How and why it started – Selby Superpit

Ron Bruce’s memories of acquiring the land

I have been in contact with Ron Bruce, who was part of the Selby Executive Committee. Ron worked in Estates as part of the committee and was in charge of the land acquisition for the Selby Coalfield Project. Below are some of his memories.

“Before the Selby Coalfield was planned boreholes had to be drilled to find out if the coal seams in this area were of sufficient quality and quantity to start the project. Access to land and the rights to use the land were needed to site the drilling rigs.

The geologists and mining engineers at the North Yorkshire N.C.B. Headquarters always thought that the Barnsley seam was available to the east of the existing coalfield and they were right. When Kellingley Colliery was planned to the East of the existing coalfield in the 1950s, a test boring program for the new mine proved that the Barnsley seam, also known as the Warren House was a workable seam.

Kellingley Colliery never worked the seam as the pit was sunk to work the Silkstone and Beeston seams. Five further boreholes were drilled in the Selby area in the 1960s which proved the existence of the Barnsley seam and the prospects of a new coalfield.

The No.1 Cawood borehole was drilled as part of the Selby Coalfield project in late 1972. This was situated on Ryther Road at Cawood. The contractors for this hole were Cementation Exploration Limited. The small piece of land needed to site the drill rig was 1/5 acre and this land was rented for three months from the farmer, with compensation for crops lasting twelve months. The soil on the site was moved out of the way to create hard standing for the drill rig. When drilling was completed the site was restored back to farm land using the displaced soil. The core sample data was analysed and the results were confirmed on 22 December which proved the Barnsley seam was 10ft 3 inches. A very good start to the project.

Ezra, D. (1976) Coal: Technology for Britain’s future. London: Macmillan (page 99)

Bill Forrest, deputy director (mining) of the North Yorkshire Area of the N.C.B. was in charge of the Selby project. He decided a strategic team was to be created to manage all aspects of the project and was to include Mine Planners, Mining Engineers and Estates. The team was called the Selby Executive Committee. The first job to be carried out was a huge programme of 84 surface boreholes to prove the extent of the seams available for mining. The contractor who carried out this specialist drilling program was Foraky Limited.

During the boring programme all the land acquisitions and temporary borehole sites were through negotiations with the relevant parties. Fortunately the estates team had sufficient site flexibility to proceed on the basis of negotiations without recourse to any time consuming legal procedures.

During the early stages of the borehole drilling program at Selby a major incident happened at Lofthouse Colliery, near Wakefield, West Yorkshire, which needed the help of the Selby Executive Team. On the 21st March 1973 an inrush of water from old mine workings happened on South 9B coal face at Lofthouse Colliery. Rescue teams arrived from all over the area to commence rescue operations. Alongside the underground operations a plan was devised to drill a rescue borehole from the surface into the area where the men were situated. A drill rig was needed urgently to carry out the work. The nearest drilling rig and team was at Sherburn in Elmet sinking an exploratory borehole very near to the future site of Gascoigne Wood, one of the new Selby mines. Under the supervision of the Selby Coalfield Executive Team the drilling team withdrew the drill and made the rig ready for transport. Access to the land adjacent to Batley Road at Kirkhamgate near the Lofthouse rescue borehole and to the borehole site itself was acquired through the landowner very quickly and a hard standing area was created under the supervision of Ron Bruce (Estates) from the Selby Executive Team. The drilling rig and team were transferred and were ready for drilling within 14 hours of the inrush. Sadly the rescue operations were in vain due to the extremely dangerous conditions underground and a further inrush being imminent. The borehole was abandoned 200 feet from completion.

Below is the memorial in remembrance to the seven men lost in the Lofthouse Disaster on 21st March 1973. It is very near to the rescue borehole site at the junction of Wrenthorpe Lane and Batley Road.

The mine sites land acquisitions.

When the 1975 Public Inquiry was completed and planning permission was granted in April 1976 the job of acquiring the sites for the mines began.

Gascoigne Wood site was acquired partly from British Rail (the former marshalling yard site) and partly from a local farmer and was initially 164 acres. Further areas were acquired from this farmer when the coal preparation plant was installed lagoon and tipping areas were required.

Wistow site was acquired from a local farmer and fortunately it was on the market at the time. It was the smallest mine site in the coalfield at only 29 acres.

Stillingfleet site was acquired from Escrick Park Estates together with land required for access and improvements to the highway connection to the A19. The site position meant building a new two lane road from the mine site to the Cawood Road junction. The site was 63 acres.

The 100 acre North Selby site was acquired from a local farmer and the whole farm was purchased since the land remaining was not a viable undertaking. The farmer was able to purchase a new farm to the east outside the coalfield area. Land for the two lane access roadway to this site, which was over a mile in length, was acquired from Escrick Park Estates. In addition at North Selby a racehorse stud complex at Chequer Hall was acquired because of possible noise problems during blasting and drilling operations in the development stages. This area together with the balance of the farm land acquired with the shaft site were granted on tenancy to an existing British Coal farm tenant who gave up his tenancy on a small farm at Cleckheaton and moved to Escrick with his Shire Horses. When completed the North Selby Mine was 80 acres.

Riccall and Whitemoor sites were both acquired from a local farmer under a single purchase and he was able to acquire land to the east outside the coalfield area. Riccall Mine site was 64 acres and Whitemoor Mine site was 67 acres.

During the development of the early underground tunnels of the Selby Mines, Selby District Council decided to charge the N.C.B. rates for the mine roadway development phase due to the coal being extracted during tunnelling. The N.C.B. appealed these rates as the coal was part of the development. This issue was taken to a Lands Tribunal in London and was resolved in favour of the N.C.B.

It’s always good to speak with experts who contributed greatly to this amazing project and my sincere thanks go to Ron Bruce who contributed the information in this post. Without people like Ron being happy to speak with me, these memories would be lost forever.

The Public Inquiry April to June 1975.

A public inquiry allows everyone with anything to say, a forum in which to say it. And there was certainly a lot of people with a lot to say about the plans for the Selby Coalfield. Some were in favour, some were against, and likely, many were undecided.

Some described the plans as the ‘rape of our countryside’, others thought ‘a coalmine will be a goldmine’. Anyway, no matter the side, the 2 April 1975 was when it all began in the Museum Hall on Park Lane, Selby, attracting a great deal of interest from the public. (Ezra, 1976, p114)

An office was rented, which was the N.C.B. public information centre on Finkle Street, Selby. Anyone who had any question about the project could raise issues or get answers to questions raised about the project.

There were representatives at the inquiry from the NCB, from North Yorkshire County Council, Selby District Council, Yorkshire Water Authority, British Railways, The National Farmers Union etc. etc. Each group had its own concerns, the water authority was worried about drainage and potential flooding for instance, and there was a massive concern generally about subsidence.

Mr Eric Orchard, a world expert on subsidence explained that in the past there had been little thought given to the potential damage caused by subsidence; houses had collapsed and fields had flooded. Today though was very different, coal miners were more informed and the whole process was much more scientific. Orchard went on the explain the methods that would be used to control the effects of subsidence and reassured the inquiry that there would be very little damage. Any repairs would be minimal and the NCB would pay for them.

Orchard’s reassurance went so far but didn’t 100% calm the worry around all the medieval churches and historic buildings. However, the NCB with its duty of care to these buildings, believed that the systems planned for mining the coal would protect the churches and similar important buildings.

But what about Selby Abbey? The risk was too great. An architect looked into the details of the Abbey’s foundations and found that any changes in the water table levels (something that could happen with mining) would threaten the structure of the Abbey. The NCB agreed to leave a pillar of coal underneath the Abbey as support but the size of the pillar was under question too. Selby Council was worried about the sewers which could crack if subsidence occurred, they were also concerned about industrial buildings and schools and hospitals so they wanted a larger supporting pillar, not just underneath the Abbey but under the whole town.

A larger support, the NCB argued would lose them nearly £100 million in lost coal. so it was left to the Government to make the final decision on the size of the Selby pillar.

Local people, especially farmers, had their own worries, flooding being a top concern. One farmer thought that the NCB could turn ‘an agricultural area into a duckpond’. The NCB didn’t deny that there could be adverse effects but agreed to put right any damage and to pay compensation to those effected. (Ezra, 1976, p121)

There were ordinary home owners too who were concerned about damage to their properties. The NCB agreed that in the event of damage they would decide whether to repair or compensate but said that severe cases were unlikely.

