Hatfield Main Colliery

Overview

A Doncaster-area colliery sunk from 1911 that closed and reopened three separate times over its history, finally shutting in 2015 as one of the last deep coal mines working in Britain, its Grade II listed headstocks preserved against demolition.

History

The Hatfield Main Colliery Company was formed in December 1910 by Emerson Bainbridge, and two 6.7-metre-diameter shafts were sunk simultaneously from 14 October 1911. The No. 1, downcast, shaft reached the Barnsley seam at 786 metres in August 1916 and was completed on 11 September that year; persistent water problems delayed the No. 2 shaft until it was completed on 1 April 1917. Ownership passed to the Carlton Main Colliery Company in January 1927 and to the National Coal Board at nationalisation in January 1947; the colliery was merged operationally with neighbouring Thorne Colliery from 1967 to 1978, and again from 1986. Hatfield's later history was unusually turbulent even by the standards of the declining coalfield. British Coal announced closure in November 1993 and mining ceased that December, but the site's own management team reopened it in January 1994 as Hatfield Coal Company Ltd, turning a £2.4 million profit in its first year back in production. Richard Budge's Coalpower Ltd took control in October 2001, but the pit closed again that August with the loss of 223 jobs; Budge restarted operations in 2006, and ownership passed to 2Co Energy Ltd in 2011 before the workforce itself bought the mine in December 2013 as the employee-owned Hatfield Colliery Partnership Limited, then employing around 700 men. In February 2013, a landslip on the colliery's own spoil tip displaced a major railway line linking South Yorkshire to Scunthorpe and its ports, requiring the movement of around a million cubic metres of material and the replacement of 500 metres of quadruple track before the line reopened that July. Unable to sell its coal profitably after increases in the UK's carbon tax, Hatfield finally ceased production in June 2015, a year earlier than had been expected, closing as one of the last deep coal mines still working in Britain. The colliery's headstocks were subsequently given Grade II listed status, preserving them from demolition.

Workings

Two shafts sunk from October 1911, the No. 1 (downcast) reaching the Barnsley seam at 786 metres in August 1916.

Closure

Closed and reopened three times: closed 1993, reopened 1994; closed August 2001, reopened 2006; finally ceased production in June 2015, unable to sell its coal after UK carbon tax increases.

What remains

The colliery's headstocks have been given Grade II listed status, preserving them from demolition.

Grade II listed headstocks survive on the site.

Abandoned workings can be dangerous — unstable ground, uncapped shafts, flooding and bad air are common even where a site looks safe from the surface. This entry describes history and general location only; it is not an access guide.

Recorded claims

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

• The Hatfield Main Colliery Company was formed in December 1910 by Emerson Bainbridge; two shafts were sunk from 14 October 1911, the No. 1 shaft reaching the Barnsley seam at 786 metres in August 1916. ^1,2
• The colliery closed and reopened three times: closed by British Coal in 1993 and reopened by its own management in 1994; closed again in August 2001 under Coalpower Ltd and reopened in 2006 under Richard Budge; became employee-owned in December 2013. ¹
• A February 2013 landslip on the colliery's spoil tip displaced a major railway line linking South Yorkshire to Scunthorpe and its ports, requiring the movement of around a million cubic metres of material and the replacement of 500 metres of quadruple track. ¹
• Hatfield ceased production in June 2015, a year earlier than expected, unable to sell its coal profitably after UK carbon tax increases; it closed as one of the last deep coal mines still working in Britain. ¹
• The colliery's headstocks were given Grade II listed status, preserving them from demolition. ²

Sources

1. (secondary) Hatfield Colliery — Wikipedia
2. (observational) Hatfield Main Colliery — Independent photography blog

Record created: 27 August 2026 · Last researched: 27 August 2026