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.
Selby Superpit 