Darfield Main and its History
Darfield Main Colliery was in the bottom of a Valley between Wombwell and Darfield. Coal mining was already established in and around Barnsley, and there is plenty of evidence to show the romans mined the area in its simplest form, Coal picking by field walking. The first documented evidence confirms coal mining in Elsecar as far back as 1367 when shallow Audits or shafts were used to exploit the outcrops.
Mining continued in the area on a small scale until the 1790's. At this point a canal was granted an act of parliament on 3rd June 1893. Once the canal was completed it allowed the collieries alongside to expand because more coal could be transported. Darfield Main never used the canal to transport coal, by the time the pit opened in 1860 trains were the preferred method of transport.
The collieries take would come exclusively from the Barnsley Seam until it was exhausted, only then would the owners look at the other seams. Estimated reserves within the colliery’s boundary.
The Barnsley Bed was great steam coal, but the seam was full of danger. Miners would encounter large pockets of Gas (Firedamp) all the time, and spontaneous combustion was an ever-present threat.
When Darfield Main opened coal mining was extremely dangerous, serious accidents were an everyday occurrence and disasters happened far too often. It is true that accidents did happen at the pit, but things were done differently from the start. The results are clear to see:
Years in production 129
Loss of life due to a disaster. (The loss of 10 or more lives is a disaster)
Fatal Accidents 93
Highest loss of life 2 in one accident
Fatal accidents after the industry was nationalised 9
Not only are these figures significant, but they also show why the pit was one of the safest collieries to work at.
The colliery suffered two serious fires in 1872. One in February which extinguished by stopping off the headings, and a much more serious fire in October.
The second fire in October was soon out of control, and it was too dangerous to make further attempts to put the fire out. The mine owners consulted with experts and decided that the only way to put out the fire was to flood the mine. The colliery did not draw coal again until March 1874 During the enforced closure the colliery engineers along with its management team began looking at the method used to ventilate the mine. The fire started at the base of the cupola shaft and spread very quickly. It was already widely known that this method of ventilating a mine was dangerous due to explosions and fires occurring at other collieries.
The team knew that if they could remove the cupola furnace it would make the pit safer. They had lots of ideas and settled on a mechanical rotating fan capable of suppling more air to the mine, in volumes which could be controlled.
They installed the fan shortly before the colliery reopened and put into service following intensive testing. The coal industry of the 1800's had pioneers leading the way and that needs to be acknowledged but success is built on the value of life, and the difference was that at Darfield Main they managed to do that with a fatal accident rate of 1.38 deaths per year. In my eyes this was and is still too high, but when compared to other collieries and the national figures they are outstanding.