Ledston Luck Colliery

Overview

Named from a wish. Lady Wheler cut the first sod in 1909 and said she wished Little Ledston luck in their adventure, and the name stuck to the colliery. Its two Arts-and-Crafts winding houses of 1911 held some of the earliest electric winders in the country, and they are still standing.

History

The Micklefield Coal and Lime Company, which owned Peckfield Colliery, leased the coal under the Ledston estate from G. Wheler meaning to raise it at Peckfield, a mile and a half to the north. It changed its mind and sank a new colliery instead, two shafts beside the Ridge Road reaching three seams. Sinking began in 1909, and Lady Wheler, cutting the first sod, said she wished Little Ledston luck in their adventure. The pit took the name from the sentence. Ninety-eight people were on the books in 1910 while the shafts were still going down. By 1915 the colliery was producing from three seams, No. 1 working the Beeston and No. 2 the Flockton, with 756 employed between them; by 1923 there were nearly fifteen hundred. Coal went out on a two-foot-six-inch gauge line to Peckfield for processing, worked by elderly Hudswell Clarke six-coupled saddle tanks, and from there to the main line. The colliery was mothballed during the Second World War. The National Coal Board reopened it, proved coal in deeper seams and, after extensive renovation, restarted production in 1950; the 1954 return has 398 employed on the Flockton Thick and Middleton Little. Ledston Luck's miners were the last in the country to go back after the strike of 1984 and 1985, returning a year to the day after the Board announced plans to shed twenty thousand more jobs. The pit closed in October 1986, less than two years later.

Geology

The Yorkshire Coalfield nine miles east of Leeds, where the Carboniferous sandstones of the Coal Measures are overlain by the younger Permian rocks of the Magnesian Limestone. The pit worked the Beeston and Flockton seams from the start and the Flockton Thick and Middleton Little after the war.

Workings

Two shafts, sunk from 1909 beside the Ridge Road to reach three seams. The two winding houses of 1911, in a Free Classical style with Art Nouveau gates and the date on the parapet, held early electric winding plant, powered by the Yorkshire Electric Power Company, at a time when almost every other colliery in the country still wound by steam. A two-foot-six-inch gauge railway took the coal to Peckfield Colliery for processing, worked by old Hudswell Clarke saddle tanks.

Closure

The colliery closed in October 1986. Its men had been the last in the country to return to work after the strike of 1984 and 1985.

What remains

The headgear and almost all the plant are gone. Both winding houses survive and have been listed Grade II since 15 September 1987; a visit in October 2019 found them standing with the building between them converted to offices. Part of the site is a nature reserve.

The two winding houses of 1911, listed Grade II, with the garden wall and Art Nouveau gates of Number 1 Winder included in its listing, and the converted building between them.

Redevelopment

A nature reserve over part of the colliery ground.

Related mines

• Whitwood Colliery — Both passed to Briggs Collieries Ltd, the holding company formed at the end of 1939 to hold the colliery assets of Henry Briggs, Son and Company.

Nearby mines

• Allerton Bywater Colliery — 2.5 km SW
• Fryston Colliery — 4.3 km SE
• Wheldale Colliery — 5.0 km S
• Whitwood Colliery — 6.3 km S
• Glasshoughton Colliery — 7.2 km S

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.

• The Micklefield Coal and Lime Company leased the coal under the Ledston estate from G. Wheler intending to raise it at its existing Peckfield Colliery a mile and a half away, then decided to sink a new pit instead. Lady Wheler cut the first sod in 1909 and said, 'I wish Little Ledston luck in their adventure' — and the colliery was named Ledston Luck. ¹
• The two winding houses were built in 1911 and were among the first anywhere to use electric winders, at a time when most collieries were still winding by steam. The power came from the Yorkshire Electric Power Company, and the engine houses were built in an Arts and Crafts manner unusual for colliery buildings. ^2,3
• The pit was linked to the Micklefield company's Peckfield Colliery by a two-foot-six-inch gauge railway, worked by elderly Hudswell Clarke six-coupled saddle tanks, which took the coal to Peckfield for processing and onward transfer to the main line. ^2,3
• The Durham Mining Museum's transcription of the Lists of Mines gives the colliery as opened in 1909 and closed in October 1986, under the Micklefield Coal and Lime Company and then Briggs Collieries. Employment was 98 in 1910 while the shafts were still sinking, 756 across Nos. 1 and 2 in 1915, and 1,489 by 1923; the 1954 return has 398 on the Flockton Thick and Middleton Little seams. ⁴
• The colliery was mothballed during the Second World War. The National Coal Board reopened it, proved coal in deeper seams and restarted production in 1950 after extensive renovation. ¹
• Ledston Luck's miners were the last in the country to return to work after the strike of 1984 and 1985, going back a year to the day after the National Coal Board announced plans to shed twenty thousand more jobs in the coming financial year. The pit closed less than two years afterwards. ²
• The Durham Mining Museum gives 1909 as the opening, records 98 people employed in 1910 with the note 'Sinking', and has no returns at all before then; Engole's account has the sinking begun in 1909 with Lady Wheler cutting the first sod. (disputed) ^4,1
• Both of the exploration accounts read for this record say the pit was sunk in the 1870s, and one adds that it later formed part of the super-pit of interlinked workings around Selby. Neither cites a source and the wording is close enough between them to suggest one copied the other. (disputed) ^2,3
• Number 1 Winder, the western of the pair, was listed Grade II on 15 September 1987. The official entry describes a winding house dated 1911 on the parapet, of red brick with sandstone dressings and a roof concealed by a parapet, square in plan, a single vessel with the appearance of two storeys, in Free Classical style: a sandstone ashlar plinth, a slightly recessed centre between corner pylons, a wide semicircular archway with banded convex moulding over a segmental-headed double doorway, and above it a six-light mullioned window divided into three pairs by triangular king mullions, under a high parapet carrying a shouldered panel inscribed 'A D 1911'. The north side has the openings for the drive cables to the winding gear. In front, a rectangular garden is enclosed by a brick wall with stone coping and a gate with wrought-iron gates in Art Nouveau style. ⁵

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Ledston Luck Colliery — Engole
2. (observational) Ledston Luck colliery winding houses, West Yorkshire, October 2019 — 28DaysLater
3. (observational) Ledston Luck Colliery — GooseyGoo
4. (secondary) Ledston Luck Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
5. (primary) Number 1 Winder at Ledston Luck Colliery, with garden wall and gate (list entry 1264026) — Historic England

Record created: 10 September 2026 · Last researched: 10 September 2026