Barnburgh Main Colliery was a coal mine situated on the outskirts of the village of

Barnburgh Barnburgh is a village and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster in South Yorkshire, England. The village is adjacent to the village of Harlington - the parish contains both villages, and according to the 2001 census it had ...

, about two miles north of

Mexborough Mexborough is a town in the City of Doncaster in South Yorkshire, England. Situated between Manvers and Denaby Main, it lies on the River Don close to where it joins the River Dearne, and the A6023 road runs through the town. It is contigu ...

in the

Dearne Valley The Dearne Valley is an area of South Yorkshire, England, along the River Dearne. It encompasses the towns of Wombwell, Wath-upon-Dearne, Swinton, Conisbrough and Mexborough, the large villages of Ardsley, Bolton on Dearne, Goldthorpe, ...

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a ceremonial and metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of Doncaster and Sheffield as well as the boroughs of Barnsley and Rotherham. I ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. The sinking of the colliery was commenced in 1911 by the

Manvers Main Colliery Manvers Main Colliery was a coal mine, sunk on land belonging to the Earl Manvers on the northern edge of Wath-upon-Dearne, between that town and Mexborough in the Dearne Valley, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. The regional headquart ...

Company of

Wath-upon-Dearne Wath upon Dearne (shortened to Wath or often hyphenated) is a town south of the River Dearne in the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England, north of Rotherham and almost midway between Barnsley and Doncaster. It had a po ...

. The sinking reached the

Barnsley seam The coal seams worked in the South Yorkshire Coalfield lie mainly in the middle coal measures within what is now formally referred to as the Pennine Coal Measures Group. These are a series of mudstones, shales, sandstones, and coal seams laid d ...

in 1914 and later the

Parkgate seam The coal seams worked in the South Yorkshire Coalfield lie mainly in the middle coal measures within what is now formally referred to as the Pennine Coal Measures Group. These are a series of mudstones, shales, sandstones, and coal seams laid d ...

was reached. The colliery was adjacent to the Dearne Valley Railway to which it was connected but in 1924 a private line was constructed between Barnburgh and the Manvers complex. On 24 April 1942, the mine suffered a collapse in the Park Gate coal seam. Miners reported that the floor rose up towards the ceiling. Geologists put forward the theory that the downward pressure caused the floor to be forced upwards. 18 miners were sealed in and despite frantic rescue efforts, four men died. The last two bodies were located and removed from the pit on 30 April 1942 some six days after the disaster. In 1947 Barnburgh was, as with other mines, nationalized, 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 "v ...

. On 26 June 1957 an explosion at the colliery caused the death of 6 underground workers and severe burning to 14 others. The explosion was caused by

firedamp Firedamp is any flammable gas found in coal mines, typically coalbed methane. It is particularly found in areas where the coal is bituminous. The gas accumulates in pockets in the coal and adjacent strata and when they are penetrated the relea ...

ignited by a 'flash' from a damaged cable. On 4 December 1981, Reginald Canham was killed in an accident aged 57 leaving a wife and two children, one of the last fatalities before its closure. The colliery was closed on 16 June 1989.

References

{{Coal mining in Yorkshire Underground mines in England Coal mines in the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley