Fence Colliery

Overview

Fence Colliery was a coal pit at Fence, near Rotherham in South Yorkshire, sunk in the 1840s beside the Sheffield to Worksop road. It closed as a coal producer in 1904 but continued as a pumping station until 1957, and its site later housed National Coal Board workshops before becoming a foundry.

History

Fence Colliery was sunk at the lower end of the village of Fence, South Yorkshire, in the 1840s, alongside the main Sheffield to Worksop road and shortly before the North Midland Railway opened through the Rother Valley. In 1862 the Fence Colliery Company was formed to purchase the pit, beginning a period of development that included new housing for its workforce along Falconer Lane, opposite the colliery across the main road. In late 1864 an explosion caused by firedamp ignition killed one worker and injured several others, reported at the time by The Times. The colliery closed as a coal producer in 1904, with its remaining reserves thereafter worked from the nearby Orgreave Colliery, but the Fence site itself was retained as a pumping station until 1957. Nationalisation brought it under the National Coal Board in 1947, and in the 1950s the site became home to the NCB's divisional workshops, which finally closed in the 1990s. The site was later redeveloped as Ley's Cast Iron Foundry, relocated there from Dronfield.

Workings

A shaft pit worked for coal until 1904, after which its reserves were extracted via the neighbouring Orgreave Colliery while Fence itself continued in use for mine drainage.

Closure

Coal winding ended in 1904, with remaining reserves brought to the surface at Orgreave Colliery instead; Fence continued in use purely as a pumping station until 1957.

What remains

The colliery site was redeveloped in the 20th century, first as National Coal Board divisional workshops (closed in the 1990s) and subsequently as Ley's Cast Iron Foundry, relocated there from Dronfield; no colliery-era surface structures are known to survive in situ.

Redevelopment

After the NCB workshops closed in the 1990s, the site was redeveloped as Ley's Cast Iron Foundry, relocated there from Dronfield.

Recorded claims

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

• In late 1864 an explosion caused by the ignition of firedamp killed one worker and injured several others, reported by The Times on 2 December 1864. ¹
• The Coal Authority's mine plans catalogue holds a plan of Fence Colliery's underground workings, plus three further plans covering the former Fence Colliery and Laycast Foundry opencast site. ²
• The colliery closed as a coal producer in 1904, with reserves thereafter raised at Orgreave Colliery, but continued in use purely as a pumping station until 1957. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Fence Colliery — Wikipedia
2. (primary) BGS/Mining Remediation Authority mine plans catalogue: Fence Colliery — The Coal Authority

Record created: 1 September 2026 · Last researched: 1 September 2026