Walton Colliery
Used with kind permission of Pontefract Heritage Group
Shaft sinking at the colliery commenced in 1890 when if was known as Sharlston West, part of New Sharlston Colleries Ltd. This name was used until after nationalisation when the colliery was renamed Walton Colliery. The other mines that New Sharlston Colleries operated were Sharlston Haigh (Moor Pit), Sharlston Stanley (Main Pit) & Haw-Park Pit.
Walton Colliery was located about 3 miles SE of Wakefield. It was a safety lamp mine that employed 1,285 men underground and 298 on the surface with a daily output of 2,200 tons from the Top Haigh Moor, the Low Haigh Moor, the Kent Thick and the Birkwood or Lidgett Seams, about half the output came from the Top Haigh Moor seam (1959). The colliery was owned by the National Coal Board and was in the No.7 (Wakefield) Area of the Board’s North East Division.
The was a serious accident at the colliery on the 22nd April, 1959 when an explosion cost the lives of 5 miners and injured another. The explosion was caused by arcing from a damaged power cable at the coalface igniting the Methane gas in the atmosphere there. The full report can be found here.
OS Map, Yorkshire CCXLVIII.SE 1948
Reproduced by permission of the National Library of Scotland
