Barrow Colliery
Location | |
---|---|
Worsborough, Barnsley | |
County | South Yorkshire |
Country | England |
Coordinates | 53°31′12″N 1°27′35″W / 53.52000°N 1.45972°W |
Production | |
Products | Coal Coke |
Production | 5,000 tonnes (5,500 tons) per week |
Financial year | 1982–1983 |
History | |
Opened | 1873 | (coaling began in 1876)
Closed | May 1985 |
Owner | |
Company | Barrow Haematite Steel Company (1873–1932) Barrow Barnsley Main Collieries (1932–1947) National Coal Board (1947–1985) |
Barrow Colliery was a coal mine in
History
The mine was located in Blacker on the south side of Worsborough, South Yorkshire,
The mine had three shafts; No. 1 was 15 feet (4.6 m) in diameter and 410 yards (370 m) deep which produced coal from the Parkgate and Thorncliffe seams. No. 2 shaft was 15 feet (4.6 m) in diameter and 469 yards (429 m) deep and No. 3 shaft was 17 feet (5.2 m) in diameter with a similar depth to No. 2 shaft. Both No. 2 and 3 shafts drove into the
Seven men died at the pit in November 1907. A cage in No. 3 shaft, with seventeen men inside it (12 in the upper deck, five in the lower) had been lowered to allow a miner to get off at the Thorncliffe stage. The two men in charge of the cage (called onsetters) rushed through their safety sequence and as a result, the cage was hauled up the shaft before it had been uncoupled from the shaft wall.[6] The seven men fell over 70 feet (21 m) to immediate death at the bottom of the shaft.[7] Whilst cage accidents were commonplace in mines, many coroner's inquests recorded accidental death as their outcomes; in the case of Barrow, two men who were operating the cage, were found guilty of "great carelessness and negligence, [but] not criminal negligence".[8] The closed Worsborough Park Colliery, which was adjacent to Barrow Colliery, suffered a similar accident in 1839 when four miners (three from the same family) were killed when the rope on the cage snapped and they fell 120 yards (110 m) to their deaths.[9]
In 1932, the Barrow Haematite Steel Company merged with the Barnsley Main and Monk Bretton colliery companies to form the Barrow Barnsley Main Collieries Limited. This venture was nationalised in 1947 into the
When the miners' strike ended in March 1985, Arthur Scargill led the miners back to the pithead at Barrow Colliery with a lone Scottish piper playing a lament. When they reached the gates of Barrow, a flying picket demonstration with miners from the Kent Coalfield, were still protesting, so the procession turned back. Scargill was later quoted as saying that "I've never crossed a picket line."[3][10] Just two months later in May 1985, the pit was closed owing to geological problems.[11] Subsidence from the mine had already caused a canal basin on the Worsborough branch of the Dearne and Dove Canal to be re-inforced in the early part of the 20th century.[12]
A local brass band that had started up in 1906 had its ranks swelled by members of the mining community from Barrow Colliery. The band was renamed the Barrow Colliery Brass Band, but sponsorship waned during the run down of the coal mining industry in the area. In the 1990s, the band was then sponsored by a local building society, then the local paper. It still survives as a self-funding collective.[13][14]
References
- ISBN 978-1-47383-435-4.
- ^ a b "Nostalgia: When Barrow dug its own coal mine near Barnsley". North West Evening Mail. 30 December 2017. Retrieved 12 June 2018.
- ^ ISSN 0963-1496.
- ^ "Barnsley Coalfield - Northern Mine Research Society". nmrs.org. Retrieved 12 June 2018.
- ^ "Pits: Barrow Colliery". hemingfieldcolliery.org. 6 June 2016. Retrieved 12 June 2018.
- ^ "Documents 1906 - 07" (PDF). The Coal Mining History Resource Centre. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 March 2016. Retrieved 13 June 2018.
- ^ "Does anyone recognise these Barrow pit miners? - Barnsley News from the Barnsley Chronicle". Barnsley Chronicle. 9 February 2007. Retrieved 12 June 2018.
- ISBN 978-1-47385-884-8.
- ISBN 1-903425-64-6.
- ISBN 0-340-38445-X.
- ^ "Sources for the Study of The Miners' Strike 1984 - 1985" (PDF). sheffield.gov.uk. p. 3. Retrieved 12 June 2018.
- ISBN 1-903425-38-7.
- ^ "Band History - Barnsley Brass". barnsleybrass.com. Archived from the original on 5 September 2018. Retrieved 12 June 2018.
- ^ Bounds, Andrew (11 January 2013). "Northern bands brassed off over funding". Financial Times. Retrieved 12 June 2018.