Wallsend Colliery (Wall Laws or Russell's Wallsend Colliery)

Wall Laws or Wallsend Colliery B Pit was sunk shortly after A Pit (which was sunk in 1780). By 1802 six interconnected shafts had been sunk in the Wallsend area. The renowned mining engineers, John Buddle senior and junior, were successive viewers or managers of the Wallsend Colliery. By the 1830s the mine was in decline, suffering badly from flooding. The last B Pit structures had been demolished by the 1850s although the shaft remained open for ventilation until 1969 (after 1908 as an air shaft for the Rising Sun Colliery). During excavation in 1997 a number of features were revealed adjacent to the B Pit shaft, the concrete cap of which is still present, but little trace of the engine house was found, suggesting that it was mostly of timber construction.