Hill Pit

The exact dates of operation of this pit are not certain, but it is known that it had started by 1769. Hill Pit is shown on ‘A Plan of the enclosed lands in the lordship of Throckley in Northumberland’ (Northumberland Record Office), dated to 1769. On a ‘Plan of the Inclosed lands of Throckley’, dated 1781, the shaft of Hill Pit is marked but not named at the north end of a large sub-oval enclosure, suggesting that it has closed by this time. An undated (but pre-1865) plan titled ‘Plan of Throckley Estate and workings in the Engine Seam of coal situated in the parish of Newburn belonging to Greenwich Hospital’ marks 'the Hill' as an isolated and evidently abandoned shaft. Hill Pit is shown on the 1st edition Ordnance Survey plan of 1858 as wooded, suggesting that it was disused by this time.