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Miner's Accounts of Life Dahn t' pit
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Miners Case Study - Trevor Eager
History of The Pit
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History of The Pit
Location: Bradford
Coal Mining was a source of work across the Spen Valley area for over a thousand men at its peak in the 19th century, with over 40 pits identified from old maps of the area.
By 1970 only one mine remained; Gomersal Colliery or Nutter Lane Pit as it was sometimes called. Then Lofthouse Colliery flooded and 7 men drowned. This hastened the end for Gomersal which was also thought to be at risk of flooding from water trapped in old workings.
This small book it to remind people of the existence of mining in the area and in particular of Gomersal Colliery. It focuses in particular on the people who worked there and their families since the sinking of the first shaft in 1911
Gomersal Pit didn't really get going until the 1930s with the sinking of two new shafts. When Peacock Pit in Birkenshaw closed in 1936 its workings were incorporated into Gomersal but the shaft was left open and used as part of the ventilation system for Gomersal. By then production was up to 1,000 coal tubs per day. Despite being next to a railway line Gomersal was never connected and all coal had to be taken to customers by road.
In 1947 the New Gomersal Collieries Co. Ltd was nationalised along with the entire coal industry. At this time many miners came from eastern Europe.
Until 1951 all coal was worked by pick and shovel and even after the first mechanisation this continued. The underground workings in the Beeston seam at Gomersal Colliery reached as far north as the A62 Whitehall Road , westwards as far as Merchant Fields Hunsworth, south as far as Muffit Lane and eastward all the way underneath Adwalton Common. But the coal underneath Oakwell Hall is said never to have been removed for fear of causing damage by subsidence.
The 1960s were a profitable period and more equipment was installed. In 1967 a drift (sloping mine access tunnel) was built to supplement the vertical shafts. Men rode to work in a sort of mini-train called a coolie car. With the opening of the drift the old Peacock shaft was no longer needed to ventilate the workings.
There was optimism with the delivery of new coal mining equipment in 1970. But the new coal plough could not cope with the thin seams and was removed after a few months. The end came after a loss of £422,866 in 1973 and then renewed fears of flooding. No more coal was cut at Gomersal after the flooding of Lofthouse colliery.
An idea was debated in late 1973 to turn the colliery into a museum but lack of firm plans and finance meant that the National Coal Board went ahead with demolition. By 1979 a reclamation scheme arranged by Kirklees Council had been completed. This landscaped the entire area but erased almost all trace of the mine from the face of the earth, as though it had never existed.
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