Sheffield Evening Telegraph – Wednesday 09 October 1889
Extension of The South Yorkshire Coalfield.
A Prospective View
Gradually but surely the coal measures in the neighbourhood of Barnsley are being worked out, and with; each succeeding year the trade is drifting eastward.
It is tolerably certain that at the present rate of output the seam thereabouts will soon be exhausted, and those who realise this fact predict the opening up of an entirely new portion of the coalfield, with Mexborough or Doncaster for its centre.
In the event of this taking place, it would not be long before Barnsley changed places with those towns now occupying positions on the confines of the present colliery district. The easternmost pit in South Yorkshire is Denaby Main, and perhaps it is also the largest. Coal is reached a depth of about 450 yards, and is important to bear in mind that the deeper the sinking the thicker becomes the Barnsley seam.
The bed out-crops at Darton, near Barnsley, and Darnall, near Sheffield, and gradually “dips,” until at Doncaster it is not reached much under a depth of 1,000 yards. The Denaby Main Colliery Company employ close on 2,000 hands, and they have underway an enterprise which will add considerably to their labour employing capacity. It is, besides, the first step towards the much-talked of South Yorkshire Colliery extension. A new pit is being sunk under their auspices at Cadeby, directly opposite the famous Conisborough Castle, and right in the middle of the charming scenery in descriptions which Ivanhoe abounds.
It will be remembered that about two years ago the company obtained the mineral rights of about 4,000 acres on the Sprotborough estate, and plans and specifications were got out for the sinking of a new colliery to work them. Satisfactory progress has been made, and 200 men are already engaged. The difficulty in the way, however, of reaching those coal measures further north is that there are no means of communication, and with the object of surmounting that impediment the Denaby Company, single-handed and unaided, promoted a Bill last session in the House of Lords for the construction of a line of railway 12 miles in length, joining the Great Northern at Black Carr and the Hull and Barnsley at Wrangbrook. As might have been expected the project was opposed at every stage by the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway Company, principally because, perhaps, it gives the Denaby Company an alternative route to Hull and the east coast.
A committee of five heard the Bill, with Lord Jersey chairman, but in its concluding stages the president was taken ill and obliged to retire. His place was taken by Lord Cork, and when the measure came to be voted upon, there were two in favour of and two against the passing of the preamble. Lord Cork, his casting vote, threw the Bill out.
These facts would not have become known but that one of the dissentient peers expressed his regret that the committee had come to the conclusion it had, and ventured to describe the defeat of the Denaby Company as a “public misfortune.” Another effort will, however, be made next session, and the colliery company are confident that in the end they will successful, inasmuch as public policy demands that new coalfields must opened in the near future.
A great portion the coal under the Sprotborough estate, however, can be reached from the new pit at Cadeby. It is calculated that coal will readied in about five years. It was feared that almost insurmountable obstacle would met with in the water bearing strata, but so far very little, comparatively speaking, has been encountered, and the manager, Mr. W. H. Chambers, feels confident that the resources of modern engineering will prove equal triumphing over whatever springs are cut into. The method by which this will be done consists of cast-iron tubing, made water-tight, forming the lining of the shaft. The permanent engines have already been ordered, and are almost ready for delivery; they have 45 inch cylinders, seven foot stroke, with 1,500 indicated horse power. The “dip from Denaby Main Colliery to the Cadeby workings one in 18, and the distance being little over a mile, the difference in the depth which coal will be met with is some 150 yards. It has been proved in recent years that little or no extra cost is incurred in raising coal from greater depth than from lesser, and, therefore, there is every reason believe that the same success will attend the company’s new undertaking as has accompanied the old colliery at Denaby.
There is also a wide stretch of country reaching from the valley of the Don right across to Worksop, that is as yet untouched. The Rotherham and Bawtry line was partly intended open up this district, but the proposal seems hang fire, though there is little doubt that it will eventually be an accomplished fact. The Swinton and Knottingley joint line, running from Swinton through Bolton-on-Dearne, Frickley, and Moorthorpe, on to Pontefract was doubtless also built with the view of extensive mineral undertakings being located along its route; but up to the last few years the condition of trade has not been of such a character to induce capitalists to sink their money in this direction. The decided revival which has latterly become apparent must soon bear its fruits, and the time is not far distant when the almost’ purely agricultural district which the Swinton and Knottingley line pierces will present quite different aspect. Swinton and Knottingley line and the proposed new railway of the Denaby Main Colliery Company’s run due north, a distance of about eight miles, if that, separating them. They thus encompass a very large mass of coal, easily accessible from one or other of the lines.
For years past there have been periodical assertions made that the neighbourhood of Conisborough, stretching south, contains valuable ironstone beds, and strength of local representations more than one trial shaft has been sunk and the deposit tested. It is be feared, however, that it is not worth working. It is merely coal measure ironstone, and it is found impossible to compete with the large deposits of hematite that now supply the market. Coal measure ironstone, unless it is of exceedingly good quality, such found at Lowmoor, is not worked. Some years ago an attempt was made to make it pay at Thorncliffe, but the idea had to be abandoned, as it could not possibly live with the overpowering competition of Frodingbam and other places.
Professor Green, the eminent geologist, has examined the Conisborough ironstone, and is understood to have declared that it would not pay for the working, and those most interested in the matter have bestowed no little care in ascertaining its true value. The outcome of it all is that it is not valuable.
Some 50 years ago Mr. Huntsman worked the stone at Hooton Roberts, but the deserted workings are sufficiently clear testimony to the comparative worthlessness of the deposit.
At the Denaby Main Colliery itself many top improvements are noticeable to the traveller as he passes along the line from Mexborough Doncaster. A large “smudge” washing house 117 feet long and 61 feet wide is in course of erection, and it is calculated that 400 tons of “smudge” can be washed there per day. The object is to produce clearer coke, and it is anticipated that, by the use of a German patent, all the particles of dirt will be separated from the smudge, and that readier market will be found for the coke. New stables, 140 feet long and 27 feet wide, are also being put up.