North Hetton Colliery (Moorsley Colliery)

North Hetton Colliery. The colliery was served by the Rainton and Seaham Railway North Hetton Branch, (HER 2305). Opened 1821, closed 1935. Owned by the North Hetton Coal Company (Earl of Durham, Wood, Philipson, Burrell etc) in the 1850s and later by the Lambton and Hetton Collieries Ltd. Whellan reports in 1894 that daily output of coal was 360 tons. There were 320 workers and an associated firebrick works which made 60,000 bricks per week and a gas retort works. In Moorsley village, the colliery company built a Mission Chapel (of St Cuthbert's Church, East Rainton), a Wesleyan methodist chapel and a Primitive methodist chapel. A school was built in 1871 for 360 children.