Darton Colliery

Overview

A colliery north-west of Barnsley, worked into the twentieth century for household, gas and steam coal, taken over by the National Coal Board in 1947 and merged the next year into North Gawber, whose new Lidgett shaft wound the coal; the Darton section closed in August 1948.

History

Darton Colliery stood about two and a half miles north-west of Barnsley, in the South Yorkshire coalfield near North Gawber. The Durham Mining Museum records it working household coal from the 1890s and household, gas and steam coals into the twentieth century. It was a modest pit for much of its life, employing between about fifty and seventy-five people from the 1890s to the early 1920s, but the workforce rose sharply to over nine hundred by 1933 as the workings were enlarged, before falling back to around 350 by 1940. It raised about 108,000 tons in 1947, when it passed with the rest of the coal industry to the National Coal Board. Its end came through its neighbour. North Gawber, half a mile away, had sunk a new coal-winding shaft at Lidgett in the 1920s; two of its three older shafts had already been filled in, and the Lidgett shaft became the focal point of a merger with Darton in 1948. From that point Darton's coal was wound at North Gawber and the Darton section itself was closed, in August 1948. The ground kept a pumping duty for a little longer, the Northern Mine Research Society recording a pumping station there in 1968 and 1969. North Gawber went on for another forty years, and had its own disaster in the meantime: an explosion in the Nos. 3 and 4 South districts at about a quarter to three on the afternoon of Thursday 12 September 1935 killed nineteen men.

Geology

Worked coal seams of the Barnsley area of the South Yorkshire coalfield for household, gas and steam coals.

Workings

A colliery of the Darton area near Barnsley whose workings were associated with those of North Gawber and Darton Main. From 1948 the coal came up North Gawber's Lidgett shaft, sunk in the 1920s for that purpose, rather than at Darton itself.

Closure

The colliery passed to the National Coal Board at nationalisation in 1947 and was merged into North Gawber in 1948, when its coal began to be wound at the Lidgett shaft. The Darton section closed in August 1948. A pumping station was recorded on the ground in 1968 and 1969.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• North Gawber Colliery — Neighbouring Barnsley collieries whose workings share a Coal Authority abandonment plan.

Nearby mines

• North Gawber Colliery — 0.9 km NE
• East Gawber Colliery — 2.2 km E
• Woolley Colliery — 2.6 km NW
• Wharncliffe Woodmoor Colliery — 3.6 km E
• Dodworth Colliery — 3.7 km S

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.

• The Durham Mining Museum records Darton Colliery working household, gas and steam coals from the 1890s into the twentieth century. ¹
• Its workforce rose from about fifty to seventy-five in the 1890s and 1900s to over nine hundred by 1933, before falling back to around 350 by 1940. ¹
• It raised about 108,000 tons in 1947, when it passed to the National Coal Board, and was merged into North Gawber the following year. ¹
• The workings are recorded, with those of North Gawber, in the mine-plans catalogue of the British Geological Survey. ²
• North Gawber's Lidgett coal-winding shaft, sunk in the 1920s, was the focal point of a merger with Darton Colliery in 1948, after which the Darton section closed in August of that year. ^3,4
• A pumping station was recorded on the Darton ground in 1968 and 1969, twenty years after the section closed. ⁴

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Darton Colliery (DMM d221) — Durham Mining Museum
2. (primary) North Gawber and Darton Hall abandonment plans (BGS mine-plans catalogue) — British Geological Survey
3. (primary) North Gawber Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
4. (secondary) Coal mines in Yorkshire: D — Northern Mine Research Society
5. (primary) Darton Main Colliery (DMM d202) — Durham Mining Museum

Record created: 23 September 2026 · Last researched: 23 September 2026