There were more issues raised; naturalists were concerned about delicate ecosystems; residents were concerned about heavy lorry traffic; there were unpopular changes planned to reroute the railway line, the winding towers were going to be taller than expected and be a blot on the landscape, there were anxieties about massive migration of workers to the mines and the labour force depletion from other areas. All agreed that mining ‘ghettoes’ were to be avoided. Two village councils even refused to have a mine named after the local village hence Whitemoor Mine and North Selby Mines.

The inquiry lasted for thirty eight working days. The Secretary of State gave his permission on 1 April 1976, a year after the opening of the inquiry, and even though not everyone was pleased about it, there was a feeling that Selby should see the best in it and make it a successful venture. One of his conditions was that pillars of coal must be left under central Selby.

Ezra, D. (1976) Coal: Technology for Britain’s future. London: Macmillan.

Public Enquiry 1975: introduction

When the NCB started it’s drilling program in 1964 they began with a series of 5 boreholes at Kelfield, Whitemoor, Barlow, Cambleforth and Hemingbrough. When the core samples were analysed they found the Barnsley seam running from the West at Kelfield at over 2.44m thick to the East at Whitemoor at over 2.13m thick.

The Selby Coalfield core sample.

The N.C.B geologist said that in the Selby area the most important find is the Barnsley seam. The seam is widely worked in the Barnsley and Doncaster area and is 3 metres thick but splits into 2 seams called the Warren House and the inferior Low Barnsley seam towards Askern Colliery and beyond. In the Selby area the seam combines to a seam very similar to the one worked in Barnsley. The next phase was to prove the extent and quality of the seam so a drilling program was started in 1972. At the end of 1972 a core sample taken in Cawood showed the seam was over 3 metres thick. Further samples in the 110 square miles of the coalfield proved the seam was up to 3.4 metres thick. The true extent was discovered and 600 million tonnes of Barnsley coal was available in the Selby area. The next problem was how to mine it. The person in charge of the project was Mr Bill Forrest, deputy director of the North Yorkshire are of the N.C.B.

Selby is an attractive, unspoilt area of Yorkshire and very rural. Many farming villages reside in the area with little heavy industry. The two rivers, the Ouse and Wharf flow through the area, which is a very low lying area and prone to flooding. Subsidence was raised as a major worry which could cause cause further flooding problems. Many villages had very old pretty churches and the main one was Selby Abbey, a beautiful, Norman arched church.

Selby Abbey.

The industries found in the proposed coalfield were condensed around the town of Selby and consisted of RHM flour mill, BOCM Silcock animal feeds, a chemical plant, John and E. Sturge producing citric acid, a pickle and bacon factory and Cochrane’s shipbuilders, but the biggest business in the area was a very important business on a massive scale, the farming land.

The NCB quickly realised that opening a mine on this scale in such an area was going to be problematic and that coal mining could become the largest industry and employer in the area quite understandably raised fears among the local communities. For many people a major worry was the influx of hundreds if not thousands of miners and their families. Some local senior officials , who were against the mine even planned to show films and slides to show what mining communities were like, asking the question, “is this for you?” portraying miners as somehow different from the local community. This was a huge issue to be overcome.

Another major worry, especially in the farming communities was subsidence. Selby, as mentioned earlier has 2 rivers running through the area. The area, very much like the Doncaster coalfield has a huge system of drainage dikes due to the high water table in the area which can cause major flooding. Many local people remembered the floods of 1947 where the River Ouse over topped its banking system and flooded large areas, and even flooded the town of Selby. The local farming community had read many stories in farming magazines, about prize agricultural land being reduced to bog and marsh land especially by private mining companies who provided no payments for damage after mining . They quite rightly needed to know what was going to happen when the subsidence inevitably happened and what the payments for lost land were going to be. Farming and living near to the rivers was a particular worry. Subsidence damage to large industrial buildings was also raised and particularly the churches and Selby Abbey.

Many other fears were raised such as the size of the mine headgears, heavy construction traffic, and noise and dirt associated with such a massive project on the local villages. The NCB had a massive task to win over the local people and knew that developing a ten million tonne coal mine project could not be achieved without people being aware it was happening.

