Featherstone Main Colliery

1868 to 1935

by Irvin Saxton

In 1868 George Bradley leased 948 acres of his Ackton Hall estate to George Shaw, a rich Sheffield man. The lease was granted for 60 years to extract the coal from the Stanley Main Seam with the option of taking a lease on the Haigh Moor Seam below. George Shaw agreed to pay a royalty of sixpence on each ton of coal, and after seven years a minimum rent of £1,000. Shaft sinking began straight away and it was named Featherstone Colliery. 

George Shaw died in 1870 leaving John Shaw as beneficiary. He gave notice in 1871 to George Bradley of his intention to take up the lease on the Haigh Moor Seam, but George Bradley refused to grant it, no doubt wanting to keep that good coal for his own colliery. John Shaw changed the name of his colliery to Featherstone Main in 1871, no doubt to upstage George Bradley's proposed colliery about to be started. 

George Bradley took the dispute over the Haigh Moor Seam to the Court of Chancery in 1873 where he sought to have the agreement overturned because John Shaw was not a proper party to the contract, and the time for taking up the lease had expired. The Master of the Rolls ruled against George Bradley on both counts and the way was open for the expansion of John Shaw's colliery. In 1907 the colliery became part of the South Kirkby, Featherstone and Hemsworth Collieries Ltd.  The colliery probably reached its maximum output in 1924 when 2,095 men and boys were employed underground and 480 on the surface. One seam was closed in 1930 throwing hundreds of Featherstone men on the dole. 

The coal seams had bands of shale in them which was difficult to separate and there were constant disputes between colliers and management about the amount of shale and stone sent out with the coal. (Note: It was called dirt hence dirt tips or muckstacks.) There were often strikes over the percentage allowed and in 1935 things came to a head.  The Featherstone Main miners decided on a strike because they considered the management wanted to deduct more money than they though fair for the amount of dirt sent out with the coal. The miners at South Kirkby, Ackton Hall and Hemsworth all voted to back them. The management said Featherstone Main Colliery had been run at a loss for some time and if the men handed in their strike notice the mine would be closed. The men thought it was a bluff and went on strike, but it wasn't a bluff and it was announced the mine would not reopen for work and salvage operations would start.

Because it was a wet pit and there were underground connections to Ackton Hall and Snydale Collieries the shafts were kept in operation and the shaftmen from Ackton Hall Colliery went at regular intervals to pump the water out. Many of the surface buildings were retained and used to repair Ackton Hall's wooden wagons and reclaim copper from old electric cables.  Snydale Colliery closed in 1965 and it was decided to put in a water dam in the connection to Ackton Hall Colliery and fill in the shafts at Featherstone Main. The site was partly cleared but some buildings remained and were used by private companies.