Barrow Colliery

Barrow Colliery
Image kindly supplied by The Mail Archive

Barrow Colliery was sunk by the Barrow Haematite Steel Company in 1873 on land they had bought the previous year which was adjacent to the abandoned Worsborough Park Colliery, 450 yards (411m) NE. The colliery supplied coal to the company’s iron works at Barrow-in-Furness; for this a line to join the Midland Railway was constructed by 1898.The colliery was located just to the east of Worsborough, some 2 miles (3.2Km) south of Barnsley.

The shafts were sunk by Barnsley mining engineers JG and A Kell. No. 1 shaft (downcast) was 15 feet (4.6m) in diameter and 410 yards (370m) deep to the Thorncliffe Seam. Coal was produced from the Parkgate and Thorncliffe seams. No. 2 shaft (downcast) was 15 feet (4.6m) in diameter and 469 yards (429m) deep to the Silkstone Seam. No 3 shaft (upcast) was 17 feet (5.2m) in diameter also 469 yards (429m) deep. The first coal was raised on 13th January 1876.

A serious accident occurred on the 15th November 1907 when 7 men fell to their deaths down the shaft due to the negligence of the on-setters. The full report can be found here.

The colliery underwent significant redevelopment during the mid-1920s before amalgamating with Barnsley Main and Monk Bretton collieries in 1932 to form Barrow Barnsley Main Collieries Ltd. The remainder of the decade saw the building of pithead baths, new headgear, coke ovens and a canteen. The colliery was nationalised in 1947 and reconstructed in 1953 with more alterations being made in 1962 and 1971.

In 1961 the workforce of 1,273 men produced a saleable output of 835,016 tons of coal, equivalent to 19 tons per man per shift.

Barrow Colliery worked some of its coal from the old Barnsley Main colliery from the early 1970s when it’s own coal faces were exhausted. Coal was raised from Barrow colliery but miners gained access from the newly refurbished Barnsley Main. Barrow finally closed in 1985 and Barnsley Main six years later in 1991.