The NCB had an ace up their sleeve in the fact that energy prices had become very volatile. The event causing this major issue with energy prices in the country and the whole of the Western world was the Yom Kippur War. It was a similar situation to the Ukraine War when oil supply was cut back and prices rose very quickly. The west was hit with a huge hike in prices for oil imports, so the government looked at the vast reserves of coal in the UK. to replace the cheap imports of oil, used for generation of energy, as a replacement. The North Sea was proving a vast reserve of oil and gas but coal was seen as the fuel of the future of the power generation needs of the country. The Selby Coalfield was worth £250m (£3.3 bn in 2025) a year towards balancing the government books so became a priority.

In 1974 the plan for the Selby Coalfield was made with application for planning permission made clear. One drift mine and five satellite pits, to mine 29,00 hectares of the Barnsley Seam to be delivered to Drax power station via a dedicated rail link. The development of the mine sites was to be a separate issue to be discussed.

In 1973, decisions had been made about the NCBs approach to the local communities about the Selby project. Peter Walker, the Industry secretary and Derek Ezra, who was NCB Chairman, said Selby would be a clean mine and would not have the usual industrial mess associated with mining. Derek Ezra said Selby would be totally different to previous mining areas with different headgears, less pollution, no dirty coal preparation plants, traffic and railway sidings. These were very difficult aims to achieve, but they did show the NCB had set a very high bar for the project to be environmental friendly. These objectives proved to be more difficult than expected.

The NCB set about telling the communities about the environmentally friendly mine from day one. They felt that the people in the area should be made aware of what they were doing to ensure cooperation and information was forthcoming. Local groups were invited to meetings and fact finding sessions. People in the Selby area were provided with copies of the NCB Selby Newsletter, explaining how the Selby project was to work setting out its position and how the new miners and families would be “integrated not segregated” into communities.

The effect in some quarters was that the NCB was raising false hope, that the project was too good to be true and getting local approval for an environmentally friendly pit and then announcing a less palatable truth when the project started.

One of the major issues raised was the height of the headgears. The NCB in the early stages of the project said the winder towers would be unlike any other mines ever developed. They said that the use of winch gear instead of winders would allow the level of the towers to be as low as 40 feet or 12 metres, which would easily be hidden from view. The NCB revisited the calculations and realised that standard engineering of mine winders changed the height of the winder towers to 96 feet to allow for the 16 tonne loads required to be lifted and lowered in the shafts. These towers were still substantially lower than existing collieries and were still barely visible.

Some local people accused the NCB of not telling the entire truth about the project but some saw the mistakes as a part of trying to tell the local people what was happening as the planning process was progressing, including changes made along the way and changes made as the project evolved.

The NCB. looked at various options to mine the vast Selby reserves but once the environmental realisation was accepted the only way to mine the coal was the one drift mine and five satellite pits. This had been tried and tested, all be it on a smaller scale at the Longannet Mine in Scotland.

In 1973 and 1974 the Selby Mine project was very high on the list of the local community’s thoughts. Many different opinions about the project were expressed from comments of “Fighting tooth and nail against the rape of our countryside” to “a coalmine will be a gold mine”. The only way to have a fully rounded review of the Selby project was a public enquiry. The NCB had put in a planning application for the huge project which inevitably meant everyone had to have a say on the outcome of the project. Another option of a Planning Inquiry Commission could have been called by the government, but this was rejected in favour of a Selby Coalfield Public Enquiry.

Bibliography

Ezra, Derek (1976). Coal Technology for Britain’s Future. London: Macmillan.

Finding the Selby Coalfield.

The Yorkshire Coalfield in 1923

‘Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland’ CC-BY (NLS)

