Wideopen, Colliery Winding House

A colliery building was identified during mitigation excavation south of East Wideopen farm in 2015. The building was broadly aligned north-west south-east and measured 8.8m in length by 7.6m wide. It was part of Wideopen Colliery (opened in 1825) and appears to be a winding engine house, which would have operated the headgear used for raising and lowering coal, men and supplies. The building was previously unknown, and was not visible on the geophysical survey
carried out by Tyne and Wear Museums in 2012. The building appears to be shown on the tithe map of 1842 (NRO Dt483) but does not appear on the First Edition Ordnance Survey mapping of 1858, suggesting it is out of use by this point. There was no evidence the building ever had a stone or brick floor, and presumably the interior may originally have accommodated a slightly raised timber floor, above the clay natural. The interior of the walls of the northeastern cell, and the clay natural, were blackened, presumably as a result of exposure to smoke and coal dust from the boiler.