New Colliery – from Sylvan Scenery to Industrial Dirt & Grime

March 1889

Mexborough and Swinton Times March 29, 1889

The New Colliery at Conisborough

The first sod’s of the new company at Conisborough, which will be commenced on at once in connection with the Denaby Main Colliery company, were turned on Monday by the son of Mr Edmund Pope, who is one of the principal owners.

The shaft will be sunk a large field on the Cadeby side of the River Don, opposite the railway station amidst some pretty scenery, and the work will be pushed on with all possible dispatch.

Already the foundations for the engines that will be necessary to carry on the work have been commenced, and in a short time the large field will present a most animated appearance. Nearly all the material that will be used in the sinking and building operations will be found close at hand.

A lime kiln is now in course of erection towards the summit of the Cadeby Hill and all the lime required for the work will be burned. Bricks will be made on the spot, and there is a plentiful supply of first-class stone to be obtained from a disused, though barely touched quarry, a little distance away from the shaft itself. It was here that stone, huge blocks, were cut for the building of the Grimsby docks some years ago, and although pronounced to be of excellent quality it was not used on account of the cost of transport stop

It may therefore be expected that in the course of a year or so this pretty little spot, upon which the eye likes to linger with a loving glance as it marks its beauty, will be completely transformed by the smoke from the coke ovens and the bustle and does that appertains to a colliery.

We cannot have prosperity and silvan scenery together, at all events not about here, and in this utilitarian age the pretty is to go to the wall for the useful.

But although the spirit of John Ruskin may be grieved, the arts of many will be gladdened, and Conisborough and its neighbourhood will most certainly derived great benefit from this extension of the Denaby Main company.

In time, it may be, the castle will lose its charm to thousands of trippers who every summer repair to its beautiful surroundings as a glad seven change from the smoke and dirt and grime of their own dwelling place, for there is no doubt that before many years trade will have swept away from the valley all the sweetness and its bold and chivalrous traditions is substituted in its place a thriving, busy, populist town.