Stocksbridge Colliery

Overview

Samuel Fox and Company's colliery at Stocksbridge, north-west of Sheffield, which worked the Halifax Hard and Soft seams and ganister by adits in the hillside above the steelworks. It employed over five hundred in 1933, and closed in 1948, soon after nationalisation, its remaining coal judged unworkable by machine.

History

Samuel Fox bought the old mill at Stocksbridge in 1842 and turned it into the steelworks that made the town. He began with water power, but as steam machinery developed he soon turned to the coal seams in the hillside above the works. The colliery was worked by two or three adits, taking most of its coal from the Halifax Hard seam and a little from the Halifax Soft, 55 feet below; the NCB's list dates it from 1861. Its coal, with ganister and fireclay, served the works, where Samuel Fox and Co. and later the United Steel Companies ran coke ovens and gas producers.

Employment grew from 229 in 1894 to 350 in 1910; in 1915 the returns list three units, the New, No. 1 and No. 3, the last working ganister with the Halifax Hard. By 1933 there were 521 at work, and in the 1930s four faces were worked with mechanised coal cutters. The colliery left no spoil heap of its own: its waste probably went to the works tip at Soughly, whose high coal content would explain why it burned until shortly before the A616 was built across it. Among its recorded deaths were two boys: a 13-year-old hurrier struck by a broken wagon on the incline in 1868, and a 14-year-old screen boy killed among moving wagons in 1915.

Vested in the National Coal Board in 1947, when it raised 62,000 tons of coking and gas coal with 302 men, the colliery closed in April 1948, because the 11.4 million tons said to remain in it could not be extracted by machine.

Geology

Lower Coal Measures: the Halifax Hard seam, with the Halifax Soft 55 feet below, and the ganister and fireclay that go with them.

Workings

Two or three adits into the hillside; in 1915 three units (New, No. 1 and No. 3); four mechanised faces in the 1930s.

Closure

Closed in April 1948, shortly after vesting in the National Coal Board, because its remaining coal, put at 11.4 million tons, could not be extracted by machine.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Recorded claims

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

• Stocksbridge was worked by Samuel Fox and Co with two or three adits, mostly in the Halifax Hard seam, with a little from the Halifax Soft 55 feet below. ¹
• In the 1930s four faces were worked with mechanised coal cutters. ¹
• Stocksbridge employed 229 in 1894, 350 in 1910, 521 in 1933 and 302 in 1947, when it raised 62,000 tons of coking and gas coal; ganister and fireclay were also worked. ²
• Vested in the NCB in 1947, the colliery closed shortly afterwards because the 11.4 million tons said to remain could not be extracted by machine. ¹
• Stocksbridge Colliery is listed from 1861 to April 1948. ³
• Plans of the Stocksbridge Halifax Hard workings are held in the national catalogue of abandoned mines. ⁴

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Samuel Fox and Co (Stainless Steel Section) — Grace's Guide
2. (primary) Stocksbridge Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
3. (secondary) NCB Collieries - England (Northern Mine Research Society) — Northern Mine Research Society
4. (primary) BGS mine plan: Stocksbridge, Halifax Hard — BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans

Record created: 5 October 2026 · Last researched: 5 October 2026