Featherstone Main Colliery

Overview

The first pit at Featherstone, sunk from 1868 on the Ackton Hall estate, which turned the village into a mining town and employed over 2,500 at its 1924 peak. It closed for good in 1935 when its men struck over deductions for dirt in the coal and the company refused to reopen it.

History

Featherstone Main Colliery began in 1868, when George Bradley of Ackton Hall leased 948 acres of his estate for sixty years to George Shaw, a wealthy Sheffield man, to work the Stanley Main seam at sixpence a ton, with an option on the Haigh Moor seam below. Sinking began at once, and the pit, first called Featherstone Colliery, was the one that turned a village of a few hundred people into a mining town of more than 10,000. After George Shaw's death in 1870 his son John took up the Haigh Moor option and renamed the pit Featherstone Main in 1871; Bradley, who wanted that coal for a colliery of his own, took him to the Court of Chancery in 1873 and lost. Gas killed two colliers in October 1871, burned when a roof fall brought gas down onto their candle, and three more in December 1872, when a deputy took the top off his lamp while examining the pit, killing himself and two boys of thirteen and fourteen. Under the Featherstone Coal Company it was worked as two units, Haigh Moor and Stanley Main, raising household, steam and gas coal from the Stanley Main, Warren House, Haigh Moor and Flockton seams; in 1907 it passed to South Kirkby, Featherstone and Hemsworth Collieries, and at its peak in 1924 it employed 2,095 men and boys underground and 480 on the surface. Featherstone Rovers played on the Featherstone Main Colliery Welfare Ground in 1912-13. Parts of the Stanley Main and Warren House seams were closed as uneconomic in 1930, putting about 400 out of work. The seams carried bands of shale that were hard to separate, and deductions for dirt sent out with the coal caused constant disputes; in 1935 the men struck over them, backed by the South Kirkby, Ackton Hall and Hemsworth miners, and the company, which said the pit had been losing money, closed it for good. Because it was wet and connected underground to Ackton Hall and Snydale, its shafts were kept for pumping until Snydale closed in 1965, when the connection was dammed and the shafts filled.

Geology

Coal Measures of the Yorkshire coalfield: the Stanley Main, Warren House, Haigh Moor and Flockton seams, with bands of shale in the coal that were hard to separate.

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

Workings

Shafts sunk from 1868 to the Stanley Main seam and later the Haigh Moor, worked as two units (Haigh Moor and Stanley Main) with double-decked cages; underground connections to Ackton Hall and Snydale collieries. A banksman who fell down a shaft in 1924 fell 353 yards.

Closure

Closed in 1935 after a strike over deductions for dirt sent out with the coal: the company said the pit had been run at a loss and would not reopen it, and salvage began. Its shafts were kept for pumping, worked by Ackton Hall's shaftmen, until Snydale closed in 1965; the connection to Ackton Hall was then dammed and the shafts filled.

What remains

After closure the site was worked by opencast mining and then levelled and returned to fields.

Unknown.

Related mines

• Ackton Hall Colliery — Connected underground; after Featherstone Main closed in 1935 Ackton Hall's shaftmen pumped its shafts, and the connection was dammed in 1965.
• Hemsworth Colliery — Both owned by South Kirkby, Featherstone and Hemsworth Collieries Ltd; Hemsworth's miners backed the 1935 Featherstone Main strike.
• Snydale Colliery — Connected underground; Featherstone Main's shafts were kept for pumping until Snydale closed in 1965.

Nearby mines

• Ackton Hall Colliery — 0.2 km N
• Snydale Colliery — 1.8 km SW
• Sharlston Colliery — 2.5 km SW
• Glasshoughton Colliery — 3.4 km NE
• Whitwood Colliery — 4.0 km NW

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

Culture

• Featherstone Rovers and the Featherstone pits (Sports)
  Featherstone Rovers played at the Featherstone Main Colliery Welfare Ground in 1912-13.

People

• Ernest Andrews · manager, 1868–1886 — First manager, 1868-1886 (spelt 'Earnest' in the sources).
• George Bradley · landowner, 1868–1873 — Owner of the Ackton Hall estate; leased the coal to George Shaw in 1868 and lost the 1873 Chancery case over the Haigh Moor seam.
• Peter Darlington · manager, 1897–1922 — Manager of Featherstone Main from 1897 to 1922.

Recorded claims

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

• In 1868 George Bradley leased 948 acres of his Ackton Hall estate to George Shaw for 60 years to work the Stanley Main seam, with an option on the Haigh Moor; sinking began at once and the pit was named Featherstone Colliery, renamed Featherstone Main by John Shaw in 1871. ^1,2
• George Reynolds (51) and James Pitchforth (19) died after an explosion of gas on 14 October 1871, and the deputy William Phoenix (43) with W. Livesley (14) and John Cawthorne (13) on 2 December 1872, when Phoenix took the top off his lamp. ^3,4
• Owned by John Shaw, then the Featherstone Coal Company and from 1907 South Kirkby, Featherstone and Hemsworth Collieries Ltd, it employed 2,095 underground and 480 on the surface in 1924. ^1,4
• In 1910 the Haigh Moor unit employed 1,034 and the Stanley Main 1,004; in 1923 the colliery employed 2,118 (1,759 below, 359 surface). ³
• In 1935 the Featherstone Main miners struck over deductions for dirt sent out with the coal; the management, saying the pit had been run at a loss, closed it and salvage began. ^1,2
• Featherstone Rovers, originally made up of local miners, played at the Featherstone Main Colliery Welfare Ground between 1912 and 1913. ⁵

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Featherstone Main Colliery 1868 to 1935 (Irvin Saxton) — Featherstone Rovers Heritage Archive (fevarchive)
2. (secondary) Featherstone's Three Collieries: Featherstone Main — Featherstone's Three Collieries (blog)
3. (secondary) Featherstone Main Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
4. (secondary) Featherstone collieries (Featherstone Main, Snydale) — Healey Hero
5. (secondary) Featherstone Rovers — Wikipedia
6. (primary) Featherstone Main (Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan, via BGS catalogue item 21888487) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
7. (secondary) History of Featherstone — Featherstone Rovers Heritage Archive (fevarchive)

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