Barrow Colliery, Worsbrough

Overview

The Barrow Haematite Steel Company's colliery at Worsbrough, near Barnsley, sunk from the 1870s to supply the Furness steelworks with coking coal, which employed over 2,400 men in the 1930s and worked for 109 years until the Coal Board closed it in May 1985.

History

Barrow Colliery lay at Worsbrough Park, in Blacker on the south side of Worsbrough, near Barnsley. It took its name from its owners, the Barrow Haematite Steel Company of Barrow-in-Furness, which bought land in 1872 beside the abandoned Worsbrough Park Colliery to secure coking coal for a steelworks that burned over 800,000 tons a year. Sinking began in 1873 by one account and 1875 by another, and the first coal came up in January 1876.

The colliery had three shafts. One account gives No. 1 as 15 feet across and 410 yards deep, working the Parkgate and Thorncliffe seams, and Nos. 2 and 3 as about 469 yards to the Silkstone, then the deepest sinking in the Barnsley coalfield; another gives two shafts of 372 yards with a common pit bottom at 335 yards and a third to 308 yards for men and materials. Employment rose from about 1,500 in 1894 to some 2,800 by 1910 and 2,460 in the 1930s.

On 15 November 1907 seven men were killed in a cage accident in No. 3 shaft (see Disasters, below). In 1932 the Barrow company merged with the Barnsley Main and Monk Bretton concerns as Barrow Barnsley Main Collieries, nationalised in 1947, when 1,627 men raised 493,000 tons. In 1982 the pit was producing about 1,000 tonnes a day, mostly exported through Immingham.

When the miners' strike ended in March 1985, Arthur Scargill led the men back to Barrow behind a piper, but turned back rather than cross a picket line of Kent miners at the gates. Two months later, in May 1985, the colliery closed because of geological problems. The Barrow Colliery Brass Band, formed in 1906 and renamed for the pit, survives.

Geology

Coal Measures of the Barnsley coalfield: the Parkgate, Thorncliffe and Silkstone seams, and later the Fenton, Flockton and Lidgett.

Workings

Three shafts, 15 to 17 feet in diameter; No. 3 with a staging at the Thorncliffe landing; coke production; subsidence affected the Worsbrough branch of the Dearne and Dove Canal.

Closure

Closed in May 1985, two months after the end of the miners' strike, because of geological problems.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Barnsley Main Colliery — Merged in 1932 into Barrow Barnsley Main Collieries Limited (Wikipedia, Barrow Colliery).
• Monk Bretton Colliery — Both pits of Barrow Barnsley Main Collieries, formed in 1932.

Disasters & major incidents

• Barrow Colliery shaft accident, 1907
  15 November 1907 · Winding / Shaft Accident · 7 fatalities
  A cage carrying men up No. 3 shaft at Barrow Colliery, Worsbrough, was held for a moment at the Thorncliffe landing on 15 November 1907, swung violently and struck the shaft girders; seven men were thrown out and fell to their deaths.

What's uncertain

Points where sources disagree or the record could not be settled; both accounts are kept. All open questions in the archive.

• The colliery's three shafts were sunk in 1875. (disputed) ²

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each attached to the source(s) that support it below. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

• Barrow Colliery was first dug in 1873, brought up its first coal in January 1876 and closed in May 1985. ¹
• The colliery's three shafts were sunk in 1875. (disputed) ²
• It was owned by the Barrow Haematite Steel Company until 1932, then by Barrow Barnsley Main Collieries, and from 1947 by the National Coal Board. ^1,2
• The colliery employed 2,460 people in 1933 and 1,627 in 1947, when it produced 493,000 tons. ²
• Arthur Scargill led the miners back to Barrow at the end of the 1985 strike but turned back at a Kent picket line; the pit closed that May because of geological problems. ¹

Sources

1. (secondary) Barrow Colliery — Wikipedia
2. (primary) Durham Mining Museum: Barrow Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
3. (primary) Durham Mining Museum: Barrow shaft accident, 15 November 1907 — Durham Mining Museum

Record created: 17 October 2026 · Last researched: 17 October 2026