( Grid Ref 356 456 )

Directions to point J

Leave the carpark , turn right and walk along the footpath in a westerly direction for approximately 600 metres. After a while the footpath stops and you will have to walk on the grass verge, - take care. On reaching a group of trees turn right through the gate and take the well-made track through the fields after first looking at the heritage information for Hetton-on-the Hill.

( Point J) Grid Ref 351 452 QR code or link to information.

Heritage Information Point I

The golf course at Elemore is less than 30 years old (2013) having been built on the waste heaps of the Elemore Colliery. The landscaping hides all evidence of the golf course’s early life, such is the success of reclamation. The remains of Elemore pit can be seen just 200 metres down the road since a small industrial park has taken over the old pithead baths and some workshops. Across the road from them is the remains of the colliery canteen now forming part of a bus garage. Elemore colliery was first sunk in 1825 on land owned by the Baker Baker family who lived in Elemore Hall, a large property about a mile to the west. Within a short time the colliery managership and ownership passed to the Hetton Coal Company and the pit at Elemore was the sister pit to the Lyons colliery and Eppleton Pit. It soon became one of the most prosperous mining enterprises in the country and the coal, found below the mantle of magnesian limestone, was of exceptional quality and therefore highly in demand in the south of England and Europe. To service the mine and the nearby Lyons colliery there was a huge influx of miners and their families into Easington Lane which soon grew into a recognisable village. By 1828 Elemore colliery employed 800 men and boys and the village had established itself with shops, pubs, four private schools and a chapel. Not only were miners attracted to the locality but it also became the winter home for tinkers, hawkers, hucksters peddlers and other travelling folk. By the 1850s miners from Wales, Cornwall, Derbyshire as well as agricultural workers from Ireland and other parts of England had settled in the village and worked at the mine.
The colliery was very successful during the middle decades of the 19th century but a downturn in demand for coal coupled with a period when many of the underground workings were worked out during the last decade, almost brought the pit to full closure. Miners were transferred to other collieries in Hetton and the pit actually closed for a short period in 1893 only to be reorganised and reopened five years later. A serious underground explosion on December 2nd 1886 claimed the lives of 28 men and boys, a disaster which affected the close knit population. The colliery finally closed in 1974 when production was transferred to Eppleton.

Elemore Colliery circa 1900	The George & Isabella shafts