Crigglestone Colliery

Overview

Crigglestone Colliery was sunk from 1889 three miles south-south-west of Wakefield and became one of the larger West Riding pits, employing 1,334 people through the 1920s and 1930s and raising 380,000 tons of coking and household coal for the National Coal Board in 1947. Its Dirtcar Pit stood a little to the north-east. It worked the Lidgett and the Low and Top Haigh Moor seams. Its owner before nationalisation was Benzol and By-Products Ltd, a name that says what the coking coal was for. The site is now Betty Eastwood Park, with a winding wheel and a miners' memorial in it.

History

Sinking at Crigglestone started in 1889. By the 1920s it was a large colliery: the Lists of Mines return 1,334 people in both 1923 and 1933, 977 of them below ground, and 1,020 in 1937, 1940 and 1947. Benzol and By-Products Ltd held it before nationalisation — a company named for the chemical products recovered from coking coal, which is what Crigglestone raised. In 1947 the colliery produced 380,000 tons of coking and household coal for the National Coal Board, and in 1954 it employed 967 people working the Lidgett, Low Haigh Moor and Top Haigh Moor seams. A second shaft, the Dirtcar Pit, stood about half a mile to the north-east.

Geology

Crigglestone worked the Lidgett and the Low and Top Haigh Moor seams of the Yorkshire Coal Measures south of Wakefield. The Haigh Moor is one of the West Riding's principal coking coals, which is why the colliery's output went to a benzol and by-products company.

Geological setting: Sedimentary Beds and Seams (well documented example)

Workings

The main colliery three miles south-south-west of Wakefield with the Dirtcar Pit about half a mile to the north-east, served by its own railway. The Coal Authority holds a catalogue of plans of abandoned mines for Crigglestone Colliery.

Closure

No closure date has been found. The colliery was still employing 967 people in 1954. Its ground is now Betty Eastwood Park at Crigglestone, where a winding wheel and a miners' memorial stand, and the former railway cutting that served the pit runs wooded through the park.

What remains

The colliery site is Betty Eastwood Park, a public park at Crigglestone with woodland paths, a pond and a BMX track. A colliery winding wheel is displayed there and a miners' memorial stands beside the paths; the wooded cutting of the colliery railway runs through the park.

Nearby mines

• Woolley Colliery — 3.2 km S, South Yorkshire
• Bullcliffe Wood Colliery — 3.3 km SW
• Walton Colliery — 3.9 km E
• Hostingley Colliery — 5.0 km NW
• Combs Colliery — 6.7 km NW

Straight-line distance, within 15 km. Show on the map.

Recorded claims

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

• Sinking at Crigglestone Colliery started in 1889. ¹
• The colliery employed 1,334 people in 1923 and 1933, 1,020 in 1947 and 967 in 1954. ¹
• Benzol and By-Products Ltd held the colliery before nationalisation; in 1947 it raised 380,000 tons of coking and household coal. ¹
• The Lidgett, Low Haigh Moor and Top Haigh Moor seams were being worked in 1954. ¹
• The Dirtcar Pit stood about half a mile north-east of the main colliery. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Durham Mining Museum: Crigglestone Colliery — Durham Mining Museum, from the Lists of Mines
2. (observational) Winding wheel in Betty Eastwood Park, Crigglestone (photographed 2024) — Geograph Britain and Ireland, Graham Hogg
3. (secondary) Crigglestone — Wikipedia

Record created: 10 September 2026 · Last researched: 10 September 2026