Mining engineers knew about the richness of the coal seams to the south and south west of Selby. The North Yorkshire area around Pontefract and Castleford had been heavily mined. This area was not developed for the Barnsley seam but for a series of seams ranging from the Stanley Main seam to the Beeston Seam. Test borings were started in 1954 and seven seams were found to be workable. The two most important seams were the Silkstone and the Beeston seams with the Winter, Warren House (closely allied to the South Yorkshire Barnsley seam), Haighmoor with the Stanley Main and Dunsil seams all workable. With this information a new colliery was planned, Kellingley Colliery, the first since 1927. As mentioned in The Doncaste r Co nnection the Doncaster Coalfield, South of Selby, was sunk between 1905 to the 1920s to work the Barnsley seam so a natural progression of this seam would be north towards Selby.
A drilling programme was started in 1964, running for 4 years at Barlow, Camblesforth, Hemingbrough, Whitemoor and Kelfield Ridge to prove the coal reserves and found that the Warren House and Low Barnsley seam, which splits north of Doncaster, merged to form the Barnsley seam, a continuous, high quality seam.
The N.C.B. re-started drilling in 1972 to confirm the extent of the Barnsley seam around Selby. Coal deposits were found at Cawood at 405 yards depth and were 10ft 3inch in section. With this information the N.C.B. started a combined systematic exploration of the area comprising 50 boreholes at 3 to 4 km apart and seismic surveys, a system of small underground explosion to ascertain coal seams and fault formations using shockwaves, to complete the research program. They found 2000 million tonnes of workable seams. The Barnsley seam comprised of a 600 million tonne area of high quality, low ash, low sulphur coal. The seam section was over 3 metres at 300 metres depth at the west to over 2 metres at 1100 metres at the East. The seam continued to the southern edge of York and to the River Derwent to the East.
These findings, along with the Plan for Coal 1974, started the process of the application for planning permission to North Yorkshire County Council on 7th August 1974 to mine the Barnsley seam in the Selby Coalfield.
Bibliography
Arnold, P. and Cole, I., 1981. The Development Of The Selby Coalfield. [Heslington, Yorkshire]: [Selby Research Project, Dept. of Social Administration and Social Work, University of York].

The 1974 Plan for Coal

The Plan for Coal and the Selby Project

Throughout the 1960s and early 1970s the reliance on cheap oil was accepted as one of the prime sources of energy for the U.K. The National Coal Board were vocal in criticising this rationale as the OPEC countries had made it quite obvious they were pressing on with a program of maximising revenue from the oil by increasing prices dramatically in the future. The N.C.B. were also questioning the long term viability of the Nuclear Industry due to excessive cost and uncertain technologies. The suggestions and plans were made by the N.C.B. for a long term strategy for the coal industry. The plan involved increasing coal production and replacing older working collieries with new, highly efficient mines. This plan was conceived due to the increase in efficiency and concentration on productivity from modern coal face design and increased mechanisation at existing collieries.
Over a three year period from June 1970 ‘the price of Saudi Arabian light crude oil rose 1.80 dollars a barrel to 11.65 dollars, representing an increase of 547 per cent’. (Arnold and Cole, 1981, p. 14). These prices were dramatic and were a direct side effect of the Yom Kip pur War in 1973. This war created serious problems for the UK by quadrupling oil prices, an increase of £2bn to the oil import costs. The government had already started on a massive North Sea oil exploration investment but a plan for the coal industry had to be formulated to create a flexible energy policy. This was called The Plan For Coal 1974 and the Selby Project was to be a substantial part of the plan.
The Plan for Coal was designed to sustain the output from British mines in the 1970s and to increase production during the 1980s. The target set by the N.C.B. in the 1970s was to produce 135 million tonnes of coal by 1985. The deep mines were to produce 120 million tonnes, with opencast mines to top up production by 15 million tonnes. This target had a built in replacement of old capacity and a creation of new capacity of 42 million tonnes. This was to be achieved by sinking new mines, reconstruction of long life collieries and extending short life collieries by finding new reserves. ‘The cost of this new future for coal was estimated at £1,510 million (at September 1973 prices) and a major share would be devoted to the proposed Selby Project’ (Arnold and Cole, 1981, p.15)

After the Plan for Coal 1974 became government policy it became obvious 10 million tonnes of the 20 million tonnes of new capacity was to be the Selby Project and the planning permission was to be submitted as soon as possible.
When the N.C.B.’s planning permission to the North Yorkshire County Council was submitted on 7th August 1974 the new mine had already been discussed by the local community. The scale and breadth of the planning permission surprised the local communities, councils, local committees and planning authorities and a public enquiry was the obvious outcome.
Bibliography
Arnold, P. and Cole, I., 1981. The Development Of The Selby Coalfield. [Heslington, Yorkshire]: [Selby Research Project, Dept. of Social Administration and Social Work, University of York].

