The National Coal Mining Museum for England is based at the site of

Caphouse Colliery Caphouse Colliery, originally known as Overton Colliery, was a coal mine in Overton, near Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. It was situated on the Denby Grange estate owned by the Lister Kaye family, and was worked from the 18th century until ...

Overton, Wakefield, West Yorkshire Overton is a village between Wakefield and Huddersfield in West Yorkshire, England. The village is situated approximately south-west of Wakefield, south of Ossett, west of Netherton and 4 miles south-west of Horbury. Overton is conjoined at ...

, England. It opened in 1988 as the Yorkshire Mining Museum and was granted national status in 1995.

History

Caphouse Colliery was sunk in the 1770s or 1780s and the Hope Pit in the 1820s. Sir John Lister Kaye of Denby Grange took over James Milnes' leases the mineral rights in 1827 and his pits became the Denby Grange Colliery. The boiler house and stone and brick chimney at the museum are Grade II listed structures built around 1876 for Emma Lister Kaye along with the steam winding engine house, boiler yard, heapstead and ventilation shaft which are Grade II* listed. The boiler house has two

Lancashire boiler A shell or flued boiler is an early and relatively simple form of boiler used to make steam, usually for the purpose of driving a steam engine. The design marked a transitional stage in boiler development, between the early haystack boilers and t ...

s and powered the winding engine. The timber headgear at Caphouse and the wood framed screens building at Hope Pit date from between 1905 and 1911. Pithead baths and an administration block were built between 1937 and 1938. Lockwood and Elliott who owned Shuttle Eye Colliery had acquired the colliery by 1942. The colliery was nationalised in 1947 and a drift mine opened in 1974. The colliery closed in 1985. The Yorkshire Mining Museum opened in 1988 and the museum became the National Coal Mining Museum in 1995.In October 2022 the museum staff voted to strike over a below inflation pay offer.

Museum

The museum offers guided underground tours where visitors can experience the conditions miners worked in and see the tools and machines they used as the industry and the mine developed through the years. Above ground, the museum sits on a semi-rural site, with over a dozen galleries documenting the

social Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not. Etymology The word "social" derives from ...

and

industrial history The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going fr ...

of the mines. The extensive library and archive contains a first edition of De re Metallica, as well as issues of "Coal News" and details of collieries throughout England. There are numerous other original features on site, including the pit head baths, steam winding house, boiler house and coal screening plant. The site maintains an operating paddy train connecting the main Caphouse hub to the Hope Pit area of the site, where a natural Water Treatment facility with reed beds and bird hides is operated in partnership with the

Coal Authority The Coal Authority is a non-departmental public body of the United Kingdom government sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS). On behalf of the country, it owns the vast majority of unworked coal in Great Brit ...

. There is also an interpretive nature trail connecting the wooded valley area of the site. The museum has had many developments in recent years. The Miners Memorial Garden was opened in 2015, and a large mining-themed adventure playground was built in 2017. Significant improvements to the visitor welcome hub, which contains the museum's retail, education, catering and conferencing facilities were made from 2018 onwards owing to funding from the

National Lottery Heritage Fund The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were ...

. Since the early 1990s, the museum has hosted pit ponies and other horses with links to the Coal Mining industry. A new interactive Pony Discovery Centre was opened in 2021 replacing the older stables block sited in the Boiler Yard. The museum is an Anchor Point of ERIH, the

European Route of Industrial Heritage The European Route of Industrial Heritage (ERIH) is a tourist route of the most important industrial heritage sites in Europe. This is a tourism industry information initiative to present a network of industrial heritage sites across Europe. The a ...

. The museum held the exhibition 'My Mining Days' for mining artist Tom Lamb in 2008–2009.

Location

The museum is situated on the A642, in Overton near Middlestown between

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 99,251 in the 2011 census.https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/census/2011/ks101ew Census 2011 table KS101EW Usual resident population, ...

and

Huddersfield Huddersfield is a market town in the Kirklees district in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confluence into ...

. It is signposted from the

M1 motorway The M1 motorway connects London to Leeds, where it joins the A1(M) near Aberford, to connect to Newcastle. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK; the first motorway in the country was the Preston By-pass, which lat ...

. It can be reached by car or public transport. The museum features regularly on television programmes, especially those with a focus on genealogy and mining culture.

References

Footnotes Bibliography *

External links

National Coal Mining Museum

BBC photographs
{{authority control Museums established in 1988 Coal mines in England Underground mines in England European Route of Industrial Heritage Anchor Points Museums sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Mining museums in England Tourist attractions in the City of Wakefield Museums in West Yorkshire Mining in West Yorkshire Coal mining in the United Kingdom 1988 establishments in England Coal museums

History

Museum

Location

See also

References

External links