15 April 2026. Many thanks and kind regards to Mike Liddington, Director of Latch and Batchelor, for organising such a great afternoon and for spending so much of his time from his working day during my visit to the factory. He was a great source of information and made us very welcome. He very kindly gave me a Latch and Batchelor Technical guidance book along with a Ropemans Handbook.
Latch and Batchelor supplied mining ropes to the world mining industry for many decades before the development of the Selby Coalfield and during the 1970s they supplied mine winder ropes to over 300 mines in the UK alone, which were all manufactured at Hay Mills in Birmingham.
Hay Mills factory 1856
Winder rope designs
The company was created by Mr Arthur Latch, Mr T.C. Batchelor and Mr H.H.C. Horsfall to develop locked coil and flattened strand ropes developed by Mr Batchelor in 1884 and 1888. These rope were to become what we know as the modern mine winder ropes used throughout the world. Latch and Batchelor ropes range from tiny stainless steel ropes, used for shark fishing traces, to massive 78mm diameter locked coil dam building ropes.
Rope and fittings display cabinets
Latch and Batchelor made haulage, coal cutter and slusher ropes for mining as well as crane and lift ropes and slings for engineering trades. They also make structural spiral strand ropes used for bridges and masts throughout the world.
The company associated with Latch and Batchelor is Webster and Horsfall, a which is over three hundred hundred years old and was formed in 1720 in Penns, Sutton Coldfield. They are a wire drawing company making the finest high tensile wire and pioneered the process of ‘patenting’ developed by James Horsfall. This process of heat treatment, using molten lead at 400°C, as a coolant for the wire, allows wire to be drawn while maintaining ductility and tensility, by changing the molecular structure. This allows drawing to very fine grades.
I visited Mike Liddington, director of Latch and Batchelor Limited at Hay Mills, Birmingham and he very kindly gave me a tour of the factory, offices, archives and the company history display cabinets. Below is some of the information and photographs I took whilst on my visit.
Above is the wire sculptor commissioned for the 300 year anniversary of Webster and Horsfall Limited.
Display cabinet showing the entire rope collection.
The factory at Hay Mills ceased manufacturing ropes in 2015 when Kellingley Colliery, the last deep mine was closed. They now supply locked coil ropes shipped from the Latch and Batchelor factory in Johor Bahru, Malaysia to supply winder ropes to two mines in the UK. They also have factories in Malaysia and Vietnam producing ‘Verope’ crane ropes.
Latch and Batchelor supplied ropes to the Selby Coalfield from day one supplying haulage ropes, winch ropes, winder ropes and specialist lubrications to all the pits. Examples of the shaft ropes supplied at Wistow Mine are listed below.
The tower mounted friction (Koepe) winder used six, 26mm diameter locked coil ropes. The ground mounted double drum winder used two, 51mm diameter locked coil ropes for two cages.
The guide ropes were 45mm diameter.
Balance ropes were 65mm- 75mm.
The 26mm diameter winder ropes weighed 381 kg per 100m and had a breaking strain of 58600 kg.
The 51mm diameter winder ropes weighed 1470kg per 100m and had a breaking strain of 226000 kg.
The 45mm diameter, half locked coil guide ropes weighed 1110 kg per 100m and had a breaking strain of 103000 kg.
The balance ropes weighed over two tonnes per 100m with a breaking strain of 198 tonnes.
All winder ropes were pre stretched at the Birmingham factory before being shipped to the mines.
Rope diameters from Wistow Mine (above) provided by my mate Dave Scott who worked at Wistow Mine.
Rope weights and breaking strains provided from Latch and Batchelor Technical data booklet shown below.
The Latch and Batchelor Technical data and guidance notes booklet.
Above is some of the information on display at the Hay Mills Headquarters.
Thanks again to Mike Liddington for making us welcome and for spending so much time with us.
Selby Superpit 