The Doncaster Connection.

The Doncaster area was a coalfield seen as a huge financial risk for individual mining companies to undertake. One colliery, Hickleton Main, which had been sunk only a few miles to the west of the new coalfield was sunk in 1892 at a cost of £150,000, nearly £24m nowadays. The new, deeper coalmines, needed multiple investors to work together financially to spread the cost and risk before the next phase of development started at Bentley Colliery in March 1905 followed quickly by Brodsworth Main Colliery in October 1905, which was projected to cost £300,000, £46.5m at current rates. The new coalfield had been proven with test borings at various points around Doncaster, including one at Bentley in 1893 which proved the Barnsley seam was 2.75m thick and 562 metres in depth. In 1893, at Haxey, North Lincolnshire, a borehole just beyond the eastern boundary of the coalfield proved many workable seams with the Barnsley seam almost flat in incline.

The Doncaster Coalfield.

Map reproduced with kind permission of N.M.R.S. https://www.nmrs.org.uk/

The colleries sunk in this period were;

Bentley Colliery: Sinking started in March 1905 and was abandoned due to problems with water and flowing sand. It was restarted on 3rd March 1906. The shafts were completed in October 1908. The Barnsley seam was found at 570 metres with sumps created at 598 metres to prove the Dunsil seam. The Barnsley seam was 2.88m thick.

Brodsworth Main Colliery: Sinking started on 23rd October 1905 and was completed in October 1907. The Barnsley seam was found at 541 metres and sumps were created at 544 metres. The shafts were 6.5 metres in diameter and the Barnsley seam was up to 2.9m thick.

Maltby Main Colliery: Sinking started on the 3rd September 1907 and was completed in June 1910. The Barnsley seam was found at 750 metres and the sumps were created at 785 metres. The Barnsley seam was 2.55m thick

Bullcroft Main Colliery: Sinking started in June 1908 and was completed in December 1911. Shaft freezing was used during the sinking process . The Barnsley seam was found at 602 metres and sumps were created at 630 metres with the pit bottom created in the Dunsil seam at 626 metres. The Barnsley seam was 2.72m thick

Thorne Colliery: Sinking started in October 1909 and was completed in March 1926, the longest, most difficult and complex shaft sinking in mining history. During the sinking process, tubbing, cementation, shaft freezing and concrete grouting were all used to create the shafts. the final cost was £1.5 million which would have cost £117 million nowadays. The Barnsley seam was found in No1 shaft at 845 metre and sumps were created at 881 metres. The Barnsley seam was 2.7metres thick.

Yorkshire Main Colliery ( originally called Edlington Main Colliery): Sinking started on 10th December 1909 and was completed in August 1911. The Barnsley seam was found at 829 metres and sumps were created at 833 metres. The Barnsley seam was up to 3.23 metres thick.

Askern Main Colliery: Sinking started on 22nd February 1911 and was completed in 1914 due to deeper sinkings to the Parkgate seam. The Warren House ( Barnsley Rider) was found at 515 metres. The sumps were created at 744 metre, 10 metres below the Parkgate seam.

Hatfield Main Colliery: Sinking started in November 1911 and was completed in April 1917. The Barnsley seam was found at 786 metres in the No 1 shaft and sumps were created at 806 metres. The Barnsley seam was 2.8 metres thick.

Rossington Main Colliery: Sinking started on 9th June 1912 and was completed in December 1915. The Barnsley seam was found at 797 metres. The shafts were sunk deeper to prove the Dunsil seam which was 1.75 metres thick and had sumps created at 816 metres. The Barnsley seam was 2.31m thick.

Markham Main Colliery ( originally Armthorpe Main Colliery): Sinking started on 6th May 1916 and was completed in June 1926. The shafts took 10 years to sink due to economic conditions in the industry. The Barnsley seam was found at 668 metres and had sumps created at 683 metres. The Barnsley seam was 1.83 metres thick.

All of the Doncaster area collieries had difficulty with huge amounts water during sinking. Various new mining engineering techniques were used to overcome these major issues, at great cost, as mentioned above including shaft freezing which proved to be the technique used throughout the Selby Coalfield.

