Rainton Bridge, coal pit

An unnamed pit is shown on a plan of 1777 (NRO 578/321) served by a waggonway (HER 3196). On the tithe map of 1839 (DRO EP/ER/27/2) the pit is represented by a shaft a little to the north of that on the 1777 plan, and a large H-shaped building, possibly an engine house. By 1856 the pit had entirely disappeared, leaving only the fan-shaped field boundaries where the waggonway opened out into sidings in the pit yard. In 2001 there was a large overgrown mound close to the embankment of the Rainton to Seaham Railway in the location of this C18 pit. A trench was excavated at the base of this in 2001. A substantial cut feature was recorded, infilled with sandstone rubble and an earlier north-south aligned ditch and burnt deposits.