Colliery Disaster Memorial In Tudhoe Cemetery
Tudhoe Cemetery, at Junction of York Hill Road and North Road, Spennymoor, DL16 6FH
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1322832
- Date first listed:
- 14-Jun-1988
- List Entry Name:
- Colliery Disaster Memorial In Tudhoe Cemetery
- Statutory Address:
- Tudhoe Cemetery, at Junction of York Hill Road and North Road, Spennymoor, DL16 6FH
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 1999-08-03
- Reference:
- IOE01/00778/12
- Rights:
- © Mr Brian Wilcockson. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1322832
- Date first listed:
- 14-Jun-1988
- Date of most recent amendment:
- 18-Jan-2021
- List Entry Name:
- Colliery Disaster Memorial In Tudhoe Cemetery
- Statutory Address 1:
- Tudhoe Cemetery, at Junction of York Hill Road and North Road, Spennymoor, DL16 6FH
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- Tudhoe Cemetery, at Junction of York Hill Road and North Road, Spennymoor, DL16 6FH
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- County Durham (Unitary Authority)
- Parish:
- Spennymoor
- National Grid Reference:
- NZ2665734782
Summary
Colliery disaster memorial, about 1882 by G Ryder and Sons of Bishop Auckland.
Reasons for Designation
The Tudhoe Colliery Disaster Memorial, of 1882, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* a tall and attractive Gothic design in the form of a spire with intricate decorative detailing;
* it displays good-quality materials and craftsmanship and creates a prominent central landmark within the cemetery in which it stands;
* it has good quality and well-detailed carved scenes in low relief, depicting aspects of miners' lives and death.
Historic interest:
* it commemorates a major Durham coalfield mining disaster in 1882 in which 37 men and boys died, and stands as a tangible expression of the hazards inherent in England's later-C19 coal mining industry.
Group value:
* it benefits from a spatial and functional group value with the First World War memorial, erected to the men and officials of Tudhoe Colliery, that stands at the entrance to the cemetery.
History
County Durham's third mining disaster of the 1880s occurred only two months after the nearby Trimdon explosion, and preceded a similar blast at West Stanley by only a few days. The explosion at Tudhoe Colliery took place on 28 April 1882 and was its first major accident. Sixty miners were below ground when the 'Black Horse' blew at 1.15 am. A rescue was mounted immediately, but was hampered by a jammed cage and fallen debris. Massive crowds gathered at the pit mouth as dozens of injured survivors were brought to the surface. The bodies of 37 men and boys were discovered. The subsequent enquiry found that the explosion was caused by a fall of stone. This memorial is a replica of another placed in Trimdon Colliery to a separate colliery disaster.
Details
Colliery disaster memorial, about 1882 by G Ryder and Sons of Bishop Auckland.
MATERIALS: sandstone ashlar with granite shafts.
DESCRIPTION: the Gothic monument occupies the centre of the cemetery and stands about five metres high. It has a shaped base supporting a square pedestal which has a moulded plinth and cornice; there are capitals on corner shafts framing a panel to each face. This is surmounted by a high, tapering, octagonal spire, with blind tracery and leaf decoration on alternate panels, and a cross finial bearing the inscription I H S. The spire rests upon a square block which has scenes carved in low relief on all sides, and has flower and beast decoration. These detailed scenes represent a miner walking to work, an injured miner being rescued from the pit, a grieving widow at her husband's grave and a scroll with clasped hands inscribed with the word 'FRIENDSHIP'.
The Gothic-shaped panels on the pedestal bear inscriptions incised in Roman letters which read: on the west face: IN MEMORY OF/ THE 37 MEN AND/ BOYS WHO LOST THEIR LIVES/ IN THE LAMENTABLE/ EXPLOSION AT TUDHOE/ APRIL 18 1882/ ERECTED BY THEIR FELLOW WORKMEN AND FRIENDS AS A/ TOKEN OF SINCERE RESPECT. The names of the dead are inscribed below the inscription and on the other three faces.
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 112246
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Usherwood, P, Beach, J, Morris, C, Public Sculpture of North-East England, (2000), 277-8
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 23-Jun-2026 at 08:22:40.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
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