Kinsley Drift

Overview

The National Coal Board's short-life drift mine at Fitzwilliam, driven between September 1976 and 1978 from the cleared yard of the old Hemsworth Colliery to take the Shafton and Sharlston Yard coal the pit had left, and closed as uneconomic in July 1986 in the aftermath of the strike.

History

Hemsworth Colliery, sunk as Fitzwilliam Main between 1876 and 1880, was linked underground to South Kirkby in 1967 and merged with it that July, and its pit top fell derelict. Between September 1976 and 1978 the Board drove the Kinsley Drift from the old pit yard, the buildings having been cleared, designed as a short-life, high-productivity mine to work the Shafton and Sharlston Yard seams left above the old workings; Wikipedia's village article dates the opening to 1977. The drift was working through the 1984 to 1985 strike, during which a riot at Fitzwilliam on 9 July 1984 brought public-order convictions for the Fitzwilliam Nine. Kinsley closed because it was uneconomic in July 1986; Nostell followed in 1987 and South Kirkby in 1988, and the emptied village was labelled a ghost town before the clearance of its City estate in 2003 to 2006 and the Hemsworth coalfield regeneration that followed.

Geology

Yorkshire coalfield, Upper Coal Measures: the Shafton and Sharlston Yard seams above the Barnsley and Haigh Moor worked by the old colliery.

Geological setting: Sedimentary Beds and Seams (historical documentary reference)

Workings

A drift mine from the surface of the old Hemsworth pit yard into the Shafton and Sharlston Yard seams; manpower and output are not in the sources read.

Closure

Closed as uneconomic in July 1986.

What remains

Not described in the sources read.

Not recorded in the sources read.

Related mines

• Hemsworth Colliery — Kinsley Drift was driven to reach coal left behind by the older Hemsworth workings, on whose ground it stood.
• Nostell Colliery — Neighbouring pits closed a year apart, 1986 and 1987.
• South Kirkby Colliery — Neighbouring pits; Hemsworth's coal was wound at South Kirkby from 1967.

Nearby mines

• Hemsworth Colliery — 0.2 km S
• Nostell Colliery — 2.6 km NW
• South Kirkby Colliery — 2.9 km E, South Yorkshire
• Sharlston Colliery — 4.3 km N
• Snydale Colliery — 4.7 km N

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.

• Mindat gives Kinsley Drift as a drift at Hemsworth in the Wakefield district of West Yorkshire, worked for coal, with the National Coal Board as owner from 1978 to 1986. Its timeline gives the drift as opening in 1978 and closing in July 1986. The locality is placed at 53.63504, -1.36554, eight hundred metres east-north-east of Fitzwilliam. ¹
• The mine that housed Fitzwilliam was first called Fitzwilliam Main, after the family who owned it, and later Hemsworth Colliery; it closed in 1969. Kinsley Drift Mine was opened on the site of the old Hemsworth Colliery in 1977, and closed in 1986. ²
• Driven between September 1976 and 1978 and closed in July 1986; Wikipedia gives the opening as 1977. ^3,2
• A short-life, high-productivity drift to work the Shafton and Sharlston Yard seams from the old Hemsworth pit yard. ³
• Closed because it was uneconomic. ³

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Kinsley Drift, Hemsworth, Wakefield, West Yorkshire — Mindat
2. (secondary) Fitzwilliam, West Yorkshire — Wikipedia
3. (secondary) Hemsworth Colliery (Hemsworth or Fitzwilliam Colliery and Kinsley Drift) — Northern Mine Research Society (read via a 2024 Wayback Machine capture)
4. (secondary) Kinsley, West Yorkshire — Wikipedia — Wikipedia

Record created: 9 September 2026 · Last researched: 12 September 2026