YORKSHIRE MAIN COLLIERY

The following pictures have been sent in by Mel Morris who started at yorkshire main in 1957, most of the photographs have been taken by Mel himself, Many thanks to mel for sharing them with us, i am sure they will bring back many memories to a lot of people.

The first picture is of one of the early yorkshire main ambulances taken in the pit yard. On the left is the medical attendant Mr Townsend and in the uniform possibly Mr Whitmore?

 

The next picture shows the colliery from the bottom shops area outside the bank in 1965, the fields on the right of the picture are were the pit ponies were let out in the colliery holidays, the area is now occupied by shops and a new estate.

 

Inside the new No 2 winder cabin

The old winding engine shed, this building known as a long shed once housed the largest steam winding engines in yorkshire.

The No 2 winding drum.

No1 and No2 new winding towers just starting construction in 1978.

View from the top of No2 tower.

Another view from the top of No2 tower showing the welfare ground below.

The road to the washery plant.

The road to both shafts.

View from the stock yard.

View from the stock yard with the fan house in the centre of the picture, the fan pulled the stale air out of the mine.

Demolishing the old boiler house.

The water stock pond for the colliery, also a great fishing pond, when the colliery closed the fish were taken to the quarry ponds at the top of the village. The two long buildings on the right of the picture are the workmans baths/ changing rooms. The york hotel can be seen in the back ground.

Picture of the yorkshire main managers etc. sat on the right is Mr E Greathead the colliery manager, also centre row at the back is Len Bates the undermanager, any names for the others?

Surface elctricians cabin with two sparkies hard at work.

No1 shaft top with Gerald Wakelin on duty. the wooden boxes on the top and bottom floors in the centre of the picture are were the men would throw there brass checks into on there way out of the mine. Each check had the miners own number on it, this enabled the control room and time office to know what time the men where out of the mine and as if expected.

 

The surface control room. From this position the controller could see which coal faces and belts where running as well as other dutys including the monitoring of mine gases. Pictured here is Dennis Sayers from Edlington.

This is one of the two original pit steam shunting engines, this one was called ARTHUR the other was called EDDIE. They where intime replaced by modern diesil shunters.

EDDIE,

The drill hall, this was used by the y.m brass band and the st johns ambulance etc.

50 HP Hunslet Diesel used on the surface for shunting of mine cars etc.

Two pictures of the surface electricians shop

The main electrical substation at the side of No 1 shaft. The small winding headgear in the centre of the picture was a small shaft used for pumping water out of the ground to prevent flooding of the main shafts.

Part of the washery plant and No 1 head gear.

The start of Y.M with temporary wooden head gear before they started sinking the shafts. 

Workmen constructing the screens buildings at Y.M

Modern view of the screens, this is were the coal was washed.

The early days of Y.M before the metal chimney was encased in concrete, notice the thick black smoke.

View of the canteen and part of the medical room on the left with the ambulance out side, also housed within the building was the ventilation dept, the union office and the training office. The porta-cabins outside the canteen were a temporary medical centre while the medical centre was upgraded in 1985 just after the strike. The mine closed before completion of the upgrade. The large houses in the back ground were once the managers houses and are still standing on the main Edlington road opposite the old York hotel.

The surface control room with the gas monitoring equipment in view. From this room the controler could see all the gas levels around the mine.

Another view of the fishing and water stock pond with the old picture house and part of Edlington village in the back ground, notice all the coal stocked on the old pony field.

The road to the washery plant.

The screens again from the top of the winding tower.

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Victoria road with the pit chimney in the back ground, taken in 1950.

Broomhouse lane in the 50s with the pit chimney in the bottom of the picture.

Outside the pit gates in the early days.

Demolishing the pit chimney.

THE BILLIARD HALL AND YORK HOTEL ACROSS FROM THE PIT, USED BY MINERS FOR MANY YEARS BEFORE AND AFTER WORK.

The coal wharf, this is were the coal was loaded into the lorrys, now the site of the supermarket.

 

The next picture shows the north east turn, the roadway leading off to the left lead to most of the Barnsley seam districts B45s B46s etc, by the time the mine closed the men going this way were travelling on three paddy trains to get to their place of work. The first paddy train was by diesel up to the return slit, about half a mile away, then the men would walk through a set of air doors into the hot return air and catch a rope hauled paddy train to the bottom of a drift, leave that and then onto the final rope hauled paddy train to the coal face, quite a journey if you missed them and had to walk.

The road way which went straight on was the East main travelling road and lead to most of the Dunsil seams including D20s. If the men were going to D20s they would get on a diessel paddy train for the first half of the journey and then onto a rope hauled paddy train down a drift to the dunsill seam, again a long journey which would take the men almost underneath the M18, A1 roundabout.

The view from the top of No1 headgear showing Markham road and Broomhouse lane.

No 2 pit bottom. This is where the coal was wound up the shaft.

No 2 pit bottom tippler. This is where the coal was emptied out of the large mine cars. The cars where put into the drum and turned upside down to allow the coal to fall out into the skip which would wind the coal to the surface.

 

The next picture is of the old pit bottom at Yorkshire main which would have been made around 1910.

The roadways were in use untill the 1940s when the new pit bottom was made higher up.

Does anyone have any further information on the picture, ie possible date, exact location?.  

 

Diesel under repair in the pit bottom.

Two pictures from Keith butcher below, yorkshire main football team, no date and ym taken in the 70s

The following documents are authorisations from Mel Morris relating to Yorkshire main. The second one authorises him to operate any electrical equipment and the first one authorises him to work on the nucleonic steering device fitted to Xo1s face machine.This device was a good idea, it measured the thickness of the coal "tops" as the machine was cutting and adjusted the thickness of the tops left thus maximsing the depth of the cut. Unfortunatly the seam had to have a good top and X01s didn't and so was beset with problems due to the roof breaking up.