Houghton Main Colliery
Copyright © L Hirst and used with his kind permission
Houghton Main Colliery was one of eighteen mines in the Barnsley Area of the National Coal Board and was located about five miles east of Barnsley. Sinking the colliery began in 1873. The No.1 and No.2 shafts, each 14 feet diameter, were sunk to the Barnsley Seam. No. 2 shaft was deepened to the Thorncliffe seam at 816 yards in 1919 and No. 3 shaft was sunk in 1924 to the same location at 20 feet diameter and became the upcast shaft.
In the Upper Measures, the coal from the Beamshaw and Parkgate Seams was transported by roadways connecting with the neighbouring Grimethorpe Colliery where the combined output of both collieries was wound to the surface.
On 30th December 1886 it is thought that the cage was overwound and went into the headframe. The rope then broke and the cage fell to the bottom of the shaft killing all 10 miners on board. The full report can be found here.
On 12th June 1975 an explosion occurred in the Meltonfield Seam which killed 5 men and seriously injured another. It is thought that a spark from a fan ignited a body of methane that had been brought down by a fall. The full report can be found here.
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