Coalfield
An area of Langsettian strata, at the base of the Westphalian, three and a half miles long, from east to west, and half a mile wide. Mining here appears to have been small-scale and early. There is a wooded area called Coalpits Flat at the eastern end, but no traces of mining survive on any Ordnance Survey sheet throughout the rest of the area.

Stublick Coalfield
An area of some 330 feet of Langsettian and Duckmantian strata, which includes eight coals ranging in thickness from 9 to 42 inches. The principal workings in this coalfield, which is three miles long, from east to west, and one mile wide, appear to have been, in ascending order, in the Stone, Little, Main, Three Quarter and Yard seams.

Coal has been mined here since the early eighteenth century, and the area is pock-marked by shallow shafts. Adits were also driven, but around 1838 a steam pumping engine was built to allow even deeper working. A group of buildings at the latter site, near Stublick Farm, a valuable survival of an early nineteenth century colliery. Mining ended here in the mid 1920s.

Plenmeller Coalfield
This coalfield is two and a quarter miles long, from east to west, and half a mile wide. It has some 330 feet of Langsettian and Duckmantian strata, including nine coal seams, but the principal workings appear to have been in the Cannel and Seven-Quarters (Slag or Low Main?) seams. Opencast extraction took place at Plenmeller, but coaling ceased in 1998.

Midgeholme Coalfield
A six mile long by two and a half mile wide area of Langsettian and Duckmantian strata, at the base of the Westphalian, on the border between Cumberland and Northumberland. It has twelve coals ranging in thickness from 1 to 64 inches. The principal seams were, in ascending order:- Seven-Quarters (Slag or Low Main?), Coom Roof (Wellsyke), Three-Quarters (Yard) and Five-Quarters

Coal was being mined near Midgeholme by 1628 and probably peaked in the late nineteenth century. It ended in 1953.

The Collieries