Wath Main Colliery was a coal mine situated in the

Dearne Valley The Dearne Valley is an area of South Yorkshire, England, along the River Dearne. It encompasses the towns of Wombwell, Wath-upon-Dearne, Swinton, Conisbrough and Mexborough, the large villages of Ardsley, Bolton on Dearne, Goldthorpe, T ...

, close by the township of

Wath-upon-Dearne Wath upon Dearne (shortened to Wath or often hyphenated) is a town south of the River Dearne in the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England, north of Rotherham and almost midway between Barnsley and Doncaster. It had a po ...

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a ceremonial and metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of Doncaster and Sheffield as well as the boroughs of Barnsley and Rotherham. In N ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The colliery was operated by the Wath Main Coal Company Limited. Sinking of the first of its two shafts began in 1873, the workings reaching the highly prized

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 ...

three years later. To gain access to lower reserves the shafts were deepened, first in 1912 to reach 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 ...

and then, in 1923, to 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 ...

. The colliery 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 ...

on nationalization in 1947 and it was amalgamated, along with other local collieries, with the adjacent

Manvers Main Colliery Manvers Main Colliery was a coal mine, sunk on land belonging to the Earl Manvers on the northern edge of Wath-upon-Dearne, between that town and Mexborough in the Dearne Valley, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. The regional headquar ...

on 1 January 1986. Closure came on 25 March 1988. The site has been reclaimed and now contains

Wath Country Park Wath may refer to: Places in England * Wath, Cumbria, a U.K. location * Wath (near Ripon), a village in Harrogate district, North Yorkshire * Wath, Ryedale, a village in North Yorkshire * Wath-in-Nidderdale, a village near Pateley Bridge in Ha ...

, which in May 2007 was sold off to developers to form a new housing development.Reports of RiDO, Rotherham Investment and Development Office The park lasted just 10 years.

References

{{coord, 53.513, -1.341, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Coal mines in Rotherham Wath upon Dearne Underground mines in England