Snilesworth Colliery

Snilesworth Colliery, Hawnby

The principal landowners in this moorland township were the Manners family. In August 1842, the Mining Journal (20/08/1842) carried the following notice which had already appeared in the Durham Advertiser: “VALUABLE DISCOVERY OF COAL IN YORKSHIRE. – A seam of very fine coal has recently been discovered in Smilesworth [sic] Vale, about five miles east of Osmotherley, in Yorkshire, much superior to any coal obtained for previous workings in that part of the country, but the place being almost inaccessible by roads, the inhabitants of that sequestered vale will be the only people at present who will be benefited by the discovery”.

It was probably around this time that a clay and tile works was built near Snilesworth Lodge, but it had gone before the end of the century. The site is now hidden by forestry.