During the period of the early exploration and boring programme in the Doncaster area in the early 1900s, the major landowner in the Selby area, The Earl of Londesborough, had deep boreholes drilled in 1904 at Barlow, to the South East of Selby. The expected coal deposits were not found. The Earl had two further boreholes drilled, one near to Selby in 1909 and one further East near to Wressle in 1913. Neither of the test borings gave the Earl the expected results of the Barnsley Bed coal seam in his land and what coal was found was of thin and poor quality seams.The Earl gave up his exploration and The Selby Coalfield was left undisturbed for another fifty years.

The Yorkshire Coalfield in 1923.

‘Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland’ CC-BY (NLS)

The above map shows the Yorkshire Coalfield as published in 1923. The map shows the specific position of the collieries, company name and the size of the royalties (colliery take). The areas where stripes are shown show the leasing of a seam to adjacent collieries. As you can see the areas of coal leased became huge towards the east in the Doncaster area, due to the massive investment involved in sinking a mine in the the concealed coalfield. If you look towards the right of the map 4 sections are shown, Lindholme, Finningley, Belton and South Car. New mines were planned in these areas but the decline in the industry in the 1920s stopped these developments.

‘Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland’ CC-BY (NLS)

A very interesting point on the map shows that the Selby Coalfield was not even mentioned.

Selby Coalfield showing northern edge of Doncaster Coalfield and Kellingley Colliery.

Map reproduced with kind permission of N.M.R.S. https://www.nmrs.org.uk/

The bottom of the map shows the Northern extent of the Doncaster Coalfield. This map shows the relative proximity of the two coalfields.

Romans to Railways

‘The story of the North Yorkshire coalfield is of a steady march eastwards’ (Michael Pollard in Ezra, 1976).

Mining started at the Western edge of the coalfield in the foothills of the Pennines. The Romans, who weren’t really big into mining, took the easily accessible coal from shallow drift mines or surface mining due to the ease of working the coal.

In the 16th century John Leland carried out a geological survey for the then king, Henry VIII. He found, as he moved North, that working the coal was still based on easy access. He also heard on his travels north towards Durham, that coal may even be under Durham Minster, as the Selby coalfield was under Selby Abbey.

Selby Abbey

You can see why there was a ban on mining anywhere near this beautiful Norman abbey.

During the Industrial Revolution, which came off the back of coal, mining became very important around the West Yorkshire industrial areas of Bradford, Wakefield and Leeds, and was established very quickly. The seams in this area are in the exposed coalfield and run from Halifax in the west, eastwards. Many seams were mined, usually the shallower seams, to create money to mine the deeper seams. Technology, particularly the ability to pump water from workings, resulted in a massive increase in investment from wealthy industrialists, usually on wealthy landed gentry land. The movement eastwards resulted in huge, deeper, new sinkings around the Castleford and Pontefract areas. These collieries provided some of the men, at a later date, to work in the new Selby Coalfield.

As the Industrial revolution progressed from the 1830s onwards, the mining of coal became more and more important to the country. We, as a nation, were sat on a huge reserve and the industrialist saw huge potential beneath their feet ready for the taking.

In 1825 the Railway era began with the first coalfield railway from Darlington to the town of Stockton where the coal was transported onwards, by boat. This transport revolution continued when the Liverpool to Manchester Railway was opened in 1830. This acceleration of technology and investment was a major help towards the opening of vast areas of the Yorkshire Coalfield from Barnsley in the South to Leeds in the North. Railways progressed at massive pace from 1830 to 1845 where 2,200 miles were laid. This increased 3 fold to 6,600 miles in 1852 around the time the North Yorkshire Coalfield major sinkings started. Many coal mines around the towns of Featherstone, Castleford, Pontefract and towards Leeds were sunk between 1854 and the 1880s, including Whitwood, Allerton Bywater, Allerton Main, Wheldale, Glasshoughton, Prince of Wales, Savile, Snydale, West Riding, Fryston and Ackton Hall to name but a few. The deepest pits in the area were Wheldale, at 546 yards, Fryston, at 568 yards, and the deepest being the Prince of Wales at 733 yards, all working as deep as the Beeston seam.

Click here for map of collieries in the Castleford and Pontefract area working around the 1880s.

Bibliography

Ezra, D. (1976). Coal. London: Macmillan.