Carr House Colliery

Overview

A John Brown and Company colliery at Rotherham, working the Barnsley, Swallow Wood and Parkgate seams, where in 1913 a heading holed into flooded old workings of the company's own Aldwarke Main and eight men drowned.

History

Carr House, or Car House, Colliery at Rotherham belonged to the Sheffield steelmakers John Brown and Company, who also owned the neighbouring Aldwarke Main and Rotherham Main collieries. In 1894 it worked the Barnsley seam, with 294 men underground and 250 above, and the Swallow Wood seam with 337 underground, both under the manager W. Machin. By 1913 it was working the Parkgate coal, 4 feet 6 inches thick at 410 yards and dipping about one in four and a half. About three years earlier a section had been opened up at the bottom of the main dip road, 1,000 yards from the shaft, on the low side of old workings. Two headings driven twenty years before from Aldwarke Main, 450 yards deep, had filled with water for 330 yards, with a head of 319 feet and a pressure of 138 pounds per square inch at their lower end. A level was being driven from Carr House with boreholes in advance to tap that water, but the flank holes, though spaced as the Coal Mines Act required, ran parallel to the headings being approached. At about 8 p.m. on 16 June 1913 a narrow heading broke into them and the water rose so fast that eight men drowned (see Disasters, below). The jury found that the boreholes had missed the old workings and that the system of boring was insufficient, through an error of judgement and not negligence.

Geology

The Barnsley, Swallow Wood and Parkgate seams of the South Yorkshire coalfield; the Parkgate, 4 feet 6 inches thick, dipped about one in four and a half under a bind roof with rock above.

Workings

Worked from the Carr House shaft by a main dip haulage road; in 1913 the lowest section, 1,000 yards from the shaft, was reached by the No. 6 Plane and two levels, driven with advance boreholes towards water in old Aldwarke Main headings.

Closure

No closure date has been found in the sources read.

What remains

Unknown.

Unknown.

Recorded claims

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

• John Brown and Company's Car House colliery worked the Barnsley and Swallow Wood seams in 1894 under manager W. Machin. ¹
• At about 8 p.m. on 16 June 1913 water from old Aldwarke Main headings, owned by the same company, burst into the Parkgate seam workings and eight men drowned. ²
• The flank boreholes complied with the Coal Mines Act on spacing but ran parallel to the headings being approached, so failed to protect the narrow heading. ²
• The jury found the boreholes had missed the old workings and the boring system was insufficient, due to an error of judgement and not negligence. ²
• The national catalogue holds a Carr House plan of the Barnsley seam, and plans filed as 'Carr House and Aldwarke'. ³

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) John Brown and Co., Ltd. (company page) (Durham Mining Museum) — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) Carr House Colliery Inrush – Rotherham – 1913 — Northern Mine Research Society
3. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans catalogue: Carr House (Barnsley seam) — British Geological Survey

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