MineArchive
Hoyland Silkstone Colliery riot, 1893
| Category | Labour |
|---|---|
| Dates | 30 June 1893: owners demand a 25 per cent cut. Late July 1893: lockout begins. 5 September 1893: over a thousand converge on the colliery. 6-7 September 1893: further disturbances; Featherstone shootings on the 7th. |
During the 1893 coal lockout crowds of striking miners descended on Hoyland Silkstone Colliery near Barnsley: over a thousand on 5 September and more on the 6th and 7th, when the agent C. W. Fincken was assaulted. Metropolitan and West Riding police were posted at the pit and photographed there with its officials.
The mining history in this record
On 30 June 1893 the coal owners demanded a 25 per cent cut in the wage rates of 1888, and at the end of July most of the 80,000 miners in the West Riding's 253 pits were locked out. Where coal was still being loaded, crowds of miners, many carrying bludgeons, descended on the collieries, wrecking offices, overturning and firing wagons and assaulting officials.
On 5 September a crowd of more than a thousand converged on Hoyland Silkstone, and on 6 and 7 September there were disturbances at its pumping station, as at Hemingfield, Wath Main and other pits. The colliery's agent and commercial manager, Christopher William Fincken, who figured in its wage disputes, was physically assaulted. Across the district the police and 800 troops made 127 arrests, and on 7 September troops fired on the crowd at Featherstone, killing two men.
People
Christopher William Fincken, agent and commercial manager of the colliery, assaulted in the riots; he died in 1895.
Legacy today
A photograph of the police and colliery officials at Hoyland Silkstone in September 1893 is held by the University of Colorado Boulder Libraries.
Recorded claims
Individual factual claims, each tagged with how solidly it's grounded and attached to the source(s) that support it. Where sources disagree, both are kept.
- On 5 September 1893 a crowd of over a thousand miners converged on Hoyland Silkstone Colliery. (documented fact) 1
- There were further disturbances at Hoyland Silkstone (Pumping Station) on 6 and 7 September 1893. (documented fact) 1
- The colliery's agent, C. W. Fincken, was physically assaulted in the riots of September 1893. (documented fact) 2
- Metropolitan and West Riding police were posted at the colliery and photographed there with its officials. (contemporary account) 3
Mines
- Hoyland Silkstone Colliery — South Yorkshire
Crowds of locked-out miners descended on this pit in September 1893, when its agent was assaulted and police were posted here.
Sources
- (primary) The Yorkshire Miners and the 1893 Lockout: The Featherstone 'Massacre' — Robert G. Neville, International Review of Social History (Cambridge University Press)
- (secondary) Pits: Hoyland Silkstone Colliery — Friends of Hemingfield Colliery
- (secondary) Colliery Officials: police at Hoyland Silkstone Collieries, 1 September 1893 (catalogue record) — University of Colorado Boulder Libraries, via Wikimedia Commons
Record created: 2 October 2026 · Last researched: 4 October 2026