Waleswood Colliery

Overview

Skinner and Holford's colliery between Swallownest and Wales Bar, near Rotherham, sunk in the 1860s, with coke ovens and a by-products plant; the Coal Board closed it in 1948 and kept it as a pumping station, and its buildings now form an industrial estate.

History

Waleswood Colliery lay between Swallownest and Wales Bar, near Rotherham, beside the Rotherham to Clowne road and the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway. Its first shaft was sunk in the 1860s by Skinner and Holford. In 1868 a banksman, William Outram, was killed when the cage was lowered on him while he and his brother repaired the conducting rods at the shaft bottom, and in 1872 two young colliers died in an explosion of gas.

The colliery employed 677 people in 1894. By 1905 it was working two pits, the Flockton and the High Hazels, in the seams of those names, and later the Parkgate; the Flockton employed 794 in 1915 and 930 in 1940. In November 1924 three men were suffocated by gas in the Flockton seam, in headings being driven to hole into a district abandoned in 1913. It kept four steam locomotives over its life, never more than two at once; the second, named Waleswood, built by Hudswell Clarke in 1906, has been preserved.

The colliery and its by-products plant passed to the National Coal Board in 1947, and coal production ceased the following year. As the neighbouring collieries became interconnected underground it was kept as a pumping station, with 28 men in 1954. The coke ovens and by-products plant closed in 1962. Many of the colliery buildings were kept and now form the basis of an industrial estate.

Geology

Coal Measures of the South Yorkshire coalfield: the Flockton, High Hazel, Parkgate and Thorncliffe seams.

Workings

Two pits named for their seams, the Flockton and the High Hazels; coke ovens and a by-products plant; railway sidings worked by the colliery's own locomotives.

Closure

Coal production ceased in 1948; the colliery was kept as a pumping station for the interconnected workings, and the Parkgate and Thorncliffe workings were abandoned in October 1950. The coke ovens closed in 1962.

What remains

Many of the colliery buildings survive as part of an industrial estate.

Colliery buildings reused as an industrial estate.

Redevelopment

Industrial estate.

Recorded claims

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

• The first shaft was sunk in the 1860s, when the colliery was owned by Skinner and Holford. ^1,2
• In 1947 the colliery and its by-products plant passed to the National Coal Board, and the colliery closed the following year; it was kept as a pumping station. ²
• The Flockton pit employed 930 people in 1940; in 1954 the colliery had 28 men as a pumping station. ¹
• In November 1924 three men were suffocated by natural gases in the Flockton seam. ¹
• The coke ovens and by-products plant closed in 1962, and many of the colliery buildings now form part of an industrial estate. ²
• The Waleswood Parkgate and Thorncliffe workings were abandoned on 1 October 1950. ³

Sources

1. (primary) Durham Mining Museum: Waleswood Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) Waleswood Colliery — Wikipedia
3. (primary) BGS mine plans: Waleswood, Parkgate seam, abandoned 1 October 1950 — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority

Record created: 17 October 2026 · Last researched: 17 October 2026