Rotherham Main Colliery

Overview

John Brown and Company's colliery at Canklow, half a mile south of Rotherham, begun in 1890 and producing from 1894, which employed around 2,000 men before the First World War, was all but closed after 1926 and was shut by the Coal Board in 1954.

History

Rotherham Main lay at Canklow, about half a mile south of Rotherham town centre in the Rother valley. Its first shaft was begun in 1890 by the Sheffield steelmakers John Brown and Company, and it went into production in 1894. The company later added coke ovens and a by-products plant, and built houses for its workers and a school for their children. A branch from the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway served the pit from a junction named Rotherham Main.

In July 1891, while the shafts were being sunk, sinkers were killed when their scaffold tipped (see Disasters, below). Once working, the colliery grew quickly, from 474 people in 1894 to about 2,400 in 1900 across its Barnsley and Parkgate pits, raising coking, household and steam coal from the Barnsley, Swallow Wood, Parkgate and Silkstone seams. In 1910 an explosion at a longwall face killed three men and a fall in a haulage road two more (see Disasters, below).

The ground was prone to flooding. Before the First World War about 2,000 men worked there, and 1,793 in 1923, but after the 1926 strike the colliery was virtually closed, needing only around 300 men to keep it. It passed to the National Coal Board in 1947 with about 400 men working the Barnsley seam, and closed in 1954; the Parkgate workings were formally abandoned in July 1955. A road scheme along the Rother valley later swept away what was left.

Geology

Coal Measures of the South Yorkshire coalfield: the Barnsley, Swallow Wood, Parkgate and Silkstone seams.

Workings

Shafts sunk from 1890, worked as Barnsley and Parkgate pits by 1900; coke ovens and a by-products plant; a branch railway from the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire line.

Closure

Virtually closed after the 1926 strike and kept by about 300 men; nationalised in 1947 and closed in 1954; the Parkgate seam was abandoned on 1 July 1955.

What remains

Nothing of the colliery survives; the site was cleared for a road scheme.

None.

Redevelopment

A road along the Rother valley linking Rotherham's relief road to the M1.

Related mines

• Aldwarke Main Colliery — Both Rotherham collieries of John Brown and Company, the Sheffield steelmakers.

Disasters & major incidents

• Rotherham Main Colliery shaft accident, 1891
  7 July 1891 · Winding / Shaft Accident · 4 fatalities
  Sinkers working from a suspended scaffold in a shaft being sunk for John Brown and Company's Rotherham Main Colliery fell when a stay holding one of the scaffold chains broke on 7 July 1891.
• Rotherham Main Colliery explosion, 1910
  21 July 1910 · Explosion · 3 fatalities
  A stone falling from a cavity in the goaf at a longwall face in Rotherham Main Colliery on 21 July 1910 knocked out a prop and smashed a safety lamp, and the firedamp it brought down exploded, fatally burning three men.
• Rotherham Main Colliery roof fall, 1910
  December 1910 · Collapse / Roof Fall · 2 fatalities
  A ripper and his fifteen-year-old assistant were killed in December 1910 by a heavy fall of roof in a haulage road at Rotherham Main Colliery, where rock was being blasted out to make room for tension gear.

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 begun in 1890 and the colliery went into production in 1894. ^1,2
• Rotherham Main was owned by John Brown and Company, who also built houses for the workers and a school. ^3,1
• Before the First World War the colliery employed around 2,000 men; after the 1926 strike it was virtually closed, needing about 300 to maintain it. ¹
• In 1923 the colliery employed 1,793 people. ³
• The colliery closed in 1954. ^3,1,2

Sources

1. (secondary) Rotherham Main Colliery — Wikipedia
2. (secondary) Canklow — Wikipedia
3. (primary) Durham Mining Museum: Rotherham Main Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
4. (primary) BGS mine plans: Rotherham Main, Parkgate seam, abandoned 1 July 1955 — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority

Record created: 17 October 2026 · Last researched: 17 October 2026