YORKSHIRE MAIN COLLIERY

The two shafts 905 yards deep ,were sunk to the barnsley seam in 1909 and the colliery began producing coal in 1911. Originally the pit was called Edlington Main but this was later changed to Yorkshire Main.

The two shafts were found to be in a heavily faulted area and the pit bottom ended up being below the level of the major reserves of coal in the Barnsley seam,  this was corrected in later years (around 1947) by making a new pit bottom some 60 yards above.

In 1922 the colliery owners also decided to provide the village with an open air swimming baths, the baths can clearly be seen in the picture below.

The original method of working at Yorkshire Main was by longwall faces divided into tub stalls, the coal being hand filled by miners using pick and shovel and loading into tubs on the coal face.  In 1933 this system was thankfully replaced by a more modern method at the time, of  longwall advancing faces.  One of these faces was 10s unit in the south eastern area of the pit, the length of the coal face was 440 yards and the thickness of the Barnsley Seam 5ft 6", the face used a three shift system, on the first shift the coal was pre-cut by machine and shots fired to loosen the coal,  on the second shift the coal was loaded by men using shovels and picks onto the face conveyors and on the third shift the conveyors moved forward, packs put on and steel props withdrawn and re-set, the cycle then started again with the cutting and shot firing shift.  The conveyors on the coal face were driven by compressed air and the gate conveyor driven by electricty. 

LOADER GATE ON 10s

COALFACE ON 10s 

   This was also the district that the Duke of Edinburgh visited on his trip to the colliery in 1953.

The picture below shows the yorkshire main mine rescue team in 1920, they were based at the Doncaster rescue station which served all of the yorkshire mines.