Jump to content

Neepsend Colliery


ken wain

Recommended Posts

Hello everyone, Its Ken Wain. A very happy,healthy and prosperous New Year to you all!

Your'e probably wondering where iv'e been for the last nine months or so,suffice to say that I have had a few health issues that put a hold on my leisure time activities.Hopefully I can now catch up with a few things,  I hope iv'e been able to help with a few questions in the past and that someone may be able to help with a question off my own.

It may that I have been looking in the wrong places but  I don't seem to be able to find any reference to NEEPSEND COLLIERY.

A very good friend of mine told me that he lived in Neepsend as a child during the second world war years, and that when the air raid sirens signalled a bombing raid he vaguely remembers being taken into the entrance of the pit for safety,which means it was possibly a drift mine but I have been told by another person that it had a pit shaft. (Maybe Both ). He also said that the colliery was right beside Neepsend station. I would be very grateful for any information about the colliery. its owners, when it opened/closed, e.t.c.e.t.c.

Best wishes. KEN.:)

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think this is the one

G Longden & Son Ltd., Parkwood Rd., Neepsend, Sheffield

Wadsley Park mine

The hill’s ganister mine operated between 1936 and 1963, its 28 miners and a pit pony named Tommy extracting 200 tons of the silica rich hard rock and 40 tons of coal each week. The coal went down the hill to the power station and the ganister was processed into refractory linings for local furnaces. By 1954 this drift mine stretched half a mile into the hillside, capillaries reaching out within the mountain in search of this locally valuable rock. Stories abound of the miners accidentally driving their tunnels into the daylight of the railway embankment or the allotments, and then hastily filling the surface eruption before anyone noticed, like an errant mole, or a wayward escape committee. Upon closure of the mine, Tommy the pony, now blind after a lifetime underground, was put out to pasture on the hillside.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The kids of Parkwood once lifted a rock in the water filled quarry above the pit and all the water escaped, bet that gave them an early shower.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

From a booklet by Paul Hodkinson,

  In 1938 the Parkwood Ganister and Coal Mine opened, the mine is described in an article, ‘The City’s Most Central Pit is also a happy one’ The Star 1st April 1954.
The mine was a drift mine, the shaft being driven horizontally into the hillside instead of downwards. It was described as a happy pit, because of no falls, accidents, labour trouble or strikes. The Labour Force was 28 miners, 5 surface men and one pit pony ‘Tommy’. The mine produced about 200 tons of ganister and 40 tons of coal per week. On the surface were small pit head baths and a small canteen for miners. By 1954 the main road had been driven about half a mile into the hillside.
   Mr. Yates retired director of Messrs, Pickford, Holland and Company Ltd, who took over the mine in 1945, from Webster and Company, stated that it was not a drift mine, as the level dropped 1 in 10 to the east, and water flowed down to the face from where it had to be pumped out. The coal was sold to Neepsend Power Station until the power station’s local residents complained of sulphur fumes from it. The mine was closed in 1963 because it was uneconomic.
 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...