Victorian colliery site near Elsecar, Barnsley, preserved as a scheduled monument with surviving winding and pumping engine houses and concrete headgears, maintained by volunteer Friends group.
Hemingfield Colliery, also known as Low Elsecar Colliery, was developed for Earl Fitzwilliam in the 1840s under the management of Benjamin Biram, his steward and mineral agent. Shaft sinking began in earnest in 1842 and the winding shaft reached the Barnsley seam at a depth of 157 yards in late 1847. The colliery worked the Barnsley coal for Earl Fitzwilliam until 15 May 1920, when coal drawing ceased.
The site was then converted into a pumping station, operated successively by the South Yorkshire Pumping Association, the National Coal Board's Mines Drainage Unit, and British Coal, to prevent water from abandoned mine workings flooding active collieries in the area. Pumping was discontinued in October 1989. The site subsequently suffered neglect and theft before the Friends of Hemingfield Colliery purchased it in June 2014.
In October 2020 the colliery site was designated a Scheduled Monument and the Pump House Cottage, a converted section of the former Cornish pumping engine house, was listed Grade II*. The surviving structures include two concrete headgears, a winding engine house, a Cornish pumping engine house converted to residential use, an electrical substation building, and a row of pit cottages.
Hemingfield Colliery, also known as Low Elsecar Colliery, was developed for Earl Fitzwilliam in the 1840s. It formed part of the Earl's Elsecar Collieries, consisting of Elsecar High, Mid, and Low pits. Shaft sinking began in earnest in 1842 under the management of Benjamin Biram (1803–1857), the Earl's steward, mineral agent, and general manager. The work encountered problems with gas and water before the winding pit finally reached the coal of the Barnsley seam in late 1847, at a depth of 157 yards. This seam was approximately 9 feet 5 inches thick and was also referred to as the Elsecar coal.
When at work, the colliery consisted of several shafts. The two downcast pits were each 468 feet deep: the first was a circular engine or pumping pit, served by a 130 horsepower Cornish engine fired by three boilers and raising water in three lifts; the second was an elliptical 10-foot-diameter winding shaft worked by a 30 horsepower vertical cylinder engine with flat hemp ropes, later replaced by flat wire ropes, over a winding drum. One upcast arrangement (effectively two shafts later joined into one at the surface) was sunk circa 1852–3 to improve ventilation; this comprised a 9-foot-diameter circular shaft and a 7-foot-diameter circular shaft. An additional downcast, the Rainborough shaft, 14 feet in diameter and 175 yards deep in total, was sunk between 1864 and 1865. When first opened the colliery already had a connection to the Elsecar branch of the Dearne and Dove Canal, with its own loading basin, the Hemingfield Basin, which survives today. In 1851 coal from Hemingfield was sent to the Museum of Practical Geology to be tested for its suitability for fuelling Royal Navy steam ships. The coal was described as easy to light and free burning, though it produced considerable quantities of ash.
On 22 December 1852 an explosion underground at 1.30 pm claimed ten lives and injured a further twelve miners. An inquest followed, led by coroner Thomas Badger, and the Mines Inspector for Yorkshire, Charles Morton, admonished the management and the men. Printed rules for the safety of the miners were thereafter required. The explosion had been caused by firedamp ignited when some miners removed the tops of their safety lamps. After 1852 the colliery enjoyed a relatively good record of operations under Biram's management. In 1850 the colliery also gained a connection to the South Yorkshire Railway when the Elsecar branch was opened.
The 1850s and 1860s saw significant investment in improved ventilation, including two additional ventilation shafts sunk shortly after the pit began working, topped by a ventilating fan with boiler plant, engine house, and chimney. In the 1860s a further large-diameter shaft was sunk towards Rainborough Grange to increase airflow in the workings. Superintendence passed from Benjamin Biram to John Hartop (1815–1902) following Biram's death in 1857. By 1869 Hemingfield was raising 500 tons of coal per day, and was then the busiest of the three Elsecar pits at work.
On 23 July 1883 the old wooden pit headgear at Hemingfield was taken down and a new headgear was in place by 4 August 1883, with coal winding recommencing on 6 August. John Hartop retired as general manager in June 1886 and was replaced by Thomas Newbould (1845–1933) on 1 July 1886. In 1937 the original steam winding engine with its flat rope drum was replaced with electrical equipment and a smaller round rope drum. Hemingfield Colliery ceased drawing coal for Earl Fitzwilliam on 15 May 1920.
From 15 May 1920 the South Yorkshire Pumping Association, formed by fifteen local collieries alarmed at the flooding of old abandoned mine workings in the Barnsley seam, took over the pumping operations at Hemingfield. The three Fitzwilliam water drainage sites were formally conveyed to the Association on 4 October 1920. Under the nationalisation of the coal industry in 1947 pumping passed to the National Coal Board and its Mines Drainage Unit. In 1987 the National Coal Board was rebranded as the British Coal Corporation, and Hemingfield was managed directly from Silverwood Colliery. Pumping was finally discontinued in October 1989. The site was retained as a pumping station by the South Yorkshire Group of British Coal after pumping ceased. Following the Coal Industry Act 1994 and the privatisation of the industry, the site passed through successive ownerships: Central and Northern Mining Limited (established November 1994), then RJB Mining (UK) Ltd (renamed December 1994), then UK Coal Mining Ltd (renamed May 2001). Following a major underground fire at Daw Mill Colliery in February 2013, UK Coal entered insolvency and the site passed to the liquidators BDO.
In December 2013 the Friends of Hemingfield Colliery made an offer to purchase the site. The purchase was completed on 27 June 2014. The Friends had purchased the winding engine house, a roofless electrical house, two reinforced concrete headgears, and the surrounding land. Pump House Cottage, a truncated section of the former Cornish pumping engine house converted to residential use, was at that time separately owned. In September 2016 funding was secured for conservation reconstruction of the roof of the original 1846 winding engine house. In November 2018 the Friends received support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund for their project, Hemingfield Colliery Restoration – saving, sharing and celebrating Hemingfield's hidden history. In October 2020 Historic England scheduled the colliery site as a Scheduled Monument and listed Pump House Cottage at Grade II*, providing national recognition of the importance of the surviving historic buildings. The surviving structures include two concrete headgears, the winding engine house, a Cornish pumping engine house converted to residential use as Pump House Cottage, an electrical substation building, and a row of pit cottages known as Pit Row.
