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See photos,circa
1979 Sculpture |
South Kirkby Colliery was the first deep mine to be sunk in the area and had a
life of 107 years before finally being put to rest in 1988.
A Commemorative Sculpture was
erected at the bottom of Stockingate, being unveiled on 27 November 2005, to the
memory of all those miners of Kirkby and Frickley Collieries who lost their
lives in these mines. The last NUM presidents of Frickley and South Kirkby
Collieries, Chick Picken and Frank Clarke, took part in the ceremonies. The
memorial was created by Graham Ibbotson, the nationally renowned, local
sculptor. See also Miners Memorial by Paul
Thwaites
Following the completion of the Wakefield-Doncaster railway line in 1866, the
Allot family, which owned over half the land in the South Kirkby parish, leased
a considerable amount to the Ferryhill and Rosedale Iron Company for the purpose
of opening a mine.
The main target was the Barnsley seam, which was known to be the finest steam
raising coal in Yorkshire. When sinking started in 1876, several seams of
workable coal were ignored as they went for the prize, reaching the Barnsley
Seam at a depth of 635 yards in August, 1878.
Two shafts, 150 yards apart and 15ft each in diameter, were lined with iron tubbing because of a water problem, and were later made deeper to reach the
Haigh Moor Seam at a depth of 725 yards. This made South Kirkby the deepest pit
in Yorkshire and one of the three deepest in the country.
Unfortunately, the owners ran out of cash and, with increasing liabilities,
stopped all work in 1879, also causing a halt to the building of houses for the
potential miners.
A new limited company, with Mr. John Shaw, of Darrington Hall as chairman, took
over in 1880, and work progressed swiftly, opening out both the Barnsley Bed and
the Haigh Moor Seams.
A colliery screening plant was installed and miles of railway sidings to link
the colliery with the rail network.
The South Kirkby Colliery Company was granted a' carriage account for the
conveyance of minerals to areas served by the Great North Railway Company~ and
it began to become a major supplier of coal to a variety of industries all over
the North and beyond.
The Beamshaw Seam was also developed and, in 1958, a third shaft was sunk at the
pit to allow further development of coal in places like the Newhill Seam.
At its peak, South Kirkby employed almost 3,000 men, and in the 605 and 705
produced over one million tons of coal in a financial year to earn the nickname
'Big SK'.
Some of the seams by-passed initially were worked by the creation of the
Ferrymoor-Riddings Drift Mine, which opened in the 70’s, and used retreat
mining. They were united into a complex with a washery, although the workforce
had dropped to around 1,100 by the time of the miners' strike in 1984.
Although there was a confidence among the men that it could continue as a viable
proposition, South Kirkby received the thumbs down four years later and was
demolished. The main entrance to the colliery now(March2005) shows an Industrial Estate
sign, and the waste tip that used to dominate the sky line has been landscaped
out of existence. The football team still plays on, at the ground on
Stockingate. see http://www.shortal.com/skcfc/index.html
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Miners Memorial
Strikes lean sinewed at the tooth end of a day,
Quid spent hewing after the brown-spit
Mines dead:
This resurrection, tin and copper born,
Earth’s legacy, remembering.
Stood black coated in the drizzle,
Silver band, usual marquee,
Coal’s generation lost,
Save for these unfurled banners and this song,
Our bitter memory.
Right then perhaps, that he should kneel,
Poised on his epitaph, this man of bronze,
Beneath the church reclaiming this waste land,
Closed in his seam of time, defiantly
When we are gone, a watching sentinel,
Who taps the load of all this heritage,
Collected days of sacrifice,
Dark shifts undone:
And right that we should gather
Here to honour him,
Made more of us for our rememberance,
Made air and daylight, the eternal sun
Paul Thwaites |
