High Hazels Colliery

Overview

A small colliery between Handsworth and Catcliffe, east of Sheffield, owned by Thomas Coupland Hounsfield and leased in 1900 to the Waverley Coal Company of Nunnery Colliery. It had coke ovens with a narrow-gauge railway of their own, employed about 300 people in the 1900s, and was discontinued in September 1925.

History

High Hazels Colliery lay between Handsworth, east of Sheffield, and Catcliffe, beside the main line of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway between Darnall and Woodhouse stations. The earliest event recorded there is the death of a boy named Hobson, killed by a boiler explosion on 7 September 1839.

The original colliery belonged to Thomas Coupland Hounsfield, a merchant who lived in Paris until 1900. It was a small pit, sending out gas and household coal, with 95 people in 1894 and 123 in 1896. In 1900 Hounsfield leased it to the Nunnery Colliery Company, which traded as the Waverley Coal Company and already worked Nunnery Colliery three miles nearer the city. The No. 3 pit was sunk in 1901, a little east of the other shafts and the easternmost of the company's pits, and the workforce rose to 275 in 1900 and 316 in 1905.

The site also had coke ovens and a by-products plant, served by a railway of 28-inch gauge with three tank locomotives built in 1897, 1901 and 1906. The company's standard-gauge engines worked at Nunnery or High Hazels as needed. Eleven deaths are recorded at the colliery; in January 1905 the night banksman, Thomas Jessey, opened the wrong gate at the pit top and fell 140 yards down the shaft with the tub he was pushing.

The colliery employed 265 people in 1923 and was discontinued on 12 September 1925. One account has it passing to the National Coal Board in 1947; the High Hazels name the Board inherited was High Hazels No. 2, the company's Handsworth pit, which was renamed Handsworth in 1948. Waverley Cottages, on the lane that ran from Handsworth to the colliery, are said to have been built after 1905 among open fields.

Geology

South Yorkshire Coal Measures. The abandonment plans of the colliery's workings are of the High Hazels seam, whose name it shared.

Workings

A shaft colliery; the shaft in use in 1905 was 140 yards deep, with a mid-inset where a steam pump stood. The No. 3 pit was sunk in 1901 to the east of the earlier shafts. Underground the coal was moved by rope haulage, and at the surface there were screens fed by a creeper and an air-compressing engine. Coke ovens and a by-products plant stood on the site, with a railway of 28-inch gauge worked by three four-coupled tank locomotives.

Closure

Workings in the High Hazels seam were abandoned between 1907 and 1909, and the colliery was discontinued on 12 September 1925. A further plan of the High Hazels seam is catalogued as abandoned in 1932. The narrow-gauge locomotives and their railway were cut up when the coke ovens closed.

What remains

Unknown.

Related mines

• Handsworth Colliery — Both Nunnery Colliery Company pits; Handsworth was returned as High Hazels No. 2 in 1947 before taking its own name in 1948.
• Nunnery Colliery — Both worked by the Nunnery Colliery Company as the Waverley Coal Company, whose locomotives served either colliery.

What's uncertain

Points where sources disagree or the record could not be settled; both accounts are kept. All open questions in the archive.

• The colliery became part of the National Coal Board on nationalisation in 1947. (disputed) ¹

Recorded claims

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

• The original colliery was owned by Thomas Coupland Hounsfield, who leased it in 1900 to the Waverley Coal Company, already working Nunnery Colliery. ¹
• The colliery was returned under the Waverley Coal Co. and then the Nunnery Colliery Co., Ltd. ²
• The colliery employed 95 people in 1894, 123 in 1896, 275 in 1900, 316 in 1905 and 265 in 1923. ^1,2
• A boy named Hobson was killed by a boiler explosion at High Hazels on 7 September 1839. ²
• In January 1905 a banksman fell to the bottom of the shaft, a distance of 140 yards. ²
• The No. 3 pit was sunk in 1901. ³
• The coke ovens and by-products plant were served by a 28-inch gauge railway with three locomotives, built in 1897, 1901 and 1906. ¹
• Abandoned 1907 to 1909 and discontinued on 12 September 1925. ³
• The colliery became part of the National Coal Board on nationalisation in 1947. (disputed) ¹
• Plans of the High Hazels seam at the colliery are catalogued as abandoned in 1907 and in 1932. ^4,5
• The Waverley Coal Company's locomotives worked at Nunnery or High Hazels collieries. ⁶

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) High Hazels Colliery — Wikipedia
2. (primary) High Hazels Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
3. (secondary) Coal Mines in Yorkshire 1854 onwards (H) - Northern Mine Research Society — Northern Mine Research Society
4. (primary) Mine plan: HIGH HAZELS, High Hazels seam, abandoned 1907 (feature 21892191) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans catalogue
5. (primary) Mine plan: HIGH HAZELS, High Hazels seam, abandoned 1932 (feature 21892190) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans catalogue
6. (secondary) Nunnery Colliery — Wikipedia
7. (observational) Waverley Cottages on Waverley Lane (photograph and description, 2021) — Geograph (Chris Morgan)

Record created: 1 October 2026 · Last researched: 2 October 2026