Fence Colliery was a small colliery sunk at the lower end of the village of Fence,

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 ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

alongside the main Sheffield to Worksop road in the 1840s, shortly before the opening of the

North Midland Railway The North Midland Railway was a railway line and Great Britain, British railway company, which opened a line from the city of Derby in Derbyshire to the city of Leeds in Yorkshire in 1840. At Derby, it connected with the Birmingham and Derby J ...

through the Rother Valley.

History

The original coal pit at Fence, a small village within Rotherham Rural District alongside the main Sheffield to Worksop road. started operations in the 1840s. In 1862 the Fence Colliery Company was formed to purchase the colliery, this leading to a period of development of the colliery and the building of houses for its workers. These were built along Falconer Lane, on the opposite side of the main road to the colliery, and are still in use. In late 1864, an explosion caused by the ignition of

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 ...

killed one worker and injured several others.

Closure and after life

Fence colliery closed as a coal producing unit in 1904, coal from its reserves being brought to the surface at Orgreave, but it was retained as a pumping station until 1957. Nationalisation came in 1947 and in the 1950s the site became home to 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 ...

s divisional workshops, finally closing in the 1990s. After a short period of inactivity the site was redeveloped as Ley's Cast Iron Foundry, being relocated from

Dronfield Dronfield is a town in North East Derbyshire, England, which includes Dronfield Woodhouse and Coal Aston. It lies in the valley of the River Drone between Chesterfield, Derbyshire, Chesterfield and Sheffield. The Peak District National Park i ...

References

{{coord, 53.3670, -1.3403, region:GB_type:landmark, display=title Coal mines in Rotherham Coal mines in South Yorkshire Underground mines in England