Fence Colliery was a small colliery sunk at the lower end of the village of Fence, 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...

 alongside the main Sheffield to Worksop road in the 1840s, shortly before the opening of the North Midland Railway

North Midland Railway

The North Midland Railway was a British railway company, which opened its line from Derby to Rotherham and Leeds in 1840.At Derby it connected with the Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway and the Midland Counties Railway at what became known as the Tri Junct Station...

 through the Rother Valley

River Rother, South Yorkshire

The River Rother is a river in the northern midlands of England, after which the town of Rotherham and the Rother Valley parliamentary constituency are named. It rises near Clay Cross in Derbyshire, and flows through the centre of Chesterfield, where it feeds the Chesterfield Canal...

.

History

The original coal pit at Fence, a small village within Rotherham Rural District alongside the main Sheffield to Worksop road. started operations in the 1840s.

In 1862 the Fence Colliery Company was formed to purchase the colliery, this leading to a period of development of the colliery and the building of houses for its workers. These were built along Falconer Lane, on the opposite side of the main road to the colliery, and are still in use.

Closure and after life

Fence colliery closed as a coal producing unit in 1904, coal from its reserves being brought to the surface at Orgreave

Orgreave, South Yorkshire

Orgreave is a village and civil parish in South Yorkshire, England.At the time of the 2001 census, the parish had a population of 761.Orgreave forms part of the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham; until 1974, it was part of the Rotherham Rural District, the town of Rotherham being to the...

, but it was retained as a pumping station. Nationalisation came in 1947 and in the 1950s the site became home 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...

s divisional workshops, finally closing in the 1990s. After a short period of inactivity the site was redeveloped as Ley's Cast Iron Foundry, being relocated from Dronfield

Dronfield

Dronfield is a town in North East Derbyshire in the North Midlands region of England. It comprises the three communities of Dronfield, Dronfield Woodhouse and Coal Aston. It is sited in the valley of the small River Drone, and lies between the town of Chesterfield and the city of Sheffield. The...

.