Shaw Cross Colliery

Overview

Crawshaw and Warburton's colliery at Shaw Cross, Dewsbury, sunk about 1904, which employed up to 885 men in the Beeston and Black Bed seams and passed to the National Coal Board; its last plans are dated 1968-69.

History

Shaw Cross Colliery lay at Shaw Cross, Dewsbury, and belonged to Crawshaw and Warburton, Limited. A shaft was being sunk there in 1904, when a sinker filling a kibble at the bottom was killed by a slab of stone ten feet by six that fell from the side, though it had been sprung with sprags and was thought sound enough to blast. One of its pits was the Black Bed Pit.

By 1910 the colliery employed 637 men raising gas and household coal from the Beeston and Black Bed seams. The workforce rose to 775 in 1923 and 885 in 1933, of whom 710 worked underground. Falls of clod from slips in the roof killed miners in 1911 and 1912, and in 1924 the engineer David Bannister, aged 67, was carried round a rope wheel and killed when the haulage started while he and his son were adjusting its clutch. The National Coal Board took the colliery over in 1947, when it produced 174,000 tons with 760 men; by 1954 it was also working the Brown Metal, Eleven Yards and Wheatley Lime seams, with 583 men. The latest abandonment plans of its workings are dated 1968 and 1969.

Geology

The Beeston, Black Bed, Brown Metal, Eleven Yards and Wheatley Lime seams.

Workings

Shafts including the Black Bed Pit, rope haulage underground, and a steam hoist lifting material 22 feet onto the pit hill.

Closure

The latest abandonment plans are dated 1968 and 1969.

What remains

Unknown.

Related mines

• Chidswell Colliery — Both Crawshaw and Warburton collieries; Chidswell's later figures were returned with Shaw Cross.
• Conyers Colliery — Neighbouring Dewsbury collieries.

Recorded claims

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

• Shaw Cross Colliery, Dewsbury, belonged to Crawshaw and Warburton Ltd, and passed to the National Coal Board in 1947. ^1,2
• Shaw Cross employed 637 men in 1910 and 885 in 1933, and in 1947 produced 174,000 tons with 760 men. ¹
• In August 1912 a dataller, James Heegan, was fatally injured at Shaw Cross by a pot-hole of clod falling from the roof. ³
• In September 1904 a sinker was killed at the bottom of a sinking shaft at Shaw Cross by a stone falling from the side. ¹
• Abandonment plans of Shaw Cross workings are dated 1946, 1968 and 1969. ^4,5

Sources

1. (primary) Shaw Cross Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) NMRS mining deaths: Maurice Fell, Shaw Cross, 1911 — Northern Mine Research Society (mining deaths database)
3. (secondary) NMRS mining deaths: James Heegan, Shaw Cross, 1912 — Northern Mine Research Society (mining deaths database)
4. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan 21937148: Shawcross, abandoned 1946 — British Geological Survey
5. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan 21883354: Shaw Cross, abandoned 1968 — British Geological Survey

Record created: 21 October 2026 · Last researched: 21 October 2026