YORKSHIRE MAIN COLLIERY

ARMTHORPE OPEN DAY 1975

The following article is taken from a souvenir programme that was produced to mark the family day at Markham Main, Armthorpe to celebrate 50 years of production at the colliery in 1975.

It gives me great pleasure to welcome you all to the colliery on our family day to celebrate 50 years of successful working. I am sure the management and unions join me in hoping you will have an enjoyable and informative day. Every effort has been made to provide something of interest for all ages and I wish to add my personal thanks to all who have been involved in the preparation for the day .We look forward with confidence to the next 50 years!

Tom Gibson, Colliery General Manager.

ACTIVITIES AND AMENITIES

1.2.3. Mining Machinery and safety exhibition.

4. Fun fair

5. Childrens corner

6. Photographic exhibition

7. Films

8. First aid demonstration

9. Fire fighting

10. Heavy mining machinery exhibition

11. Mock face

Besides the surface exhibition there was also underground visits to the pit bottom area and also to 39s face, see the routes taken below.

Below is a picture of the stock yard, the caption reads "Every day at Markham main mining machinery and plant ranging from nuts and bolts to six leg roof supports costing as much as a morris marina goes down the shafts".

The shafts reached a depth of 746 yards and the Barnsley seam just above that level was extensively worked, the first coal coming out in 1925. This seam has been the sole source of output at the colliery, apart from a period from 1954 when the Dunsil was worked. Exploratory work has been carried out in the Melton Field seam but faults and seam deterioration in the one proving face made further working a poor proposition.

Constantly modernising, partial reconstruction schemes completed in the early 60's included:

Improvements in under ground and surface coal tranportation systems.

The deepening of the shaft to the Park Gate seam.

Driving a large intake drift to transport coal and men from the south east area of the colliery take where production is now concentrated.

Installing skip winding in No. 1 shaft (coal is tipped into large hoppers located in the shaft which are continuously hauled to the surface, cutting out the need to wind individual mine cars to the surface).

Coalface operations are fully mechanised from the three faces worked in the Barnsley seam. Three shift working on each face means a continuous coal getting operation is maintained.

The latest in coal mining machinery techniques are used in the 7' 3" section of seam worked.

Huge coal cutting machines travel the 250 yards long faces taking off slices of coal and loading onto conveyors. To provide a safe working area, a line of powered roof supports forms a protective canopy of steel for the men working underneath. Each roof support advances at the touch of a lever everytime the coal face machine passes on another run. All this is a far cry from the collieries early days when the coal was undercut, fired by explosives and hand filled onto conveyors.

From the coalface the freshly cut coal is transferred to the conveyor in the roadway for the transportation to the pit bottom bunker and the whisked to the surface in six-ton capacity skips.

Once at the surface the coal is prepared for its main market, the power stations in Yorkshire and the Midlands.

But mining isn't all machines, it's men too! and Markham Main employs 1470 men to produce over 700,000 tons a year for the nation's energy kitty.

FACTS AND FIGURES FOR THE COLLIERY

1. Underground roadways total 38 miles

2. For every ton of coal produced at the mine 35 gallons of water are pumped from the workings.

3. Total lenth of conveyor belting is 12 miles.

4. Man riding trains travel more than 30 miles each day.

5. Deepest shaft is 945 yards.

6. Workable reserves are 64 million tons.

7. There are 3 coal faces currently working.

8. It costs 450,000 pounds to equip a coal face at Markham main.