Nostell Colliery

Overview

Coal was dug on the Nostell estate in the ninth century and the priory was granted leave to mine it in the twelfth. The Winns of Nostell Priory ran the coal from the 1700s and sank the modern colliery in 1860; it was known locally as the family pit, for the welfare the owners provided long before anyone made them.

History

Coal was got from the outcropping Shafton seam here in the ninth century, in the ground where St James's Hermitage was founded, and the priory of 1121 was granted permission to mine it. When the outcrop ran out in the late 1300s bell pits were sunk. The Winn family bought the three-hundred-acre estate and its mines in 1654 and at first leased the coal to others, a couple of miners to a pit; in 1700 Wragby housed nine colliers among the estate's other workers. The Winns bought more land with mineral rights from the Earl of Westmoreland in 1742 and by 1760 had a Newcomen engine draining the workings. In 1779 between five and fifteen men were employed in the collieries at any one time and the year's profit was £206. The bell pits gave way in 1821 to two twenty-seven-yard shafts on the Shafton, and fourteen such shafts were sunk on the estate in all. The modern colliery was started in 1860, when the family sank two shafts, one ten feet across and the other twelve and a quarter, lined with brick from Purston and each with steam winding and pumping engines, headgear and cages. It was ventilated by mechanical fan and had a screening plant; the owners bought seventy-two sets of workmen's tools and six pit ponies to start it. When it came into production in 1865 the old 1821 shafts were filled and capped. Terraced houses went up for the miners in the 1880s, known as Cribbins Lump after the builder until Lord St Oswald named the place New Crofton. The pit was known locally as the family pit for the welfare schemes the Winns brought in well before other owners did. It employed between seven hundred and nine hundred through the official returns, working the Priory and Winter seams and later the Kent, Royston and Stanley Main, and passed to the National Coal Board in 1947. It closed in 1987, and many of the men took transfers to the Selby coalfield.

Geology

The Yorkshire coalfield on the Nostell estate. The outcropping Shafton seam was the first coal taken here and was still the target of the 1821 shafts; the modern colliery worked the Priory and Winter seams and later the Kent, Royston and Stanley Main.

Workings

Two shafts of 1860, one ten feet in diameter and one twelve feet three inches, lined with Purston brick, each with its own steam winding and pumping engine, headgear and cages, and the whole ventilated by mechanical fan. Before them, fourteen shallow shafts had been sunk on the estate and, before those, bell pits from the late 1300s.

Closure

The colliery closed in 1987 and many of the men transferred to the Selby coalfield.

What remains

No account of the colliery site as it now stands has been found. Nostell Priory itself is a National Trust property, and New Crofton, the village built for the miners in the 1880s, remains.

None recorded.

Nearby mines

• Hemsworth Colliery — 2.6 km SE
• Sharlston Colliery — 2.6 km N
• Snydale Colliery — 3.3 km N
• Walton Colliery — 4.6 km W
• Ackton Hall Colliery — 4.9 km NE

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.

• Coal was dug from the outcropping Shafton seam at Nostell in the ninth century, and the priory founded in 1121 was granted permission to mine it. The outcrop was exhausted in the late 1300s and bell pits followed. The Winn family bought the estate and its mines in 1654. ¹
• The Winns bought further land with mineral rights from the Earl of Westmoreland in 1742 and had installed a Newcomen engine to drain the workings by 1760. In 1779 the collieries employed between five and fifteen men at a time and returned a profit of £206 for the year. ¹
• Two shafts were sunk from 1860, one ten feet in diameter and the other twelve feet three inches, lined with bricks from Purston. Both had steam winding engines, pumping engines, headgear and cages; the pit was ventilated by mechanical fan and had a coal screening plant, and the owners bought seventy-two sets of workmen's tools and six pit ponies. When it came into production in 1865 the shafts of 1821 were filled and capped. ¹
• The colliery was known locally as the family pit, for the welfare schemes the Winns introduced well before they were common at comparable works. Terraced houses were built for the miners in the 1880s and known as Cribbins Lump after the builder, until Lord St Oswald named the place New Crofton. ¹
• The Durham Mining Museum's transcription of the Lists of Mines returns the colliery under Lord St Oswald, then Nostell Colliery Ltd and from 1947 the National Coal Board, working the Priory and Winter seams and later the Kent, Royston and Stanley Main. Employment ran from 726 in 1894 to 890 in 1905 and 847 in 1954, and the 1947 output was 205,000 tons. ²

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Nostell Colliery — Engole
2. (secondary) Nostell Colliery — Durham Mining Museum

Record created: 11 September 2026 · Last researched: 11 September 2026