Hatfield Colliery, also known as Hatfield Main Colliery, was a
colliery
Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...
in the
South Yorkshire Coalfield
The South Yorkshire Coalfield is so named from its position within Yorkshire. It covers most of South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and a small part of North Yorkshire. The exposed coalfield outcrops in the Pennine foothills and dips under Permian ro ...
, mining the
High Hazel coal seam. The colliery was around northwest of
Hatfield, South Yorkshire
Hatfield is a town and civil parish in the City of Doncaster in South Yorkshire, England. It had a population of 17,236 at the 2011 Census. The town is located on the A18 road between Doncaster and Scunthorpe, and to the west of the M18 motor ...
, adjacent north of the railway line from Doncaster to Scunthorpe (former
South Yorkshire Railway
The South Yorkshire Railway was a railway company with lines in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England.
Initially promoted as the South Yorkshire Coal Railway in 1845, the railway was enabled by an act of 1847 as the South Yorkshire Doncaster and ...
, or ''Barnsley to Barnetby Line'') northeast of
Hatfield and Stainforth railway station.
The colliery opened in 1916. The pit was stopped in 2001, and restarted 2007; the mine passed through a number of different owners in the early part of the 21st century, with subsequent operators entering receivership. During the same period the site was proposed as the location for high-technology coal burning power stations schemes which did not proceed.
In 2013 the major Doncaster-Thorne railway line which connected South Yorkshire to the Humber ports and Scunthorpe was blocked by a
landslip
Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of environments, ...
at the colliery spoil for around 6 months.
From late 2013 the mine was employee owned by the 'Hatfield Colliery Partnership Limited'. Due to lack of demand for coal products the colliery shut down at the end of June 2015.
History
1910–2001
In December 1910 the Hatfield Main Colliery Company was formed by Emerson Bainbridge. On 11 September 1916 the first main shaft was completed, followed on 1 April 1917 by the second shaft. The pit exploited coal from the
High Hazel coal seam (see
Coal Seams of the South Yorkshire Coalfield
The coal seams worked in the South Yorkshire Coalfield lie mainly in the middle coal measures within what is now formally referred to as the Pennine Coal Measures Group. These are a series of mudstones, shales, sandstones, and coal seams laid do ...
).
In January 1927 it was bought by the Carlton Main Colliery Company. In January 1947 it became part of the
National Coal Board
The National Coal Board (NCB) was the statutory corporation created to run the nationalised coal mining industry in the United Kingdom. Set up under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946, it took over the United Kingdom's collieries on "v ...
. In 1967 the Hatfield and
Thorne collieries were merged, becoming separate again in February 1978. They were merged again on 1 February 1986. On 18 November 1993, a time of many pit closures, it was announced the combined pit would close, which took place on 3 December 1993, when under ownership of
British Coal
The British Coal Corporation was a nationalised corporation responsible for the mining of coal in the United Kingdom from 1987 until it was effectively dissolved in 1997. The corporation was created by renaming its predecessor, the National Co ...
.
On 4 January 1994, a team from the pit's management announced they wanted to re-open the pit, forming Hatfield Coal Company Ltd on 25 January 1994. The first coal was dug on 7 July 1994. In its first year of operation the company made a profit of £2.4 million.
On 9 August 2001 the pit closed, resulting in the loss of 223 jobs; the site was
mothballed with funding from the
Department of Trade and Industry.
2001–2015
In October 2001,
Richard Budge
Richard John Budge (19 April 1947 – 18 July 2016) was a coal mining entrepreneur and chairman of The Coal Industry Social Welfare Organisations.
Early life
He went to Boston Grammar School in Lincolnshire. He studied Fine Arts at the University ...
, former owner of
RJB Mining RJB may refer to:
* Radio Bernese Jura
* Rajbiraj Airport, Nepal, IATA airport code
* Ring junger Bünde
* rj basket schools edit by ew
{{disambig ...
, took control of the pit, under ownership of the company Coalpower Ltd.
In 2003 Coalpower published plans for a 450 MW power station at the site. In late 2003 Coalpower went into administration, in part due to geological problems at the coal face affecting production.
The pit closed in early 2004.
In 2006 Richard Budge restarted the colliery, and started planning for a
carbon capture and storage
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) or carbon capture and sequestration is the process of capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) before it enters the atmosphere, transporting it, and storing it (carbon sequestration) for centuries or millennia. Usually th ...
(CCS) coal burning powerstation at the site, via company Powerfuel. Russian coal company
Kuzbassrazrezugol (KRU) acquired a 51% stake in
Powerfuel. Coal production at the pit was restarted, producing coal in 2007; with production made economically viable through a doubling in the price of coal between 2004 and 2008. The CCS project was approved to receive £180 million of EU funding in 2009. The CCS project failed to obtain enough investment to proceed. In 2010 Powerfuel entered administration, in part due to coal production problems.
![Hatfield - Colliery from station footbridge (geograph 4017674)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f3/Hatfield_-_Colliery_from_station_footbridge_%28geograph_4017674%29.jpg)
In 2011 ''2Co Energy Ltd.'' (via holding ''Entero BV'', backed by
ING Bank
The ING Group ( nl, ING Groep) is a Dutch multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered in Amsterdam. Its primary businesses are retail banking, direct banking, commercial banking, investment banking, wholesale bankin ...
