Snydale Colliery

Overview

Snydale, at Featherstone east of Wakefield, began with a borehole that struck gas instead of water. The gas could be lit and put out at will, drew sightseers as the burning well, and reached the Illustrated London News; twelve years later John Rhodes sank his shafts beside it. The pit stayed small for its whole hundred-year life, passed to Henry Briggs, Son and Company in the 1890s as a replacement for their worked-out Streethouse, and stopped drawing coal in August 1965.

History

John Rhodes told the story long afterwards of a conversation in a railway carriage that made him leave Drighlington, buy the Snydale Hall estate and look for coal under it. His borehole near Featherstone station struck water and gas at 129 yards. The water soon stopped; the gas kept coming for a while and could be lit or put out easily, so it became a local attraction known as the burning well and was drawn for the Illustrated London News. In 1863 Rhodes decided to sink shafts for a colliery to be called Snydale Victoria, in partnership with a Mr Dalby about whom nothing further is recorded.

The Mines Inspectors' returns list the colliery as two separate workings through the 1890s, Haigh Moor and Stanley Main, employing 535 and 454 in 1894. Stanley Main falls out of the returns after 1900 and the Haigh Moor rises: 594 in 1900, 641 in 1910, 686 by 1915. In 1915 the colliery also returned ganister, the hard siliceous rock quarried under coal seams for furnace linings.

In 1897 the colliery was bought by Henry Briggs, Son and Company to replace their Streethouse pit, which was worked out. It stayed in the Briggs group through the holding company Briggs Collieries Ltd to nationalisation in 1947, when it turned out 122,000 tons. A run of managers is recorded from Abraham Wardman, who held the post from the sinking in 1863 until 1895, down to George Galley in 1965. Pithead baths were put up in 1951, on the far side of Wakefield Road because there was no room in the pit yard, with a footbridge so that the men did not have to cross the road.

It never grew large. The best output it managed was 185,000 tons in 1953 and again in 1954. Ten years later it was worked out and stopped drawing coal in August 1965, though the coal preparation plant was kept running to help out Ackton Hall during reconstruction there. Demolition began in 1971.

Three earlier deaths are recorded in its sinking and early working years -- a firedamp explosion during sinking in 1864, a powder-fume suffocation in 1869, and a goaf gas ignition in 1870 -- alongside the 1879 shaft accident (see Disasters, below).

Geology

Snydale worked the Middle Coal Measures of the West Yorkshire coalfield. The seams named in the returns are the Haigh Moor and the Stanley Main, each returned as a separate working through the 1890s. Ganister, the siliceous seatearth that underlies coal seams and was quarried for furnace linings, was returned as an output in 1915. Rhodes's 1861 borehole struck both water and gas at 129 yards.

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

Workings

A small undertaking throughout: the 1890 Ordnance Survey shows it as such, and the two returned workings, Haigh Moor and Stanley Main, never employed more than about a thousand between them. The colliery had its own brickworks and was served by the Snydale branch railway. Shaft depths are not recorded, though the 1879 accident shows the shaft was deep enough for a falling cage to kill everyone in it.

Closure

Coal drawing stopped in August 1965 with the reserves worked out. The coal preparation plant was kept in use to help Ackton Hall through reconstruction, and demolition of the buildings began in 1971.

What remains

Nothing of the colliery stands. By 1994 the buildings had gone and the muckstacks were being cleared, and the ground has been returned to something close to its state before the sinking.

The line of the Snydale branch, which served this and the neighbouring collieries, has been landscaped and is crossed by the field path from New Road at Old Snydale.

Related mines

• Ackton Hall Colliery — Snydale's coal preparation plant was kept running after 1965 to help Ackton Hall through reconstruction.
• Featherstone Main Colliery — Connected underground; Featherstone Main's shafts were kept for pumping until Snydale closed in 1965.
• Whitwood Colliery — Both Briggs pits: Snydale was bought in 1897 to replace the worked-out Streethouse, and Whitwood was the company headquarters.

Disasters & major incidents

• Snydale Colliery sinking explosion
  9 June 1864 · Explosion · 2 fatalities
  On 9 June 1864 an explosion of firedamp in a sinking shaft killed two sinkers and burned a third at Snydale Colliery, near Pontefract in the West Riding.
• Snydale Colliery powder-fume deaths
  25 August 1869 · Gas / Asphyxiation · 2 fatalities
  On 25 August 1869 two colliers were suffocated by powder smoke after firing a shot at Snydale Colliery, near Pontefract in the West Riding, in a heading where the brattice had been left far short of the face.
• Snydale Colliery goaf ignition
  12 December 1870 · Explosion · 2 fatalities
  On 12 December 1870 two colliers were killed by an explosion of gas at Snydale Colliery, near Pontefract in the West Riding.
• Snydale Colliery shaft accident
  7 March 1879 · Winding / Shaft Accident · 8 fatalities
  Eight men were killed at Snydale Colliery, near Pontefract, when the winding rope broke and a fully loaded cage fell to the bottom of the shaft.

Culture

• Featherstone Rovers and the Featherstone pits (Sports)
  The Featherstone full-back Arthur Higgins lost his right arm in a shaft accident here; an inquest was held in March 1915.

What's uncertain

Points where sources disagree or the record could not be settled; both accounts are kept. All open questions in the archive.

• The Featherstone Rovers Archive gives the borehole as 1851; the same author's account at Featherstone's Three Collieries gives 1861. Both agree the shafts were sunk from 1863. (disputed) ^1,2
• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Snydale' (catalogue NE423, Haigh Moor, dated 1948); the catalogue gives no location and the plan's details do not clearly tie it to this working, so it may belong to another of the same name. (uncertain) ⁴

Recorded claims

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

• John Rhodes's borehole near Featherstone station struck water and gas at 129 yards. The water stopped but the gas continued and could be lit or put out at will, making the borehole a local attraction known as the burning well; it was illustrated in the Illustrated London News. ^1,2
• The Featherstone Rovers Archive gives the borehole as 1851; the same author's account at Featherstone's Three Collieries gives 1861. Both agree the shafts were sunk from 1863. (disputed) ^1,2
• The colliery was bought in 1897 by Henry Briggs, Son and Company to replace their Streethouse colliery, which was worked out. ^3,1
• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Snydale' (catalogue NE423, Haigh Moor, dated 1948); the catalogue gives no location and the plan's details do not clearly tie it to this working, so it may belong to another of the same name. (uncertain) ⁴

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Featherstone's Three Collieries: Snydale — Featherstone's Three Collieries (Irvin Saxton)
2. (secondary) Snydale Colliery, 1863 to 1965 — Featherstone Rovers Archive
3. (primary) Snydale Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
4. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans: SNYDALE — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
5. (observational) Field path to Mill Lane (Geograph 8136013) — Geograph Britain and Ireland, Kevin Waterhouse

Record created: 11 September 2026 · Last researched: 11 September 2026