Lidgett Colliery

Overview

A thin-seam pit between Hoyland and Tankersley, opened in 1879 in old ironstone shafts and run from 1883 by Dr William Clarke's Lidgett Colliery Company, which pioneered electric coal cutters there before the colliery closed in 1911; its power house survives.

History

Lidgett Colliery used three shafts sunk by Earl Fitzwilliam in 1830 to the Tankersley Ironstone, which had fed the local ironworks until about 1877. In 1879 John Fisher, formerly manager of the ironstone mines, began driving from the shaft sides into the Lidgett coal, some 200 feet above the old ironstone, and two of the shafts were partly filled to that level. Fisher ran into money troubles and sold out to William Clarke, a local doctor, reputedly for £1,000, and on 8 August 1883 the Lidgett Colliery Company Limited was registered with Clarke as chairman.

The seam was thin, about 2 feet 8 inches, of which only two feet was good saleable coal, and the workings lay just north of the Tankersley Fault and were heavily watered. Getting it by pick and shovel did not pay, so Clarke brought in coal-cutting machines, and within two years output rose from 700 to 2,000 tons a week. Locally the pit was known as the 'Pill Box Pit' after its doctor-owner.

Cutters built by the Yorkshire Engine Company, one of them in 1890, and Gillott and Copley compressed-air machines were used. When maintaining the air lines underground proved too costly, a power house was built about 1893 to bring electricity to the pit, and all the air cutters had gone before 1903. The electric cutters were developed at the colliery by its enginewright, C. Foster; Clarke patented the design and they were made commercially by a firm set up beside the colliery's locomotive shed.

The colliery employed 548 people in 1894, 664 in 1896 and 467 in 1910, selling gas and household coal under the name 'Flockton Wallsend'. Its wagons ran on a private line rented from Earl Fitzwilliam to Milton, worked from about 1884 by the locomotive SUCCESS, and were let down an incline to the canal and railway at Elsecar. The colliery closed in 1911. Its power house survives, in use as a garage.

Geology

Coal Measures of the South Yorkshire coalfield: the Lidgett seam, about 2 ft 8 in thick, some 200 feet above the Tankersley Ironstone, bounded to the south-west by the Tankersley Fault and heavily watered.

Workings

Three former ironstone shafts of 1830, 7 ft 6 in across: No. 2 the upcast, Nos. 3 and 4 partly filled to the Lidgett seam and used as downcast and winding shafts; machine-cut faces with compressed-air and then electric coal cutters; endless-rope haulage; a power house of about 1893; a private railway to Milton and an incline to Elsecar.

Closure

Closed in 1911; the abandonment plans of the Lidgett seam are dated 31 December 1911.

What remains

The power house of about 1893, two gabled red-brick ranges under a slate roof, survives in use as a garage and is on the South Yorkshire local heritage list.

The power house; the line of the incline to Elsecar.

Redevelopment

The power house is a garage.

Related mines

• Hoyland Silkstone Colliery — A combined abandonment plan of 1909 covers Hoyland Silkstone, Lidgett and neighbouring workings (BGS 21911198).

Recorded claims

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

• The colliery's shafts were sunk in 1830 to the Tankersley Ironstone by Earl Fitzwilliam; John Fisher began driving from the shaft sides into the Lidgett seam in 1879. ¹
• The Lidgett Colliery Company Limited was registered on 8 August 1883 with Dr William Clarke as chairman. ¹
• Output rose from 700 to 2,000 tons a week within about two years of coal-cutting machines being introduced. ¹
• The power house, built about 1893, brought electricity to the pit, replacing compressed-air cutters with electric cutters developed on site by the enginewright, C. Foster, which were patented. ^1,2
• Lidgett Colliery worked from 1879 to 1911. ^3,2
• The colliery employed 548 people in 1894 and 664 in 1896. ³
• The Lidgett seam workings were abandoned on 31 December 1911. ⁴

Sources

1. (secondary) Lidgett Colliery (Industrial Railway Record No. 54) — Industrial Railway Society (Trevor Lodge)
2. (secondary) Lidgett Colliery Power House — South Yorkshire Local Heritage List
3. (primary) Durham Mining Museum: Lidgett Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
4. (primary) BGS mine plans: Lidgett, Lidgett seam, abandoned 31 December 1911 — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority

Record created: 16 October 2026 · Last researched: 16 October 2026