19-608: National Coal Mining Museum for England is based at the site of Caphouse Colliery in Overton, Wakefield, West Yorkshire , England. It opened in 1988 as the Yorkshire Mining Museum and was granted national status in 1995. Caphouse Colliery was sunk in the 1770s or 1780s and the Hope Pit in the 1820s. Sir John Lister Kaye of Denby Grange took over James Milnes' leases the mineral rights in 1827 and his pits became
38-406: Is 11 feet in diameter and although it had been deepened and widened may have been the oldest working mine shaft in the country in the 1980s. In 1892 colliers were paid 4/6d. per day and 13/6d. in 1938. In 1901 the colliery employed 93 workers and this total rose to 206 in 1911, and 240 in 1918. The colliery was sold in 1907. After the sale, the name Denby Grange Collieries referred to Caphouse and
57-453: Is signposted from the M1 motorway . It can be reached by car or public transport. The museum features regularly on television programmes, especially those with a focus on genealogy and mining culture. Footnotes Bibliography Caphouse Colliery Caphouse Colliery , originally known as Overton Colliery , was a coal mine in Overton , near Wakefield , West Yorkshire , England. It
76-670: The South Yorkshire Coalfield lie mainly in the middle coal measures within what is now formally referred to as the Pennine Coal Measures Group . These are a series of mudstones , shales , sandstones , and coal seams laid down towards the end of the Carboniferous period between about 320 and 300 million years ago. The total depth of the strata is about 1.2 kilometres (0.75 mi). The list of coal seams that follows starts at
95-628: The Middleton Collieries who oversaw the enlargement of the enterprise in the 1820s. His son, Sir John Lister Lister-Kaye took over the lease for getting coal from the Overton Colliery on his own estate from the executors of James Milnes in 1827 and began to expand the colliery. Milnes' pits were linked to the Calder and Hebble Navigation at Horbury Bridge by a wooden wagonway which was later laid with iron rails. Hope Pit
114-584: The Prince of Wales Colliery (locally known as Wood Pit) situated near New Hall in Flockton. Pithead baths and an administration block were built around 1937 and surface buildings upgraded between 1943 and 1946. The colliery became part of the National Coal Board on nationalisation in 1947. A drift mine opened in 1974. In 1978 the colliery employed 230 men winning 4,000 tons of coal per week from
133-580: The Beeston Seam. The coal reserves were exhausted by 1985 and the colliery closed. It reopened as the Yorkshire Mining Museum in 1988. Sir John Lister Lister-Kaye (1801-1871) linked Hope Pit, Caphouse, and Victoria Pits at Netherton to the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway 's Barnsley branch and the Calder and Hebble Navigation at Calder Grove by a private mineral line. John Marsden who managed
152-724: The Coal Mining industry. A new interactive Pony Discovery Centre was opened in 2021 replacing the older stables block sited in the Boiler Yard. The museum is an Anchor Point of ERIH, the European Route of Industrial Heritage . The museum held the exhibition 'My Mining Days' for mining artist Tom Lamb in 2008–2009. The museum is situated on the A642 , in Overton near Middlestown between Wakefield and Huddersfield . It
171-681: The Denby Grange Colliery. The boiler house and stone and brick chimney at the museum are Grade II listed structures built around 1876 for Emma Lister Kaye along with the steam winding engine house, boiler yard, heapstead and ventilation shaft which are Grade II* listed. The boiler house has two Lancashire boilers and powered the winding engine. The timber headgear at Caphouse and the wood framed screens building at Hope Pit date from between 1905 and 1911. Pithead baths and an administration block were built between 1937 and 1938. Lockwood and Elliott who owned Shuttle Eye Colliery had acquired
190-586: The colliery by 1942. The colliery was nationalised in 1947 and a drift mine opened in 1974. The colliery closed in 1985. Under the directorship of Margaret Faull , the Yorkshire Mining Museum opened in 1988. The museum became the National Coal Mining Museum in 1995. In October 2022, the museum staff voted to strike over a below inflation pay offer. The museum offers guided underground tours where visitors can experience
209-489: The colliery from 1852 for Sir John Lister Lister-Kaye designed and built the line to avoid tolls charged for using the turnpike. The line began near Hope Pit with a tunnel under the Wakefield - Austerlands turnpike. Two rope-hauled inclines the second partly in a tunnel were needed before the line reached the navigation or the railway. Two locomotives, four-wheeled Solferino and six-wheeled Balaklava were bought to operate
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#1732771903805228-519: The conditions miners worked in and see the tools and machines they used as the industry and the mine developed through the years. Above ground, the museum sits on a 45-acre (18 ha) semi-rural site, with over a dozen galleries documenting the social and industrial history of the mines. The extensive library and archive contains a first edition of De re Metallica , as well as issues of "Coal News" and details of collieries throughout England. There are numerous other original features on site, including
247-512: The line. The Prince of Wales Pit (subsequently named Denby Grange Colliery) was sunk close to the line near New Hall Wood in 1870. The mineral railway fell out of use apart from the end section when road transport was favoured over rail in the late 1940s. Bibliography 2: The Selby Coalfield straddled the border of North and West Yorkshire 53°38′36″N 1°37′16″W / 53.6433°N 1.6211°W / 53.6433; -1.6211 Flockton Seam The coal seams worked in
266-609: The pit head baths, steam winding house, boiler house and coal screening plant. The site maintains an operating paddy train connecting the main Caphouse hub to the Hope Pit area of the site, where a natural Water Treatment facility with reed beds and bird hides is operated in partnership with the Coal Authority . There is also an interpretive nature trail connecting the wooded valley area of the site. The museum has had many developments in recent years. The Miners Memorial Garden
285-492: Was later deepened to the New Hards Seam . The pits were originally ventilated by furnaces at the shaft bottoms. Caphouse Colliery was again developed in 1876 when the steam winding engine house, boiler yard, chimney, stone heapstead and ventilation shaft were completed for Emma Lister Kay, the sole proprietor. The headframe is built of pitch pine with steel braces, a late survivor of its type. The Caphouse shaft
304-479: Was mined in 1793. Leases for mining coal were held by Timothy Smith who leased the original Denby Grange Colliery north of Flockton and James Milnes who mined coal at Emroyd and Old Flockton. Some coal was supplied locally, but much more was sent to distant markets to the east of Pontefract via the Calder and Hebble Navigation . Smith's coal pits were under the control of Sir John Lister Kaye by 1817 and were managed by estate managers including John Blenkinsop of
323-485: Was opened in 2015, and a large mining-themed adventure playground was built in 2017. Significant improvements to the visitor welcome hub, which contains the museum's retail, education, catering and conferencing facilities were made from 2018 onwards owing to funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund . Since the early 1990s, the museum has hosted pit ponies and other horses with links to
342-819: Was situated on the Denby Grange estate owned by the Lister Kaye family, and was worked from the 18th century until 1985. It reopened as the Yorkshire Mining Museum in 1988, and is now the National Coal Mining Museum for England . The colliery was on the Denby Grange Estate, home of the Lister Kayes, in an area where coal had been mined for many years. Coal was close to the surface and the Flockton Thick Seam
361-538: Was sunk close by in 1827 and the Blossom Pit on the opposite side of the Wakefield to Austerlands turnpike road, the A642 , was sunk by 1840. Hope Pit's shaft descends 215 yards and produced coal after 1829. The coal was wound by horse gins until the 1920s. It was one of the earliest Yorkshire coal mines to use electrical coal cutters. The Inman Water Shaft was sunk to 97 yards in about 1840 to pump water from Hope Pit and its beam engine house survives. The shaft
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