Washington F Pit Museum In the 18th/19th century, a series of coal pits were sunk in the area and lettered from A - J. F pit was sunk in 1777. By the 1960s F Pit employed 1500 men and was the UK's oldest working coalmine.  
<p>F Pit was closed in 1968.  The pit head and winding house was preserved as a small museum (open summer weekends only).  Today it is in a park and surrounded by trees; it is difficult to imagine the working pit with its 200 ft high slagheap!
</p><p>More info: <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/sunderland/fpit.php">http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/sunderland/fpit.php</a>
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Historical info: <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://www.washington.co.uk/eh.htm">http://www.washington.co.uk/eh.htm</a> (halfway down the page)
<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.geograph.org.uk/profile/5696">Brian Abbott</a>
CC BY-SA 2.0
From <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/172014">geograph.org.uk</a>