COAL TOWN
Like many similar places in County Durham, the population of Willington boomed half way though the 19th Century with the discovery of coal
If you stood on Willington Green 100 years ago, you would have been towered over by a mountainous twin-peaked pit heap – or dant heap as it was called locally – that gradually grew above Willington over the course of coal being mined here.
Willington was the site of Brancepeth Colliery from 1840 to 1967, a mine that was owned and operated by Strakers & Love. Joseph Love, a self-made man and former miner suspected that Brancepeth coal was the right quality for making coke. He was right! Love installed a large number of coking ovens and the venture became a huge success.
The population of Willington expanded from a mainly agricultural village of 258 residents when the colliery first opened to a town of 2,393 residents by 1861. Heavy migration from other parts of County Durham, Ireland, Scotland and other mining areas like Cornwall helped to town to expand and the colliery to function.
