Sea Coal Gallery

The waste from Ellington colliery in Northumberland, as with most other coastal collieries in the past, was always, by one means or another, tipped into the sea. This waste contained a certain amount of coal; the waste rock and the lighter coal were separated by the action of the sea, and tides deposited the coal back on the beaches around Lynemouth and Newbiggin-by-the-Sea. The soft nature of the local beaches meant that collecting this coal with vehicles was hazardous, and the traditional way of working with horses and carts survived. Only in recent years, with the demand for sea coal dying out, and the final closure of Ellington colliery, has the practice just about finished

The only place in the UK where sea coal washes ashore in any quantity today is around Hartlepool. This coal is believed to come not from colliery waste but from exposed seams on the seabed. The firmer beaches in the vicinity have allowed the coal to be gathered by vehicles, once large ex-Army lorries, today primarily Land Rovers. The beaches are in a mostly built up area and the work of the seacoalers gives rise to much local controversy.

I compiled a large portfolio of images of the Lynemouth seacoalers with their horses and carts as part of my ongoing Working Animals project. An exhibition was held at the National Coal Mining Museum for England, which then toured. We then agreed that although not working with animals, it would be appropriate to supplement the Lynemouth portfolio with images of the Hartlepool operations, now the UK’s last seacoalers.