Yorkshire Main Colliery

Overview

A Doncaster-area colliery sunk from 1909 as 'Edlington Main' for Staveley Coal & Iron, renamed Yorkshire Main within its first year and pushed to a record million-ton output before the 1984-85 strike hastened its 1985 closure.

History

The Staveley Coal & Iron Co. Ltd, which already owned a number of collieries in Derbyshire, acquired the mineral rights around Edlington in 1907 and began sinking two 6.6-metre-diameter shafts in 1909, along with a third, smaller shaft for water supply, under the working name 'Edlington Main'. The Barnsley seam was reached at 829 metres in 1911, and that September the colliery was renamed 'Yorkshire Main'. Full coal-getting operations began in 1913, when a dedicated operating company, Yorkshire Main Colliery Ltd, was formed to run the pit; ownership passed to Doncaster Amalgamated Collieries Ltd in 1937. The underground workforce grew rapidly, from 1,449 in 1914 to 3,178 by 1925. The colliery first produced a million tons of coal in 1923 and reached a record output of 1,138,512 tons in 1939, drawing coal from the Barnsley, Dunsil (from 1957) and Swallow Wood (from the early 1970s) seams. Modernisation ran through the mid-20th century: conveyors replaced tub haulage from 1933, followed by diesel locomotives, electric winding equipment, power loading from 1954 and a methane drainage system from 1962. Yorkshire Main was nationalised into the National Coal Board in 1947. By the mid-1980s the colliery was losing money, and in the months following the 1984-85 miners' strike it struggled to raise output back to viable levels. The NCB closed Yorkshire Main on Friday 11 October 1985, and the pit top was demolished in 1987; the site was later redeveloped for housing.

Workings

Two 6.6-metre shafts sunk from 1909, reaching the Barnsley seam at 829 metres in 1911, later also drawing coal from the Dunsil (from 1957) and Swallow Wood (from the early 1970s) seams.

Closure

Closed by the NCB on 11 October 1985, following financial difficulties worsened by the 1984-85 miners' strike; the pit top was demolished in 1987.

What remains

The former colliery site has been redeveloped for housing.

No specific surviving colliery structures were established from the sources checked for this pass.

Abandoned workings can be dangerous — unstable ground, uncapped shafts, flooding and bad air are common even where a site looks safe from the surface. This entry describes history and general location only; it is not an access guide.

Recorded claims

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

• Staveley Coal & Iron Co. Ltd began sinking two 6.6-metre-diameter shafts in 1909, reaching the Barnsley seam at 829 metres in 1911. ^1,2
• The colliery opened in 1913 as 'Edlington Main' and was renamed 'Yorkshire Main' in September 1911 (during sinking, before full opening). ¹
• The colliery achieved a record output of 1,138,512 tons of coal in 1939. ¹
• The NCB closed Yorkshire Main on Friday 11 October 1985, following financial difficulties worsened by the 1984-85 miners' strike; the pit top was demolished in 1987. ¹

Sources

1. (secondary) Yorkshire Main Colliery — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (secondary) Yorkshire Main Colliery — Wikipedia

Record created: 27 August 2026 · Last researched: 27 August 2026