New Stubbin Colliery

Overview

New Stubbin Colliery stood at Upper Haugh in the township of Rawmarsh near Rotherham, on the Wentworth estates of Earl Fitzwilliam. The first sod was cut by Viscount Milton, the Earl's son, on 14 November 1913, and the sinking took until 1915 to complete. The pit was held by the Earl personally until 1935, then by Earl Fitzwilliam's Collieries Co. Ltd until nationalisation brought it to the National Coal Board in 1947. It ceased production on 6 July 1978 but was kept on as an underground store into the mid-1980s. It was served by Earl Fitzwilliam's own private railway.

History

New Stubbin belongs to the last generation of Fitzwilliam pits. The family had been working coal on the Wentworth estates since the eighteenth century — Elsecar Old Colliery was at work by 1750 and the New Colliery was sunk in 1794 — and New Stubbin, begun in 1913, was the twentieth-century continuation of that. Viscount Milton, the Earl's son, cut the first sod on 14 November 1913, and it took until 1915 to finish the sinking, the work running through the first years of the war. The recorded ownership runs from the Right Honourable Earl Fitzwilliam between 1913 and 1935, to Earl Fitzwilliam's Collieries Co. from 1936 to 1946, and then to the National Coal Board from 1947. Coal from it travelled on the Earl's private railway. Production ceased on 6 July 1978, but the workings were not abandoned outright: the colliery was retained as an underground store until the mid-1980s.

Geology

The colliery worked the Coal Measures of the South Yorkshire coalfield on the Wentworth estates, in the same ground the Fitzwilliam collieries around Elsecar and Hemingfield had been working since the eighteenth century. No source names the individual seams worked at New Stubbin.

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

Workings

The sinking begun in 1913 took two years to complete. The colliery was served by Earl Fitzwilliam's private railway, built to carry the estate's coal, rather than by a public line. After production ceased in 1978 the underground workings were kept in use as a store into the mid-1980s, which is unusual — most collieries are sealed at closure.

Closure

Production ceased on 6 July 1978. The colliery then remained as an underground store until the mid-1980s. No source gives a stated reason for the closure.

What remains

The site lies on private land at Upper Haugh. Nothing is recorded of what survives.

Related mines

• Elsecar Colliery — Both were collieries of the Earls Fitzwilliam on the Wentworth estates in South Yorkshire, Elsecar sunk in 1794 and New Stubbin in 1913, and both passed to Earl Fitzwilliam's Collieries Co. before nationalisation.

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 BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Stubbin' (catalogue NE563, Whinmoor, dated 1965); the catalogue gives no location and the plan's details do not clearly tie it to this working, so it may belong to another of the same name. (uncertain) ³

Recorded claims

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

• The first sod of the new colliery was cut by Viscount Milton, son of Earl Fitzwilliam, on 14 November 1913, and the sinking took until 1915 to complete. ¹
• The pit was owned by the Rt Hon. Earl Fitzwilliam from 1913 to 1935, by Earl Fitzwilliam's Collieries Co. from 1936 to 1946 and by the National Coal Board from 1947 to 1978. ^1,2
• The colliery ceased production on 6 July 1978 but remained as an underground store until the mid-1980s. ¹
• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Stubbin' (catalogue NE563, Whinmoor, dated 1965); the catalogue gives no location and the plan's details do not clearly tie it to this working, so it may belong to another of the same name. (uncertain) ³

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) New Stubbin Colliery — Wikipedia
2. (secondary) New Stubbin — Buddlepit Mine Database
3. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans: STUBBIN — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority

Record created: 4 September 2026 · Last researched: 4 September 2026