The Birley Collieries were a group of coal mines set in the Shire Brook

Shire Brook

Shire Brook is a small stream in the south eastern part of the City of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. It rises in the suburb of Gleadless Townend and flows in a general easterly direction for 6.5 km to its confluence with the River Rother between Beighton and Woodhouse Mill.In the past...

 Valley in south east Sheffield

Sheffield

Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...

, South Yorkshire

South Yorkshire

South Yorkshire is a metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It has a population of 1.29 million. It consists of four metropolitan boroughs: Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham, and City of Sheffield...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. They were connected to the railway system by a branch line from the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway

Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway

The Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway was formed by amalgamation in 1847. The MS&LR changed its name to the Great Central Railway in 1897 in anticipation of the opening in 1899 of its London Extension.-Origin:...

 at Woodhouse East Junction, about 800 yards east of Woodhouse station

Woodhouse railway station

This station is in Woodhouse, Sheffield. It should not be confused with a station of similar name at Mansfield Woodhouse.Woodhouse railway station, formerly Woodhouse Junction, is a railway station serving the Woodhouse and Woodhouse Mill in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The station is ...

.

The collieries

The Birley collieries were owned by the Sheffield Coal Company

Sheffield Coal Company

The Sheffield Coal Company was a colliery owning and coal selling company with its head office situated in South Street, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England.- Formation :...

 who also owned nearby Brookhouse and North Staveley collieries. These collieries stood either side of the M.S.& L.R. line less than a mile to the east of Woodhouse East Junction.

In 1866 the Sheffield Coal Company, which had been founded in 1805, signed an agreement with the Earl Manvers

Earl Manvers

Earl Manvers was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1806 for Charles Pierrepont, 1st Viscount Newark. He had already been created Baron Pierrepont, of Holme Pierrepont in the County of Nottingham, and Viscount Newark, of Newark-on-Trent in the County of Nottingham, in...

 to work below his lands in the Frecheville, Woodhouse and Hackenthorpe area, just outside the then Sheffield boundary. Over the following ten years they sunk and developed Birley West Colliery on a site in the Shirebrook Valley between Woodhouse

Woodhouse, South Yorkshire

Woodhouse ward—which includes the district of Woodhouse and most of Handsworth—is one of the 28 electoral wards in City of Sheffield, England. It is located in the southeastern part of the city and covers an area of 7 km2. The population of this ward in 2001 was 17,900 people in...

 and Hackenthorpe.

A further 10 year plan followed in which more land was acquired and a new shaft sunk, however, it was not until spring 1887 that work commenced on this new sinking. The following year the part completed colliery gained the name Birley East Colliery. Although a small amount of coal was being cut from the new colliery, brought to the surface at Birley West, it was not until 1890 when a new winding engine

Winding engine

A winding engine is a stationary engine used to control a cable, for example to power a mining hoist at a pit head. Electric hoist controllers have replaced proper winding engines in modern mining, but use electric motors that are also traditionally referred to as winding engines.Most proper...

 was installed that it fully came on stream. Later expansion came with mining rights being obtained from the Duke of Norfolk to mine below Handsworth Common.

The end - not quite but nearly

Birley West drew its last coal in 1908 and production then concentrated on the East pit.

The last coal was drawn at Birley East on 15 October 1943 but the life of the pit was not quite at an end. In December 1943 Ernest Bevin

Ernest Bevin

Ernest Bevin was a British trade union leader and Labour politician. He served as general secretary of the powerful Transport and General Workers' Union from 1922 to 1945, as Minister of Labour in the war-time coalition government, and as Foreign Secretary in the post-war Labour Government.-Early...

, the Minister of Labour announced to the House of Commons

British House of Commons

The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...

 at a ballot was to be held, from time to time, in which those men whose National Service Registration Certificates end with the chosen number would be transferred to the mines. This gave rise to the term Bevin Boy. Many colliers had the new trainees alongside the production unit but at Birley they were able to use the recently closed facilities. Accommodation was provided in Nissen huts on Beighton Road, the first occupants arriving in early 1944.

Following the end of World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 and the demobilisation of the Bevin Boys

Bevin Boys

Bevin Boys were young British men conscripted to work in the coal mines of the United Kingdom, from December 1943 until 1948. Chosen at random from conscripts but also including volunteers, nearly 48,000 Bevin Boys performed vital but largely unrecognised service in the mines, many of them...

, came new trainees, this time men from our allies in Europe wanting to make their home in England, particularly a large contingent from Poland. Even after the last trainee moved on the end was not quite in site, a new borehole topped with a pumping house was constructed on the site to help solve the water table problems at Brookhouse. This operated until the closure of Brookhouse Colliery in 1986 when it was finally switched off – the end for Birley had arrived.

The Birley Branch

In 1851 the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway proposed to construct a series of short branch lines with the objective of increasing the railways coal carrying. Parliamentary permission for these lines was granted under the M.S.& L.R. (Coal Branches) Act, 1852 but only one of the lines was built, that from Woodhouse East Junction to Birley (West) Colliery.

