Bentley Colliery F.C.

Bentley Colliery was founded in 1912 in association with the Doncaster pit of the same name, four years after it began raising coal, and played at the Miners Welfare Ground on The Avenue with the pitched roof common to Yorkshire welfare grounds. It spent three years in the Yorkshire League in the early 1920s and returned after the Second World War, reaching the league's top flight in 1952. The village's welfare park and pavilion, paid for out of the Miners' Welfare Fund and a weekly penny from every miner's wage, were the setting for its football, cricket and annual miners' gala. The club folded in 1961, came back in 1975 and resigned from the Central Midlands League in December 2015.

The mining history in this record

The pit and the welfare Bentley was a farming village until the colliery opened in 1908, after which it became an industrial township with housing, schools, shops, a cinema and social clubs. The Bentley Miners' Welfare Fund, raised by a levy and later by a share of coal royalties, paid for much of it. The football club was founded in 1912 in association with the colliery. Welfare Park was laid out with Miners' Welfare Fund money in the spring and summer of 1923 and handed to the urban district council that September; the pavilion, built in ferro-concrete from 1930 at a cost of 10,000 pounds, was funded by deducting a penny from the wages of every miner. Its opening, set for 28 November 1931, was delayed: eight days earlier an explosion at the colliery killed forty-five men. A plaque in the foyer still shows the date the opening should have been.

In the leagues The club played three seasons in the Yorkshire League in the early 1920s and otherwise in local competition. It rejoined the Yorkshire League after the Second World War, won promotion to the First Division in 1952, was relegated in 1956 and promoted again at the first attempt, then left the league after a poor 1960-61 season and was dissolved. Reformed in 1976 as a Sunday side while Bentley Victoria Welfare was the village's senior club, it returned to senior football in the Doncaster and District Senior League in the 1990s, won the title in 2001 and moved up to the Central Midlands League.

People

Harry Bromage and Fred Shreeve, recorded as former Bentley Colliery players who also played in the Football League. Percy C. Woodhall, the colliery's site engineer, who managed the building of the welfare pavilion.

Legacy today

Bentley Colliery won promotion to the Central Midlands League's Supreme Division in 2007 but was relegated the next season for having no floodlights, despite a mid-table finish, and resigned from the league in December 2015. The Miners Welfare Ground on The Avenue keeps the pitched welfare roof over its main stand that marks out grounds of its kind across the South Yorkshire coalfield, with the old railway-side and school-end banking now grassed over. The cricket and football pitches on The Avenue were the original site of the Bentley Miners' Gala, a summer parade and trade union gathering that moved to Bentley Park in the mid-1970s and ended with the strike of 1984-85 and the break-up of the coal industry. Harry Bromage and Fred Shreeve, both Football League players, are recorded among the club's former players.

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.

• The club was first founded in 1912 in association with Bentley Colliery and played at the Miners Welfare Ground on The Avenue. (documented fact) ¹
• Bentley's Miners' Welfare Fund, raised by a levy on coal and later a share of royalties, paid for sports and leisure facilities in the village, and Welfare Park was laid out with its money in 1923. (documented fact) ²
• The welfare pavilion cost 10,000 pounds, was funded by deducting a penny from the wages of every miner, and its opening on 28 November 1931 was delayed by the explosion eight days earlier that killed forty-five men; a plaque in the foyer still carries the planned date. (documented fact) ²
• The cricket and football pitches on The Avenue were the original site of the Bentley Miners' Gala, which moved to Bentley Park in the mid-1970s and ended after the 1984-85 strike. (documented fact) ²
• The club was dissolved in 1961, reformed in the mid-1970s, won the Doncaster and District Senior League in 2001 and resigned from the Central Midlands League in December 2015. (documented fact) ¹

Mines

• Bentley Colliery — South Yorkshire
  The club was founded in 1912 in association with Bentley Colliery, four years after the pit began coaling, and played at the Miners Welfare Ground on The Avenue; the welfare pavilion's opening in 1931 was delayed by the explosion that killed 45 of the colliery's men.

Disasters

• Bentley Colliery explosion, 1931 — 20 November 1931
  The opening of the Bentley miners' welfare pavilion, paid for by a penny a week from every miner's wages, was set for 28 November 1931 but was delayed by the explosion eight days earlier; a plaque in the foyer still carries the planned date.

Sources

1. (secondary) Bentley Colliery F.C. — Wikipedia
2. (secondary) A History of Bentley Park and Pavilion — Bentley Village, A History

Record created: 19 September 2026 · Last researched: 20 September 2026