Shuttle Eye Colliery

Overview

A West Yorkshire colliery at Grange Moor crossroads on the Wakefield to Huddersfield road, started in 1862 by the publican and textile manufacturer Benjamin Lockwood and developed by his son Job in partnership with Benjamin Elliott. Its two shafts, the deeper 288 yards, worked the Beeston and Black Bed seams for household and gas coal, with the Blocking, New Hards and Wheatley Lime in the early twentieth century. Never large, it employed about a hundred in the 1890s and 274 at nationalisation, was joined in 1962 by two drifts at Gregory Spring near Mirfield, and closed in 1973. Warehouses now cover the site.

History

Coal was got on a small scale at Grange Moor from 1837, probably from the shallow Joan or Flockton Thick seams. The deep colliery was begun by Benjamin Lockwood, who had made his money weaving textiles and kept the Blacksmiths Arms at the crossroads, with Joshua Ellam in the 1850s; the Durham Mining Museum dates the sinking to 1862. After 1882 Lockwood's son Job took charge and formed a partnership with Benjamin Elliott, and Lockwood and Elliott developed the pit, sending the coal by horse and cart to the mills on the east side of Huddersfield; by 1896 Elliott was also in partnership with Jesse Jagger of the neighbouring Grange Ash Colliery. Two men are recorded killed: a collier suffocated by blackdamp in 1873 and a sinker who fell from a stay in the shaft in 1881. The workforce was 107 in 1894, 99 in 1896, 180 in 1900 and 181 in 1910, working the Blocking, New Hards and Wheatley Lime seams; 179 in 1923, 175 in 1933, 277 in 1940 and 274 at nationalisation in 1947, when the pit raised 89,000 tons of gas, household and steam coal. In 1962 two drift mines at Gregory Spring in Hopton, near Mirfield, which also helped ventilate the pit, were combined with Shuttle Eye, and the National Coal Board's 1967 leaflet gives 230 men producing 96,000 tons a year from the Beeston and Black Bed; 222 were employed in the 1970s. The colliery closed in 1973, its Black Bed abandonment plan dated 30 September that year, and the shafts were filled and capped.

Geology

Shuttle Eye worked the Lower Coal Measures of the West Yorkshire coalfield south of Huddersfield, sedimentary beds in which the Beeston and Black Bed seams lay below the Blocking, New Hards and Wheatley Lime coals worked before the First World War, and the shallow Joan and Flockton Thick seams that the early Grange Moor pits reached from the surface. The 1973 abandonment plan names the Top Beeston, also called the Shertcliffe, and the Black Bed.

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

Workings

Two shafts for coal winding, 195 and 288 yards deep, with ventilation assisted from 1962 by the two Gregory Spring drifts to the north, which were combined with the colliery that year. Coal left by horse and cart for the Huddersfield mills in the nineteenth century.

Closure

Closed by the National Coal Board in 1973, the Black Bed abandonment plan being dated 30 September 1973; no account of the reason has been found. The shafts were filled and capped.

What remains

The site was cleared and is occupied by warehousing; Wikipedia's 2006 photograph shows the warehouses on the colliery site.

None recorded; capped shafts under a warehouse estate.

Nearby mines

• Caphouse Colliery — 1.9 km NE
• Hostingley Colliery — 5.4 km NE
• Woolley Colliery — 9.0 km E, South Yorkshire
• Huskar Pit — 9.7 km SE, South Yorkshire
• Lofthouse Colliery — 14.4 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.

• The colliery was started in 1862 by Lockwood and Elliott with two shafts, the deeper 288 yards. ^1,2
• Engole gives coal got on a small scale from 1837 and the deep colliery begun in the 1850s by Benjamin Lockwood, licensee of the Blacksmiths Arms, with Joshua Ellam, Job Lockwood taking over after 1882 and partnering Benjamin Elliott. (disputed) ^2,3
• The pit produced coal from the Beeston and Black Bed seams, and in 1905-15 from the Blocking, New Hards and Wheatley Lime. ^1,2
• The workforce was 107 in 1894, 99 in 1896, 180 in 1900, 179 in 1923, 175 in 1933, 277 in 1940 and 274 at nationalisation in 1947. ^1,2
• In 1947 the colliery raised 89,000 tons of gas, household and steam coal. ²
• Two drift mines at Gregory Spring in Hopton, near Mirfield, were linked to Shuttle Eye in 1962 and assisted its ventilation. ^1,2,4
• The NCB's 1967 leaflet gives 230 men producing 96,000 tons a year from the Beeston and Black Bed. ²
• The colliery closed in 1973; the Black Bed abandonment plan is dated 30 September 1973. ^1,5
• Two deaths are recorded: Joseph Pratt, suffocated by blackdamp in 1873, and W. Jaggar, a sinker who fell from a stay in the shaft in 1881. ²
• The site has been overbuilt with warehouses. ^1,3

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Shuttle Eye Colliery — Wikipedia
2. (secondary) Durham Mining Museum: Shuttle Eye Colliery — Durham Mining Museum (quoting the NCB leaflet Coal in Barnsley Area, 1967)
3. (secondary) Shuttle Eye Colliery — Engole
4. (primary) Gregory Spring: Black Bed coal abandonment plan, 1940 (mine plans catalogue) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
5. (primary) Shuttle Eye: Black Bed seam abandonment plan, 30 September 1973 (mine plans catalogue) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority

Record created: 9 September 2026 · Last researched: 9 September 2026