St. Lawrence Colliery (Mushroom Colliery)

Opened 1833 by Messrs Todd, Dunn and Ridley. On 7 August 1833 guns were fired to celebrate the loading of the first vessel at the colliery. The shaft had been sunk to a depth of 94 fathoms in only 8 months. Whellan said the colliery originally opened in the 1700s, but it flooded with water. Friar's Goose engine (HER 1012) was used to drained it so that it could be reopened in 1833. The workings extended under Sandgate and the River Tyne. This was one of the first collieries to introduce a system of square tubs - the shafts were filled with cages and tubs guided by wooden spears placed one above the other, pulled up and down by two winding engines. The coals were then put on an inclined plane 400 yards long.