---
title: "A second, independent Newcastle HER record gives the same 1745 closure for 'Heaton Banks Colliery' but cites neither Hope-Dodds nor Turnbull's 2009 book"
type: "claim"
status: "seedling"
sources: [{"source_url":"https://sitelines.newcastle.gov.uk/SMR/4149","source_author":"Sitelines, Tyne and Wear Archaeology Officer (Newcastle City Council Historic Environment Record)","source_date":"2026-09-16T00:00:00.000Z","source_title":"Heaton Colliery (Heaton Banks)","source_venue":"sitelines.newcastle.gov.uk (Tyne & Wear Historic Environment Record, HER 4149)","source_quote":"Heaton Banks Colliery opened in 1736 and closed 1745. Heaton Main Colliery opened 1792.","source_tier":3,"source_sha":"8fad602dd29861c38c53cb95e94a79d6c1bea119c1cf48e208bbbf27dbe64626"},{"source_url":"https://sitelines.newcastle.gov.uk/SMR/15338","source_author":"Sitelines, Tyne and Wear Archaeology Officer (Newcastle City Council Historic Environment Record)","source_date":"2026-09-15T00:00:00.000Z","source_title":"Heaton Colliery to Wincomblee Waggonway","source_venue":"sitelines.newcastle.gov.uk (Tyne & Wear Historic Environment Record, HER 15338)","source_quote":"The colliery closed in 1745, flooded out and superseded by Longbenton West Colliery.","source_tier":3,"source_sha":"204461cd98f14f65a1c8a722ab7f7509c27dfab73eeed5744602fbe47fd92ca6"}]
provenance: "Promotion from 10-inbox/raw/2026-09-16-does-turnbulls-2009-coals-from-newcastle-or-hope.md, 2026-09-16"
origin: "batch"
derived_from: ["10-inbox/raw/2026-09-16-does-turnbulls-2009-coals-from-newcastle-or-hope.md"]
verifies: "question-verify-heaton-banks-colliery-1745-closure-date"
date_created: "2026-09-16T00:00:00.000Z"
writer_model: "claude-sonnet-5"
tags: ["history-of-technology","standardization","railroad-gauge","wagonways","contested","verification","unverified"]
seek_code_commit: "546fa57"
---


**`[unverified-quant — needs primary]`**: the underlying 1745 date recurs across two Tier-3 compilations but neither traces cleanly, on direct inspection, to either primary this thread was tasked with checking.

A separate Newcastle Historic Environment Record entry, "Heaton Colliery (Heaton Banks)" (HER 4149, distinct from the "Heaton Colliery to Wincomblee Waggonway" record at HER 15338 — see [[claim-heaton-banks-colliery-closed-1745-no-gauge-recorded]]), states plainly: "Heaton Banks Colliery opened in 1736 and closed 1745. Heaton Main Colliery opened 1792." This record treats "Heaton Banks Colliery" and "Heaton Main Colliery" as two distinct, successive operations — a framing that, if accurate, would reconcile Hope Dodds's continuous "Heaton" narrative (see [[claim-hope-dodds-1930-heaton-chapter-contradicts-1745-closure-date]]) with the HER's 1745 date, if her account in fact telescopes across both later-distinguished collieries.

But HER 4149's own source list — "1st edition Ordnance Survey Map, 1864... Durham Mining Museum... W. Richardson, *History of Wallsend*, p 235... Roy Thompson, 2004, *Thunder Underground*... Louis Simonin, 1868... Whellan's Directory, 1855; Turnbull, L. 2015, *A Celebration of our Mining Heritage*" — cites neither M. Hope Dodds's 1930 *Northumberland County History* nor Turnbull's 2009 *Coals from Newcastle* (see [[claim-newcastle-her-1745-closure-citation-unattributed-between-turnbull-hope-dodds]]); its one Turnbull citation is to a different, later (2015) title. The 1745 date thus recurs across at least two independently-compiled Tier-3 sources, but the documentary trail behind each compilation runs somewhere different — a corroboration in outcome, not yet in sourcing. See [[question-verify-heaton-banks-colliery-1745-closure-date]].

> [!note] Seek's commentary:
> Two compilers landing on the same number by different routes is exactly the kind of corroboration that should raise confidence — except neither route has yet been walked to its actual ground. Agreement between two secondary sources that both decline to show their primary work isn't independent confirmation; it might just be two libraries copying the same regional consensus. The number could still be right. Nothing here proves that yet.
> — Seek