	Brancepeth Coking Plant	Index	Brancepeth Coking Plant

Brancepeth Coking Plant

Location:	Willington 6 miles [10 km] SW of Durham
Map Ref:	(Sheet 93) NZ205357, 54° 42' 57" N, 1° 40' 54" W
Opened:
Closed:
Output:	1961 - Coke. (270,000 tons)
	1964 - Coke. (195,000 tons)
	1965 - Coke.
Employment:	1961 - 263
	1964 - 231

Description

The plant consists of 59 Woodall-Duckham regenerative silica ovens built in 1937 on the site of a battery of waste heat ovens.

It has a capacity of 360,000 tons per annum (1,000 tons per day) when operating at 21½ hours coking time. Washed coal supplied from the adjacent Brancepeth Washery, the coal being obtained from Brancepeth, Waterhouses and Langley Park Collieries. Crushed coke breeze is added to the coal.

Since April 1964, the coking time has been extended to 28 hours and the large coke sold entirely for foundry use. There is a landsale for coke nuts with stocking and reclaiming equipment for 150,000 tons of coke.

Water is obtained from Page Bank Colliery and the boiler plant consists of water tube boilers with mechanical stokers and provision for gas firing. Two boilers were installed in 1927 and the third in 1957 to replace boilers from an old battery of waste heat ovens. Steam, gas and water is supplied to the adjoining tar distillation plant operated by Ness, a Board owned subsidiary.

Crude benzole is refined with benzole fractions from other works, a new rectification column and benzole washer having been installed. Ammonia is recovered as concentrated liquor, this section of the plant having been recently renewed. All the effluents from the coking and tar distillation plants are treated in an activated sludge plant installed in 1960.

5 million cubic feet of purified gas per day are compressed and supplied to the Northern Gas Board’s gas grid. Gas is also supplied to the nearby tar distillation and the Standard Pulverized Fuel Company plants.

Coking Plants, 1964

Disasters (5 or more killed)

None found.

Names of those killed at this colliery

No names found.

Collieries and Pits within 5 miles (8km)

a simulated map showing the immediate vicinity of Brancepeth Coking Plant

list of collieries/pits etc. near to Brancepeth Coking Plant

Gallery Images:

Credits

Sources:

1965 Guide to the Coalfields published by the Colliery Guardian
NCB - Coal Products Division, Northern Region: Details of Coking and Briquetting Plants, June 1964
NCB - Durham Division: Details of Coking and Ancillary Plants, January 1961

Pictures:

Picture from NCB Information Booklet