Toftshaw Moor Colliery

Overview

A small Bradford colliery near Tong Street, sunk in 1913 by the Cleckheaton Colliery Company, a firm of the Ellison and Sharp families, to the Shertcliffe (Beeston) seam at 86.6 metres. It opened pithead baths in 1934, well before many larger pits, and the National Coal Board closed it in August 1950.

History

The Cleckheaton Colliery Company began sinking Toftshaw Moor, near Tong Street on the south-eastern edge of Bradford, in 1913. The company was a group of local men of the Ellison and Sharp families, whose directors in the 1920s and 1930s included Henry and Fred Ellison and Ephraim, Fred and Frank Sharp. Its shaft went down 86.6 metres, passing the 0.6-metre Blocking coal at 24.4 metres, which the colliery never worked, to the Shertcliffe or Beeston seam, 0.68 metres thick, its main source of coal. The Black Bed, 67.7 metres below the Beeston, was worked only in 1927 and discontinued that November.

In 1923 Toftshaw Moor employed 181, 154 below ground and 27 above, under the manager William Blythe, alongside the company's two small Hunsworth pits; by 1933 it was the company's only mine, its registered office at Toftshaw Moor, Dudley Hill, raising manufacturing coal with electric power. Pithead baths for 126 men opened on 21 April 1934, long before many larger mines had them. The company worked the colliery until nationalisation at the end of 1946; by then the Beeston coal was running out, and the National Coal Board closed the mine in August 1950. Its Shertcliffe plans are dated 31 May 1951. No accidents are recorded there.

Geology

Yorkshire coalfield: the Shertcliffe or Beeston seam, 0.68 m, with the Blocking coal (0.6 m at 24.4 m, unworked) and the Black Bed 67.7 m below the Beeston.

Workings

A shaft 86.6 m deep to the Shertcliffe (Beeston) seam; the Black Bed worked briefly in 1927.

Closure

Closed by the NCB in August 1950; the Shertcliffe plans are dated 31 May 1951.

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.

• The Cleckheaton Colliery Co. Ltd, a group of local men named Ellison or Sharp, began sinking Toftshaw Moor in 1913. ^1,2
• The shaft was 86.6 metres deep to the Shertcliffe seam, passing the unworked Blocking coal at 24.4 metres. ¹
• Toftshaw Moor employed 181 (154 below ground, 27 above) in 1923 and 1933. ²
• Pithead baths for 126 men opened at Toftshaw Moor on 21 April 1934. ^1,3
• The National Coal Board closed Toftshaw Moor in August 1950 as its Beeston coal ran out. ^4,1
• The Toftshaw Moor Shertcliffe workings were abandoned on 31 May 1951. ⁵

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Toftshaw Moor Colliery — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (primary) Cleckheaton Colliery Co., Ltd. — Durham Mining Museum
3. (secondary) Toftshaw Moor (pithead baths) — The Twentieth Century Society
4. (secondary) NCB Collieries - England (Northern Mine Research Society) — Northern Mine Research Society
5. (primary) BGS mine plan: Toftshaw Moor, Shertcliffe, 31 May 1951 — BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans

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