Wath Main Colliery was a coal mine situated 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, ...
, close by the township of
Wath-upon-Dearne,
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 colliery was operated by the Wath Main Coal Company Limited.
Sinking of the first of its two shafts began in 1873, the workings reaching the highly prized
Barnsley seam three years later. To gain access to lower reserves the shafts were deepened, first in 1912 to reach the
Parkgate seam and then, in 1923, to the
Silkstone seam.
The colliery became 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 nationalization in 1947 and it was amalgamated, along with other local collieries, with the adjacent
Manvers Main Colliery on 1 January 1986. Closure came on 25 March 1988.
The site has been reclaimed and now contains
Wath Country Park, which in May 2007 was sold off to developers to form a new housing development.
[Reports of RiDO, Rotherham Investment and Development Office] The park lasted just 10 years.
References
{{coord, 53.513, -1.341, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title
Coal mines in Rotherham
Wath upon Dearne
Underground mines in England