‘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.
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.
Selby Superpit 