Roundwood Colliery

Overview

Roundwood was a Don Valley colliery about two miles north of Rotherham, on the boundary between Rotherham and Rawmarsh. It was sunk in the early 1860s on ground where coal had been got since at least the seventeenth century, and takes its name from the Rounde woodde recorded near Aldwarke Manor house. Its lasting significance is less what it produced than what it paid for: bought in the late 1890s by the Sheffield steelmaker John Brown and Company, it became the working asset around which the Dalton Main Collieries company was floated in order to sink a wholly new deep pit at Silverwood. From 1908 the two were connected underground, and Roundwood was progressively reduced to a men-and-materials shaft for its own offspring.

History

Coal gathering in the Aldwarke area, the old manor lands stretching across the Don Valley from Parkgate to Thrybergh, goes back to the seventeenth century, in documents concerning tenants' rights of way over the ground and over the river at Aldwarke ford, and the rights of any person fetching coals from pits. Earlier records still speak of charkcole to be cut in Rounde woodde near Aldwarke Manor house, and it is from that wood that the colliery took its name. The deep mine was set a short distance north of Aldwarke Main Colliery, between the Midland Railway's main line north of Parkgate and Rawmarsh and the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire line north of Parkgate and Aldwarke. It was established in the early 1860s with connections to both railways and to staithes alongside the River Don. In 1880 it was listed as owned by Cooper, Sellars and Company; by 1896 the owner was recorded as the Roundwood Colliery Company. That company was bought by John Brown and Company, the Sheffield steelmaker, which already owned neighbouring Aldwarke Main. The Roundwood and Dalton Colliery Limited was registered in 1898 and, as the Dalton Main Collieries Limited, floated on the London Stock Exchange in December 1899. Its stated purpose was to buy out the business of Roundwood, acquire land at Silverwood between Thrybergh and Ravenfield, and sink a new deep colliery there. Roundwood was, in other words, the going concern that made the new sinking financeable. The two pits were to be joined by a railway. Both railway companies declined to build it for what was initially little or no return, so the colliery company built it itself: the Roundwood and Dalton Colliery Railway, opened in 1901 and known locally as John Brown's Private Railway. A Paddy Mail ran over it for the men until the 1930s, when it gave way to pit buses run by private operators and later by Rotherham Corporation. Once Silverwood was drawing coal the railway companies changed their minds, and the line was absorbed into the Rotherham, Laughton and Maltby Railway and so into the Great Central and Midland Joint Railway, gaining main-line connections. By the time Silverwood was in full production in 1909, John Brown were sole proprietors of Dalton Main. The collieries had been connected underground in 1908, which allowed the drawing of coal to be concentrated at Silverwood while the Roundwood shafts were turned over to men and materials. The colliery passed to the National Coal Board on vesting day in 1947 and closed in the early 1960s.

Geology

Roundwood worked the Coal Measures of the South Yorkshire Coalfield, where coal occurs in near-horizontal beds and seams laid down in Carboniferous deltaic and swamp environments and later gently folded. Aldwarke Main next door dated from 1867 and worked the Barnsley Seam, deepened to the Parkgate Seam some ten years later, with a second shaft reaching the Silkstone Seam in 1884; the same sequence underlies Roundwood, though no source consulted for this record states which seams Roundwood itself drew from.

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

Workings

Two shafts, sited to take advantage of both main-line railways and of river staithes on the Don. The defining feature of the layout is the 1908 underground connection with Silverwood, roughly two and a half miles to the east: from that point the complex was worked as one, with winding concentrated at the newer and larger pit and Roundwood's shafts kept for men and materials. Above ground the colliery was served from 1901 by its owners' own railway, built because no railway company would take the risk.

Closure

Roundwood was closed by the National Coal Board in the early 1960s. No source consulted for this record gives a precise closure date or a reason, but its position by then was structurally weak: it had not wound its own coal since 1908, and a shaft kept for men and materials at a pit whose reserves are worked from elsewhere is the first thing a rationalising owner closes. Silverwood itself worked on until 1992.

What remains

The colliery site lies in the industrial corridor between the Parkgate and Aldwarke steelworks, north of Rotherham, an area heavily reworked for industry and infrastructure since the pit closed. No dated site report or photograph of surviving colliery structures was found in the searches made for this record.

No surviving colliery structure has been identified from the sources consulted.

Related mines

• Silverwood Colliery — Roundwood was bought by John Brown and Company specifically to finance the sinking of Silverwood, both were held by the Dalton Main Collieries Limited, they were joined by their owners' private railway in 1901, and their workings were connected underground in 1908, after which Silverwood wound the coal for both.

Nearby mines

• Kilnhurst Colliery — 1.8 km NE
• New Stubbin Colliery — 2.3 km W
• Silverwood Colliery — 4.0 km E
• Cortonwood Colliery — 5.3 km NW
• Wath Main Colliery — 5.4 km N

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.

• Roundwood was established as a deep mine in the early 1860s, between the Midland and the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire railway lines north of Parkgate, with connections to both and to staithes on the River Don. ¹
• The colliery was listed as owned by Cooper, Sellars and Company in 1880 and as the Roundwood Colliery Company by 1896, before being bought by John Brown and Company. ^2,1
• The Roundwood and Dalton Colliery Limited was registered in 1898 and became the Dalton Main Collieries Limited, a public company floated on the London Stock Exchange in December 1899, set up by John Brown and Company to buy Roundwood and sink a new colliery at Silverwood. ²
• Roundwood and Silverwood were connected underground in 1908, after which coal-drawing was concentrated at Silverwood and the Roundwood shafts were used for men and materials. ^2,1
• The Roundwood and Dalton Colliery Railway, known as John Brown's Private Railway, was opened in 1901 and built by the colliery company itself after both railway companies declined the work; a Paddy Mail service ran over it until the 1930s. ^2,1
• The colliery passed to the National Coal Board in 1947 and closed in the early 1960s. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Roundwood Colliery — Wikipedia
2. (secondary) Dalton Main Collieries Ltd. — Wikipedia

Record created: 4 September 2026 · Last researched: 5 September 2026