Whitburn Colliery

Marsden was originally a small village, consisting of farms, a few cottages and a lighthouse at Souter Point.

However, the company failed to find any coal, and was faced with large amounts of water ingress from the North Sea.

The section through the water-fissured strata is lined with iron tubing, although throughout its life the electric pumps were required to extract 12,000 imperial gallons (55,000 L; 14,000 US gal) per day.

Located directly on the cliff top, resulting in an exposed and often weather-beaten experience, many wives refused to move to the village, meaning that most miners lived in South Shields and commuted daily using the newly constructed railway.

[1] The railway allowed colliery output to quickly rise to 1,500 tonnes (1,700 tons), employing 1,600 workers.

What remains are five rows of Victorian terraced houses, the small chapel and a primary school, although this is technically now located in Whitburn.