The Birley Coal Branch was 2.75 miles in length and came into use in June 1855, having being built by Thomas Waring and Company for the sum of 9989.00. The line was single track and operated under "One engine in steam" principle. The line was worked by the M.S.& L.R. (later Great Central Railway

Great Central Railway

The Great Central Railway was a railway company in England which came into being when the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway changed its name in 1897 in anticipation of the opening in 1899 of its London Extension . On 1 January 1923, it was grouped into the London and North Eastern...

 and London & North Eastern Railway) until 1934 when the colliery company took over operations. It was at this time that the colliery changed from a production unit to a training centre.

The Birley "Paddy Mail" accident, 1920

This accident took place on the section between Woodhouse and Birley West colliery. The "Paddy Mail" was 'topped and tailed' by colliery locomotives, BIRLEY No.3 at the front and ORIENT at the rear. The driver on the front locomotive, Mr. A. Brammer, should have been in possession of the single line staff for the section, but he did not have it and the train was involved in a head on accident with a light locomotive coming in the opposite direction. The two coaches were so badly damaged that they were replaced with a rake, bought second-hand, from the Great Northern Railway

Great Northern Railway (Great Britain)

The Great Northern Railway was a British railway company established by the Great Northern Railway Act of 1846. On 1 January 1923 the company lost its identity as a constituent of the newly formed London and North Eastern Railway....

.

"Didn't we have a lovely day....."

The Paddy Mails were not the only passenger trains to use the branch. On an annual basis, from the mid-1890s to the outbreak of World War One, the branch was used by the "Pitmen's Family Outing" – a trip, on which the workers voted for the destination from a selection of seaside resorts. The workers contributed 2d (less than 1p) per week to the 'trip fund'. The trains were run on Saturdays and started as early as 3.00 a.m. from the colliery yard, passengers boarding by ladder into coaches which could only be described as 'basic'- compartment stock with no toilets. The return train, depending on destination, could arrive back well into the early hours of the Sunday morning.

On 15 June 1907 three trains were run, in the working timetable, No.15 from Beighton

Beighton railway station

Beighton railway station lies where the line of the Sheffield and Lincolnshire Junction Railway crosses Rotherham Road. It was built to serve the village of Beighton, at the time within Derbyshire but following changes in boundaries now within the City of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England.The...

 at 5.00 a.m., No.14 and No.16 from Birley Colliery yard at 4.35 a.m. and 5.10 a.m. to Bridlington and Scarborough. All trains also called at Woodhouse. The trains arrived back just after midnight.
In total these trains were shown as carrying 50 Committee, 2,500 adults and 350 children.

In 1913 the excursion ran to Blackpool with a departure time from the colliery yard around 3.00 a.m. and an arrival back at 5.00 a.m. on the Sunday.

Locomotives

All the locomotives, except those shown, passed to the National Coal Board

National Coal Board

The National Coal Board was the statutory corporation created to run the nationalised coal mining industry in the United Kingdom. Set up under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946, it took over the mines on "vesting day", 1 January 1947...

 on nationalisation. The locomotives could be found working at either Birley or Brookhouse collieries as required, although some were allocated specific workings.

No./Name	Wheel Arr.	Cyls.	Makers	Wks No.	Date Blt.	Notes
BELSIZE	0-6-0ST	OC	BP	1829	1878	Withdrawn c.1928
BIRLEY No.1	0-4-0ST	OC	MW	787	1881	Sold to J. Aird & Co.
BIRLEY No.2	0-4-0ST	OC	MW			Scrapped c.1911
ORIENT	0-6-0ST	IC	HC	365	1890	To Brookhouse 1951
BIRLEY No.3	0-4-0ST	OC	P	972	1903	Scrapped c.1940
BIRLEY No.4	0-4-0ST	OC	P	1073	1907	Scrapped 1933
BIRLEY No.5	0-4-0ST	OC	P	1454	1917	Transferred to Maltby
BIRLEY No.6	0-4-0ST	OC	P	1653	1927	Withdrawn & cut up 12.67 - C.F.Booth,Rotherham.
WDG	0-6-0ST	IC	P	1634	1927	William Dun Gainsford. Scrapped 2.67
TRG	0-6-0ST	IC	P	1765	1929	Thomas Robert Gainsford
VICTORY	0-4-0ST	OC	AB	1654	1920	ex-T.W.Ward

Abbreviations:
Cylinders:

• IC:Inside Frames
• OC:Outside Frames.

Builders:

• AB:Andrew Barclay & Sons Co.
  Andrew Barclay & Sons Co.
  Andrew Barclay Sons & Co. was a builder of steam and diesel locomotives, based in Kilmarnock, Scotland, that was founded in 1840 and is now owned by Wabtec Rail.- History :...
  
  
• HC:Hudswell Clarke & Co
• MW:Manning Wardle & Co.
• P :Peckett & Sons, Bristol

Further Reading and Listening

• Winding Up – the History of Birley East Colliery by Alan Rowles. Published by the author with assistance from Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Libraries. 1992. ISBN O 903666-61-8
• The Victorians – Cyril and Walter Hare. BBC Radio Sheffield / South Yorkshire Sound Archive.