Tinsley Park Colliery

Overview

Tinsley Park Collieries were a group of coal mines in the Tinsley and Darnall area east of Sheffield. Earl Fitzwilliam's estates were responsible for sinking a colliery at Tinsley in 1819, the year the Greenland Arm of the Sheffield Canal opened, and Benjamin Huntsman & Co. took the lease to work the coal. The early workings were bell pits linked to the canal by small wagonways; the first shaft was not sunk until 1852, with more in 1902 and 1909. From the end of the nineteenth century the colliery ran its own coke ovens, and by 1918 was supplying coke oven gas to the Sheffield Gas Company. Profits fell during the Second World War and the colliery closed in early 1943; the ground was later built over by the English Steel Corporation's Tinsley Park Works.

History

The colliery began as an estate venture: Earl Fitzwilliam's estates sank a colliery at Tinsley in 1819, the same year the Greenland Arm of the Sheffield Canal opened, the Earl having been a major contributor to it, and Benjamin Huntsman & Co. acquired the lease to work the coal. At that stage the pits were essentially bell pits scattered through the area, served by a network of small wagonways running down to the canal. By 1833 White's Directory shows Booth & Company of the Park Iron Works at Attercliffe as the colliery proprietors, the coal going to make coke for their ironworks; that works was later bought out by Huntsman, son of the Benjamin Huntsman who invented crucible steel. The first shaft was sunk in 1852 under the management of William Higgitt, and later his son-in-law Henry Chambers; further shafts followed in June 1902 and 1909. In the 1890s the colliery company's chairman was William McConnel, owner of the Talyllyn Railway and of several other English collieries. In 1938 the company lent money to the Renishaw Iron Company and took operational control of it along with the right to supply it with coke, and the following year offered to buy J. and G. Wells' Eckington collieries at Holbrook, Norwood and Westthorpe. The war undid it: costs rose, output fell as men went into the forces, a loss was recorded in 1943, and the colliery closed early that year.

Geology

The colliery worked the Coal Measures of the South Yorkshire coalfield east of Sheffield. Over its lifetime it took the Wath Wood, High Hazels, Parkgate, Haigh Moor and Barnsley seams — the Barnsley being the great seam of the Yorkshire field and the Parkgate and Silkstone-group seams beneath it. The shallowness of the coal at the outset is why the first workings were bell pits rather than shafts.

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

Workings

The earliest workings were bell pits spread through Tinsley Park, connected to the Sheffield Canal by a series of wagonways: two parallel lines ran south-east from the canal, the longer of them about a mile and a quarter to the Peacock pit. The canal connection was still visible into the 1990s. Deep working began with the shaft of 1852 and continued with those of 1902 and 1909. From 1900 the colliery was also served by the Sheffield District Railway, part of the Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railway, opened by the Duke of Portland and running between the North Midland Railway at Treeton and the Midland at Brightside Junction; its longest branch, over a mile, served the Tinsley Park Colliery Company.

Closure

Production costs rose during the war while output fell with many of the men in the forces. A loss was recorded in 1943 and the colliery closed early that year. The site was subsequently built over by the English Steel Corporation's Tinsley Park Works, which opened in 1963 and closed in 1985.

What remains

Nothing of the colliery survives. The ground was taken by the English Steel Corporation's Tinsley Park Works from 1963, itself closed in 1985. The line of the canal connection was still traceable up to the 1990s.

No colliery structures survive; the site was cleared and built over by a steelworks which has itself since gone.

Related mines

• Orgreave Colliery — Both collieries ran their own coke ovens and supplied coke oven gas to the Sheffield Gas Company — Tinsley Park from 1918 and Orgreave from 1922.

Disasters & major incidents

• Tinsley Park Colliery fire, 1869
  15 September 1869 · Fire · 3 fatalities
  Three men were suffocated at Tinsley Park Colliery, east of Sheffield, on 15 September 1869 when the coal caught fire, and the shafts had to be sealed.
• Tinsley Park Colliery roof fall, 1880
  20 February 1880 · Collapse / Roof Fall · 2 fatalities
  Two young fillers, William Handley and Thomas Saxon, were killed by a fall of roof at Tinsley Park Colliery, east of Sheffield, on 20 February 1880.

Recorded claims

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

• Earl Fitzwilliam's estates were responsible for sinking a colliery at Tinsley in 1819, the same year the Greenland Arm of the Sheffield Canal opened, and Benjamin Huntsman & Co. acquired the lease to work the coal. ¹
• The pits were at that time basically bell pits situated throughout the area, with a network of small wagonways built to take the coal to the canal; the longest of two parallel lines ran some mile and a quarter to the Peacock pit. ¹
• The first shaft was sunk in 1852, with further shafts in June 1902 and 1909. Over its lifetime the colliery worked the Wath Wood, High Hazels, Parkgate, Haigh Moor and Barnsley seams. ¹
• From the end of the nineteenth century the colliery had a battery of Simon-Carves recovery ovens, and in 1913 a new battery of 40 regenerative ovens with tar and ammonia recovery plant was built by the Koppers Coke Oven and By-Product Company of Sheffield. By 1918 coke oven gas from Tinsley was being supplied to the Sheffield Gas Company. ¹
• Profits fell during the war years and a loss was recorded in 1943; the colliery closed early that year, and the area was subsequently overbuilt by the English Steel Corporation's Tinsley Park Works, which opened in 1963 and closed in 1985. ¹
• Tinsley Park's coke ovens were supplying coke oven gas to the Sheffield Gas Company by 1918, and the ovens at Orgreave Colliery began supplying the same company from 1922 — an arrangement that lasted at Orgreave until gas arrived from below the North Sea. ^2,1
• Graces Guide has the Tinsley Park Colliery Company registered on 23 April 1898 to acquire the Tinsley Coal Company's undertaking; a battery of forty regenerative coke ovens with tar and ammonia recovery was built by the Koppers Coke Oven and By-Product Co. in 1913, coke-oven gas was supplied to the Sheffield Gas Co. from 1918, and the company joined the Rotherham and District Collieries Association in 1926. ³
• The Mining Remediation Authority's abandonment plans for Tinsley Park, 32 sheets, cover the High Hazel, Wath Wood or Fox Earth, Furnace, Barnsley, Silkstone, Parkgate, Swallow Wood, Beamshaw and Meltonfield seams, with later opencast plans for the High Hazel and Fox Earth. ⁴

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Tinsley Park Collieries — Wikipedia
2. (secondary) Orgreave Colliery — Wikipedia
3. (secondary) Tinsley Park Colliery Co (Graces Guide) — Graces Guide
4. (primary) Tinsley Park abandonment plans M858 and others (BGS mine plans catalogue) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority

Record created: 4 September 2026 · Last researched: 24 September 2026