Kiveton Park Colliery was a coal mine in the village of Kiveton Park

Kiveton Park

Kiveton Park, informally Kiveton , is a village within the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham, in South Yorkshire, England. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, from the Norman conquest to 1868, Kiveton was a hamlet of the parish of Harthill-with-Woodall...

, near Rotherham

Rotherham

Rotherham is a town in South Yorkshire, England. It lies on the River Don, at its confluence with the River Rother, between Sheffield and Doncaster. Rotherham, at from Sheffield City Centre, is surrounded by several smaller settlements, which together form the wider Metropolitan Borough of...

, 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...

. Until 1845 Kiveton was a rural village, the main work being in agriculture. In that year a railway was built through the district which connected 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...

 with Worksop

Worksop

Worksop is the largest town in the Bassetlaw district of Nottinghamshire, England on the River Ryton at the northern edge of Sherwood Forest. It is about east-south-east of the City of Sheffield and its population is estimated to be 39,800...

, Retford

Retford

Retford is a market town in Nottinghamshire in the East Midlands of England, located 31 miles from the city of Nottingham, and 23 miles west of Lincoln, in the district of Bassetlaw. The town is situated in a valley with the River Idle and the Chesterfield Canal running through the centre of the...

 and Grimsby

Grimsby

Grimsby is a seaport on the Humber Estuary in Lincolnshire, England. It has been the administrative centre of the unitary authority area of North East Lincolnshire since 1996...

. This became part of 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:...

 and gave a major transport system which, almost 20 years later, saw coal, mined at many locations along the line, being sold to merchants in the Manchester area and in the port of Grimsby.

Overview

In 1864 Carrington and Company leased rights to mine coal in the area around Kiveton, sinking beginning on 6 June 1866 and the Barnsley seam being reached on 5 December 1867, just over 400 yards (365.8 m) below the surface. The company bore their name until 1873 when the Kiveton Park Colliery Company was founded. Initially gas was obtained from the Beighton Gas Company but in the 1870s the company began to make their own. This lasted until 1956 when it drew its supply from the grid.

A new shaft, sunk in 1886 to reach the Thorncliffe seam, reached its target at a depth of almost 700 yards (640.1 m). This coal was used for coking purposes and coke ovens were built adjacent to the colliery. The seam, because of a band of dirt at its centre, was, at that time, an uneconomic proposition and abandoned only 10 years after work commenced. Another shaft was sunk adjacent to that serving the Barnsley seam and connected to it. For ventilation purposes this shaft was taken down to the Silkstone seam at over 700 yards (640.1 m). Passing through the High Hazels seam at just over 300 yards (274.3 m) this was opened up in 1900 because of its very good quality house coal, the small coal mined was used for manufacturing purposes. Until 1929 all coal was mined by hand but in the years to 1940 the mining was mechanised.

In 1928 an amalgamation took place between Kiveton Park and Sherwood Collieries and in 1944 they were taken over by the United Steel Companies

United Steel Companies

The United Steel Companies were a steel making, engineering, coal mining and coal by-product group based in South Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.-History:...

. The mining industry was nationalised in 1947.

The Barnsley seam was worked out in 1970, after just over 100 years of providing coal from its reserves. The colliery was closed in 1994.