SKIERS SPRING

[graniteyorkie]

Does anybody have any maps or photographs of Skiers Spring between 1952 and 1979? I am planning to build a 4mm scale layout, using Skiers Spring as the template, and could do with a map for the colliery site.

Also, does anybody have any output statistics for Skiers Spring?

Many Thanks,

Frank

[John]

Never heard of that one Frank, I see by a search there's not a lot on the internet either. No doubt one of our Yorkshire members will know something.

[John]

Frank, Shane Phillips has mailed me a photo of Skiers Spring Colliery.
I've a couple of things to get done, then I'll transfer the photo to Photobucket and post it here for you.

[graniteyorkie]

Thanks John. I have a few pictures already, but more pictures would be very helpful. I found an article on the old Adamson's Drift, which would about quarter of a mile east of Skiers Spring, but I really need a map of the place to work out sidings and buildings.

[dazbt]

Anything of use here?;

www.irsociety.co.uk/Archives/54/Lidgett.htm

www.npemap.org.uk/tiles/map.html#435,398,1

[John]

With thanks to Shane Phillips.

[Wheldale]

Skiers Spring was a satalite shaft of Rockingham colliery, you might find more information out by looking into the Rockingham side.

Would have thought you would be able to view or buy old ordnance survey plans that feature the mine.

[John]

Just a thought, but you might find a surface map of the colliery to scale at the local authorities planning department archives.
I'd also hazard a guess the Coal Authority could well have a surface plan of the colliery at their Berry Hill, Mansfield office.

[graniteyorkie]

Thanks, I'll try and call Barnsley Library tomorrow and see if their local studies department can help.

[John]

It get's even more confusing when you deal in industrial archeology Eric.
In my searches for information on Wollaton Colliery, Nottingham, during the 1500's books mention Wollaton Colliery and yet what they were referring to was bell pits! Not a colliery in the sense of what we know as one

[graniteyorkie]

Hi, this is all great stuff- can anybody tell me roughly how much Skiers Spring- the 1950s pit- turned out roughly per annum? I need to know so that I can guess at how many railway wagons it would turn out on a typical day.

[erichall]

APOLOGIES - MEA CULPA, MEA MAXIMA CULPA.

I have deleted my previous post. The trouble with getting old is that one's mind starts to confuse. Despite having been brought up within 2 miles of 'Skiers' as it was coloquially known, having past it daily on my way to and from school every day for 7 years, having as a lad walked through the pit yard many times and having briefly WORKED at the place, I give you a load of bum info! Anyway - genuine info.
Skiers Spring Colliery was part of the Rockingham Colliery group, at which I spent some 8 years of my early career. It was connected underground some way, but don't ask me how, with the main colliery at Rockingham. It lay alongside the LMS Chapeltown branch of the Sheffield Barnsley Railway, just past the Wentworth & Hoyland Common Station, and between that and Elsecar & Hoyland Station. It was a DRIFT mine with an upcast shaft. The surface buildings contained Pit Head Baths and Offices for the 'small' colliery, I believe one face, and the offices of the then Group Manager. The Manager's Offices were surprisingly, at Hoyland Silkstone colliery, with a small office at Rock'. Coal was brought to the surface via a steel plate beltsome 30-36ins,wide. As far as I am aware, coal was not surprisingly filled into railway wagons , but taken by road to be screened at the main colliery at Rockingham.
There are a couple of photos in a book entitled :-'Britain in Old Photographs - Around Hoyland, people and places, bu authour Geoffrey Howse, ISBN 0-7509-3148-5 and labelled (David Doughty Collection) though I fear these will be of little help.
I will endeavour over the time to contact old friends who may be able to let me know more abvout this colliery.

[erichall]

Just a further addition. Sorry to disappoint you, graniteyorkie. On looking for further info about Rockingham, my 'alma mater' as it were, it was confirmed by another ex-Rocker that Skiers coal WAS despatched by ROAD to the mother pit at Rock for screening, so there were no sidings at Skiers.

[dazbt]

It is important to get the facts right as emphasised in previous posts, though not always easy. Now that the Skiers Spring coal transport system has been sorted (?) I for one would be thrilled to learn more about the Skiers Springs Colliery Coking Works close to the Hall and Pickles 'pick' manufacturers (that later became Hydra part of the Hoy Anderson Strathclyde Comapany I believe), in my short inexperienced career I had always known the coking works and colliery as Smithywood, it would be interesting to know when the name changed?
I also worked at Skiers albeit only on what must have been a one off breakdown visit, (well clouded in the mists of time) but perhaps mistakenly recalled that there were what I thought might have been extensive railway sidings (tracks at least) adjacent, although I reckon in a state of apparent deriliction and showing no signs of use at the time.
All great stuff as already stated.

[graniteyorkie]

@eric Hall- there were sidings at Skiers, I have a number of photographs of MGR wagons being shunted by a little Hudswell Clarke 0-4-0ST (1891 of 1961), which worked its entire life of 14 years at Skiers Spring, before Ogden Metals of Otley came to dismantle her for scrap in 1975. She was joined, in November 1969, by Hudswell Clarke 1892, which from what I gather did very little work. 1892 was briefly preserved, being owned by a gentleman called Mark Bamford, of Ashbourne, before being scrapped c.1979.

I've ordered a copy of the surface plans from the Coal Authority- and am waiting for those to arrive. The photographs I have give me a small idea of the sidings layout, but I need the surface plans to put everything into perspective.

[erichall]

FAO dazbt. Yes apologies for the mistakes I posted (and I think have corrected or deleted.)
In the Hoyland, Chapeltown area, the major pit was Rockingham Colliery. This was connected to Hoyland Silkstone (Platts Common) pit, which had been partially closed pre war, and to the Skiers Spring Drift Mine. Although this was officially a drift mine it did have an upcast shaft, which was used for winding materials. These three pits, Rockingham, the main pit, along with 'satellite mines at Hoyland Silkstone, Skiers Spring drift, and later Wharncliffe Silkstone formed one complex. I must admit that confusion often reigns,even in the minds of locals, since Skiers was almost the same site as the old Lidgett Pit. There were also separate sidings here for the opencast mining taking place on the land on the other side of the Railway on the land belonging to Earl Fitzwilliam. Smithywood Colliery never did change its name, and remained separate, along with its satellite pit of Thorpe Hesley. This pit was on the outskirts of Chapeltown, on the edge of Ecclesfield and on the road to Rotherham. It had an accompanying Coke Works, which stood between the colliery and the railway line between Chapeltown and Brightside on its way to Sheffield. On theopposite side of the railway line stood the works of Hall and Pickles. This was itself a branch of the main works in Poynton, Stockport, and carried the 'Hydra' Trade mark. It was an extensive site, comprising of a wire mill, a heavy metal department, a metal-label department which made the tags found on steel wire coils etc., and the STD as it was known. This relatively small department made various Small Tools, including the Hydra Cutter Picks used in many mines.
Whilst H&P still exsists as a firm, the ecclesfield Branch has, I believe, been lomg gone. The Cutter picks and other small tools were sold off, probably to the Hoy Co.
If you worked at Smithywood, dazbt, you possibly worked under a cousin of mine, a Mr. Alan Levitt, who was for a considerable period, manager there. You could quite easily have been seconded briefly to Skiers Spring Drift mine.