Cafe weeks away from opening at Elemore Country Park as major transformation of former colliery site presses ahead

Elemore Country Park is gearing up to open to the public as part of major transformation of the old Elemore Colliery site in Easington Lane.

The 60-acre site was home to the once-thriving Elemore Colliery from 1825 to 1974, as well as a branch line on the famous Hetton Colliery Railway to transport coal to the staithes on the River Wear.

It later became home to Elemore Golf Club, which closed in 2019.

Now, following public consultation, with local residents expressing a desire for it become “usable green space”, it will open as Elemore Country Park, comprising a cafe and garden centre in the former clubhouse.

The eco park is a major development of the area and follows the successful reclamation of other former pits, such as Hetton Lyons Country Park, Herrington Country Park, Rainton Meadows Nature Reserve and Silksworth Lakes, which show how land once scarred by industry can become home to a thriving ecosystem.

The first phase of the park will see the opening of the cafe and garden centre on April 11. Run by Bishopwearmouth Co-operative Community Interest Company, the new cafe and garden centre will employ 16 local people, including six adults with disabilities.

Working with local butchers and bakers, it will also serve local produce, including a pitman's breakfast, in its cafe and grow all of the plants it sells in peat free compost in recyclable pots and trays.With its commitment to accessibility, the community space housing the cafe will also provide day care for adults with disabilities, a Changing Places accessible toilet and a sensory room for adults and children.

Councillor Claire Rowntree, Deputy Leader of Sunderland City Council, who was member lead on the project, said it was so important to preserve sites such as this, instead of them being used by developers.

"The community has always come first in this project,” she said. “It’s so important to preserve land like this for future generations. It was key to get the community involved, so they feel empowered and can take ownership of this site. It’s a co-operative enterprise so all profits will go back into the site.

"It’s a real site of historical significance and is the start of the Stephenson Trail, an 11-mile trail which runs right down to Deptford.”

Future developments at the country park will also include art installations inspired by the heritage railway, poly tunnels used to propagate ingredients for the cafe and an outdoor seating area.

New trees have also been planted as part of the The Queen's Green Canopy project and improvements have been made to the lake to retain and attract more wildlife.

Cllr Rowntree added: “The response so far from the community has been absolutely brilliant. People have joined in from a range of community groups: people with historical interests, people interested from an ecological point of view and those with an interest in co-operative enterprises. There’s been real passion from everyone involved.

"As a project, it really shows how a community can work together and how everyone’s input is important.”

The Stephenson Trail

The Stephenson Trail follows the route taken by coal wagons on their way from the Elemore and Hetton Collieries to the River Wear. It takes

its name from the Stephenson brothers who designed the railway in the early 19th century.

The sinking of Hetton Colliery began on 19 December 1820. After many months of excavation, in September 1822, the main coal seam was reached.

The success paved the way for all later mining operations in the eastern side of theregion, and new collieries were opened at Elemore, Eppleton and North Hetton in 1825.

Hetton Colliery’s owners employed the great civil engineers George and Robert Stephenson to design a railway to exploit the coal reserves and transport them to the River Wear to be deposited into awaiting keelboats.

The result was quite revolutionary; at over 8 miles in length, it was the longest railway in existence and the first in the world to be specifically designed to use locomotives.

It opened on 18 September 1822 and was to remain in use for the next 137 years.

In the early days the average speed of the wagons was only four miles per hour, but by 1829 speeds had increased to twenty nine miles per hour and the railway was moving 2,880 tons of coal in an eight hour shift.

The success of the colliery and its innovative railway led to further extensions of the line to allow Eppleton and North Hetton Pits to take advantage of the route to the sea.

The Hetton Railway finally closed in 1959, closely followed in the early 1960’s by the Hetton and Lambton staithes, the same staithes that had

begun Sunderland’s coal shipments some 140 years before.