) acquired the company, and announced it would continue and rename the CCS project as ''Don Valley Power Project''. The colliery was then managed under contract by ''Hargreaves Services plc''.
In 2013 70 of approximately 700 employees were made redundant after a return to a three shift pattern due to production issues.
In December 2013 the employee controlled company ''Hatfield Colliery Partnership Limited'' (HCPL) purchased the mine from ING Bank.
In late 2014 the
National Union of Mineworkers provided the pit with a £4 million bridging loan whilst the pit move production to a new pit face.
In June 2015 the colliery ceased production, unable to sell its coal due to increases in the UK
carbon tax
A carbon tax is a tax levied on the carbon emissions required to produce goods and services. Carbon taxes are intended to make visible the "hidden" social costs of carbon emissions, which are otherwise felt only in indirect ways like more sev ...
.
Hatfield landslip
![Landslip at Hatfield Colliery (1) (geograph 3333836) cropped](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Landslip_at_Hatfield_Colliery_%281%29_%28geograph_3333836%29_cropped.jpg)
In February 2013, a
landslide
Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated grade (slope), slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of ...
occurred on a
spoil tip
A spoil tip (also called a boney pile, culm bank, gob pile, waste tip or bing) is a pile built of accumulated ''spoil'' – waste material removed during mining. These waste materials are typically composed of shale, as well as smaller quant ...
used by the colliery. The landslide displaced and blocked the main railway line (''Barnsley to Barnetby'', or ''Doncaster to Thorne Line'', formerly the
South Yorkshire Railway
The South Yorkshire Railway was a railway company with lines in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England.
Initially promoted as the South Yorkshire Coal Railway in 1845, the railway was enabled by an act of 1847 as the South Yorkshire Doncaster and ...
) north-east of
Hatfield and Stainforth railway station.
The closure affected rail services between
Doncaster
Doncaster (, ) is a city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, it is the administrative centre of the larger City of Doncaster. It is the second largest settlement in South Yorkshire after Sheffield. Doncaster is situated in ...
and
Goole
Goole is a port town and civil parish on the River Ouse in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The town's historic county is the West Riding of Yorkshire.
According to the 2011 UK census, Goole parish had a population of 19,518, an increa ...
(to
Hull) and
Scunthorpe
Scunthorpe () is an industrial town and unparished area in the unitary authority of North Lincolnshire in Lincolnshire, England of which it is the main administrative centre. Scunthorpe had an estimated total population of 82,334 in 2016. A pre ...
(to
Cleethorpes
Cleethorpes () is a seaside town on the estuary of the Humber in North East Lincolnshire, England with a population of 38,372 in 2020. It has been permanently occupied since the 6th century, with fishing as its original industry, then develo ...
).
The route is also a major freight line, with around 20% of UK rail freight using the section,
and freight services had to be diverted over lines via
Brigg
Brigg ( /'brɪg/) is a market town in North Lincolnshire, England, with a population of 5,076 in the 2001 UK census, the population increased to 5,626 at the 2011 census. The town lies at the junction of the River Ancholme and east–west tra ...
and
Lincoln
Lincoln most commonly refers to:
* Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States
* Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England
* Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S.
* Lincol ...
.
The slipped material consisted of excavated
mudstone
Mudstone, a type of mudrock, is a fine-grained sedimentary rock whose original constituents were clays or muds. Mudstone is distinguished from '' shale'' by its lack of fissility (parallel layering).Blatt, H., and R.J. Tracy, 1996, ''Petrology. ...
waste enclosing a well of of multi-roll filter slurry, which has a moisture content of 40% and is produced during the process of washing and reclaiming
coal fines. The movement of the spoil displaced the four running lines, and a siding, approximately vertically and horizontally, over a distance of .
The recovery operation required the movement of around of material in total and the replacement of around of quadruple-track railway. The line reopened in early July 2013, with a return to a full timetable on 29 July. Movement of the colliery waste continued for several months after the reopening of the railway.
The slip was thought to have been caused by rainfall soaking the spoil heap, which was still being added to, allowing the heap to overcome the resistance of the surrounding loose natural soil lying over a
sandstone
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks.
Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...
base.
See also
*
Hatfield Main F.C.
*
Brassed Off
''Brassed Off'' is a 1996 British comedy-drama film written and directed by Mark Herman and starring Pete Postlethwaite, Tara Fitzgerald and Ewan McGregor.
The film is about the troubles faced by a colliery brass band, following the closure of ...
, 1996 film using the colliery as a location
*
Listed buildings in Stainforth, South Yorkshire
Stainforth, South Yorkshire, Stainforth is a civil parish in the metropolitan borough of Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. The parish contains 13 Listed building#England and Wales, listed buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage ...
References
Further information
*
External links
*
Hatfield Colliery Band
{{Electricity generation in Yorkshire and the Humber
Coal mines in Doncaster
Underground mines in England
Landslides in the United Kingdom
Landslides in 2013