YORKSHIRE MAIN COLLIERY

The pit bottom area at yorkshire main was a complex system of roadways, made more complicated due to the fact of having two pit bottoms, within an area of a few hundred meters there where roadways going of to the north ,east, south, and west as well has several steep drifts connecting the different districts to the pit bottom, there where also underground offices, box hole , pick room etc and a massive hole in the ground called the staple pit, this was an underground storage area for all the coal produced on the districts, the coal was fed in through the top on a conveyer belt and then on a belt at the bottom to the number two shaft for transfer to the surface. see picture below of the plan of the pit bottom area . DC is the downcast shaft and UC the up cast shaft 

 

      

 

 

One of the first districts I worked on was D20s in the east dunsil seam.

This was an old area of the mine which had been re-opened up in the 80s to form a new coal face, I can clearly remember the deputy telling us we were turning the coal face to avoid a large structure on the surface, from the pictures below it can be seen that this was the M18 roundabout which joins the A1 near to Wadworth, the coal face was 1 and a half miles from the pit bottom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another district which had a large structure underneath was X04s in the swallow wood seam, the coal face started directly underneath Edlington comprehensive school and swimming baths and continued under the hill top school, see picture below. The BH numbers on the photographs are surface bore holes which were drilled down from the surface to find the coal seam.

 

  

 

 

Of the older districts at yorkshire main, 7s was the furthest away from the pit bottom, this was an old piller and stall type face and was three and a half miles from the pit bottom, it borderd the parish of Tickhill and also the workings of Maltby colliery and has can clearly be seen the two workings become one, it was a rumour that there was a junction between Maltby colliery and Yorkshire Main, it was made in the second world war as a means of escape if the shafts were bombed at either pit, this was never confirmed or denied at my time at the pit but it looks very much as though it could be true looking at the photo below.

 

 

 

Other districts which I personally worked on where X22s in the swallow wood seam, this was the end of the swallow wood workings in the south and went right up to the Parish of Braithwell, a very long walk if you missed the paddy train, it was two and a half miles from the pit bottom, also in the picture are the coal faces of X30s and X08s both 3 miles from the pit bottom.

 

 

 

 

 

Of the other districts I worked on B45s in the Barnsley seam was the furthest from the pit bottom at three and a half miles, as can be seen in the picture it almost went into the workings of Rossington colliery. This was a hell of a walk if you missed the paddy train, just before you got to the coal face at about three miles you hit a 1 in 5 drift, a tough climb in hot conditions, see picture below.