Oaks Colliery

Overview

Oaks Colliery, on the edge of Barnsley, suffered two of the deadliest explosions in English mining history within twenty years of each other — the second, in 1866, killed 361 men and boys and stood as the worst colliery disaster in England for almost half a century.

History

The first shaft at Oaks Colliery, on the outskirts of Barnsley, was sunk in the early 1830s to work the eight-foot-thick Barnsley Seam at a depth of around 283 yards. The pit, also known as Ardsley Main and operated at different times by Firth, Barber and Company and later by Messrs. Firth, Bamber and Company, suffered a serious explosion on 5 March 1847 that killed 73 men and boys, at the time regarded as the first really serious explosion in the South Yorkshire Coalfield. Far worse followed on 12 and 13 December 1866: a first explosion on the afternoon of the 12th killed the great majority of the 340 men and boys then underground, and a second explosion the following day killed a further 27 colliery employees and 23 volunteer rescuers who had gone down to search for survivors, among them the mining engineer Parkin Jeffcock. Only six of the men working underground on 12 December survived; the final death toll, including rescuers, is put at 361, with some later research suggesting the true figure may exceed 380. For nearly fifty years this remained the worst mining disaster in England, a record only broken by the Senghenydd disaster of 1913. The colliery reopened after the disaster, with its workings later absorbed into the neighbouring Barnsley Main Colliery from 1929; that successor pit closed and reopened several times before production finally ceased there in 1991.

Geology

The colliery worked the eight-foot-thick Barnsley Seam of the Yorkshire Coalfield, a Carboniferous sequence exploited in South Yorkshire using the longwall mining method — a system a government inspector later identified as a specific contributing factor in the scale of the 1866 disaster.

Geological setting: Sedimentary Beds and Seams (well documented example)

Workings

The pit worked the Barnsley Seam at a depth of around 283 yards using the longwall method, with dual shafts for winding and ventilation; following the 1866 disaster, the No. 1 shaft was filled and a new shaft sunk at Stair Foot, with an estimated 80 bodies never recovered from the sealed workings.

Closure

The colliery's own workings were gradually absorbed into the neighbouring Barnsley Main Colliery from 1929; that successor pit closed and reopened several times over the following decades before production there finally ceased in 1991.

What remains

No structures survive from the historic Oaks Colliery itself; three memorials to the 1866 disaster stand in the Barnsley area, including an 1879 memorial in the graveyard at Ardsley, an 1913 obelisk memorial on Doncaster Road funded by public subscription, and a 2016 sculpture by Graham Ibbeson in Barnsley town centre.

Abandoned workings can be dangerous — unstable ground, uncapped shafts, flooding and bad air are common even where a site looks safe from the surface. This entry describes history and general location only; it is not an access guide.

Disasters & major incidents

• Oaks Colliery explosion, 1847
  5 March 1847 · Explosion · 73 fatalities
  A firedamp explosion at Oaks Colliery (then also known as Ardsley Main) killed 73 men and boys — at the time regarded as the first really serious explosion in the South Yorkshire Coalfield.
• Oaks Colliery explosion, 1866
  12-13 December 1866 · Explosion · 361 fatalities
  Two explosions on successive days at Oaks Colliery killed 361 men and boys, including 23 volunteer rescuers who died in the second blast — for nearly fifty years the worst mining disaster in English history.

Recorded claims

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

• The first shaft was sunk in the early 1830s to work the eight-foot-thick Barnsley Seam at a depth of around 283 yards. ^1,2
• An explosion on 5 March 1847 killed 73 men and boys, at the time regarded as the first really serious explosion in the South Yorkshire Coalfield. ^1,2
• Two explosions on 12 and 13 December 1866 killed 361 people in total, including 23 volunteer rescuers from neighbouring collieries; only six of the men underground on the 12th survived. ^1,3
• The colliery's workings were gradually absorbed into the neighbouring Barnsley Main Colliery from 1929, which itself closed and reopened several times before production ceased there in 1991. ¹

Sources

1. (secondary) Oaks explosion — Wikipedia
2. (secondary) Ardsley Main Colliery Explosion - Barnsley - 1847 — Northern Mine Research Society
3. (secondary) Oaks Colliery Explosions - Barnsley - 1866 — Northern Mine Research Society

Record created: 23 August 2026 · Last researched: 23 August 2026