Nunnery Colliery was a

coal mine Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

close to

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

Darnall Darnall is a suburb of eastern Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. Darnall is approximately east-north-east of Sheffield city centre. History Darnall was initially a small hamlet usually included with Attercliffe. William Walker, a residen ...

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the north, the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north-east, Lincolnshire ...

. The mining company, known as The Waverley Coal Company, also worked

High Hazels Colliery High Hazels Colliery was a coal mine situated between the parish of Catcliffe, near Rotherham, and the parish of Handsworth, near Sheffield. It was adjacent to the main line of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway between the stati ...

about 3 miles (5 km) further east.

History

Mining started on the Nunnery site in 1868 and it is claimed that its coal supplied the bulk of the coal trade within the city of Sheffield. A fire broke out in one of the shafts of the colliery on 12 July 1871, though all miners were able to escape via the other shaft and the fire was soon put out, but work was halted for several days. The colliery was

nationalised Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization contrasts with ...

in 1947 becoming part of the

National Coal Board The National Coal Board (NCB) was the statutory corporation created to run the nationalised coal mining industry in the United Kingdom. Set up under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946, it took over the United Kingdom's collieries on "ve ...

and closed in August 1953, its reserves said to be exhausted.

The Nunnery "Paddy Mail" accident

On 3 December 1923 an accident was caused by the breaking of a rope hauling an underground

Paddy Mail Paddy mails were workmen's trains operated by companies in Britain to transport workers from their "shanty villages" to their place of work or between the work sites. Originally they were operated by railway contractors on temporary tracks laid ...

train, carrying 90 men and 30 boys. Seven people were killed and around 50 others injured. The -long rope was 19 months old but, the management stated that there was no guidance in the Mines Act (or elsewhere) as to the life, or required strength, of a rope. A section of the broken rope was submitted for examination to a local testing company and Dr C. H. Desch, Professor of

Metallurgy Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the ...

Sheffield University The University of Sheffield (informally Sheffield University or TUOS) is a public research university in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. Its history traces back to the foundation of Sheffield Medical School in 1828, Firth College in 1879 ...

. The strain on the rope was at its highest level when the coal was being drawn, and one of the mysteries of the accident was that it occurred when the men were in the train and the strain would therefore be lighter. James Hoyland, superintendent at the testing works said the test did not prove that the rope had materially weakened. Dr C. H. Desch said that he had examined the two pieces of broken rope 2 ft (60 cm) long taken from a short distance on each side of the fracture. He was unable to throw any light as to how the rope fractured in the way it did but it was clear that it broke in a tension pull. The

jury A jury is a sworn body of people (jurors) convened to hear evidence, make Question of fact, findings of fact, and render an impartiality, impartial verdict officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a sentence (law), penalty or Judgmen ...

at the

inquest An inquest is a judicial inquiry in common law jurisdictions, particularly one held to determine the cause of a person's death. Conducted by a judge, jury, or government official, an inquest may or may not require an autopsy carried out by a cor ...

returned a verdict of "accidental death".

The Locomotives

The Waverley Coal Company

locomotive A locomotive is a rail transport, rail vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. Traditionally, locomotives pulled trains from the front. However, Push–pull train, push–pull operation has become common, and in the pursuit for ...

s could be found working at Nunnery or High Hazels Collieries. All the locomotives listed below, except those shown as being scrapped became the property of the National Coal Board from 1 January 1947.

Abbreviations

''Cylinders:'' * IC Cylinders inside frames. * OC Cylinders outside frames ''Builders:'' * AB Andrew Barclay & Sons Co. * FW Fox, Walker & Co. * HE

Hunslet Engine Company The Hunslet Engine Company is a locomotive building company, founded in 1864 in Hunslet, England. It manufactured steam locomotives for over 100 years and currently manufactures Diesel engine, diesel Switcher, shunting locomotives. The company ...

* HL

Hawthorn Leslie and Company R. & W. Hawthorn, Leslie and Company, Limited, usually referred to as Hawthorn Leslie, was a shipbuilder and locomotive manufacturer. The company was founded on Tyneside in 1886 and ceased building ships in 1982. History The company was formed ...

* KS

Kerr Stuart Kerr, Stuart and Company Ltd was a locomotive manufacturer in Stoke-on-Trent, England. History It was founded in 1881 by James Kerr as "James Kerr & Company", and became "Kerr, Stuart & Company" from 1883 when John Stuart was taken on as a par ...

& Co. ''Other'' * M.D. & H.B.

Mersey Docks and Harbour Board The Mersey Docks and Harbour Company (MDHC), formerly the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board (MDHB), owns and administers the dock facilities of the Port of Liverpool, on the River Mersey, England. These include the operation of the enclosed north ...

* S.& M.R.

Shropshire and Montgomeryshire Railway The Shropshire and Montgomeryshire Light Railway was a railway running from Shrewsbury, England to Llanymynech, Wales, with a branch to Criggion. It was promoted by H. F. Stephens, Holman Fred Stephens, better known as Colonel Stephens, propriet ...

References

*''East of Sheffield'' by Roger Milnes. "Forward" – The journal of the Great Central Railway Society, No.16, July 1984. (This article also uses unpublished material researched for "East of Sheffield"). *''The Times'', 7 December 1923 {{coord, 53, 23, 7.3, N, 1, 26, 7, W, type:landmark, display=title Railway accidents and incidents in Yorkshire Coal mines in Sheffield Underground mines in England 1923 disasters in the United Kingdom