![Maltby colliery](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/Maltby_colliery.jpg)
The Maltby Main Colliery was a coal mine located east of
Rotherham
Rotherham () is a large minster and market town in South Yorkshire, England. The town takes its name from the River Rother which then merges with the River Don. The River Don then flows through the town centre. It is the main settlement of ...
on the eastern edge of
Maltby, South Yorkshire
Maltby is a former mining town and civil parish of 16,688 inhabitants (2011) in the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England. It was historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire. It is located about east of Rotherham town ce ...
, England. The mine was closed in 2013.
History
The first shafts at Maltby Main Colliery were sunk in 1910,
and the first coal produced in 1912, though not all faces were in production until 1914.
Situated in a wooded area on Tickhill Road the colliery was some distance from the township of Maltby and in order to gain a workforce the colliery company commissioned the building of
Maltby Model Village, an estate of 400 houses.
The colliery was opened by the Maltby Main Colliery Company, a subsidiary of the
Sheepbridge Iron and Coal Company.
Before nationalisation the owners were given as
Amalgamated Denaby Collieries Ltd.
An explosion in the pit occurred 28 July 1923, resulting in 27 deaths. A single unidentified body was recovered from the pit and buried in the local graveyard as ''The Unknown Miner''.
The two shafts were deepened in the ten years from 1951 and this allowed horizontal access to the
Barnsley seam
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 ...
. This also gave access to a new
Swallow Wood seam
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 d ...
. By 1969 the Barnsley seam was considered exhausted and production went over to Swallow Wood. In 1981 a major project commenced to mine the
Parkgate seam
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 seam
...
. Costing £18 million the first coal was brought to the surface just one year later.
The colliery was mass picketed during the
1984–1985 miners' strike during attempts by contractors to carry out building work at the pit.
The colliery was bought by
RJB Mining RJB may refer to:
* Radio Bernese Jura
* Rajbiraj Airport, Nepal, IATA airport code
* Ring junger Bünde
* rj basket schools edit by ew
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, later renamed
UK Coal
UK Coal Production Ltd, formerly UK Coal plc, was the largest coal mining business in the United Kingdom. The company was based in Harworth, in Nottinghamshire. The company was a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. The successor company that con ...
, in 1994.
Silverwood Colliery
Silverwood Colliery was a coal mining, colliery situated between Thrybergh and Ravenfield in Yorkshire, England. Originally called Dalton Main, it was renamed after a local woodland. It was owned by Dalton Main Collieries Ltd.
History
Dalton ...
, the adjacent mine, closed in 1994 but had good reserves which could be worked from Maltby. Uncertainties with contracts, notably with the electricity generators, production was stopped in 1997. The pit recommenced operations and coal was gained from both the Parkgate seam, which is estimated to be exhausted by 2014, and the
Silkstone seam
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 seam
...
, which will extend the life of the pit beyond that date.
In 2007 Maltby Colliery was sold by UK Coal to
Hargreaves Services plc Hargreaves is a surname, and may refer to:
* Aaron Hargreaves (born 1986), Canadian football player
* Adam Hargreaves (born 1963), British author of children's books & son of Roger Hargreaves
* Alberto Hargreaves, (born 1929) Portuguese architect ...
for £21.5 million, resulting in the continued employment of 500 people.
By the end of 1989, access to the reserves was gained by two shafts; No.2, deep and No.3, deep, with the capability of winding up to 1,500 tonnes of mineral an hour to the surface.
In May 2012 unusual and dangerous geological conditions (oil, water and gas ingress) were discovered in workings of the T125 block that was to be exploited in 2013, resulting in abandonment of the tailgate for that block (see
Longwall mining
Longwall mining is a form of underground coal mining where a long wall of coal is mined in a single slice (typically thick). The longwall panel (the block of coal that is being mined) is typically long (but can be upto long) and wide.
Histor ...
), and was expected to cause an gap in production of 1.5 to 3 months. In late 2012 the 540 employees were given redundancies notices, and the pit owner announced it was to mothball the colliery due to dangerous underground conditions. On December 2012 Hargeaves announced that the colliery was to close due to the geological problems.
The mine was closed in 2013, and the above ground structures demolished in 2014.
See also
*
List of Yorkshire Pits
*
South Yorkshire Joint Railway
The South Yorkshire Joint Railway was a committee formed in 1903, between the Great Central Railway, the Great Northern Railway, the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, the Midland Railway and the North Eastern Railway to oversee the constructio ...
, rail connection for the colliery
References
Sources
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External links
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{{Coord, 53.426, -1.172, display=title
Coal mines in Rotherham
Coal mines in South Yorkshire
Underground mines in England
Maltby, South Yorkshire