- Tinsley Park Collieries
Tinsley Park Collieries were a group of coal mines situated in the
Tinsley /Darnall area to the east of the City ofSheffield ,South Yorkshire ,England .History
Earl Fitzwilliam 's Estates were responsible for the sinking of a colliery at Tinsley in 1819, the same year in which the Greenland Arm of theSheffield Canal was opened, the Earl being a major contributor.Benjamin Huntsman & Co. acquired the lease to work coal.The pits, at that time, were basically
bell pit s and situated throughout the area where a network of small wagonways was built to take the coal to the canal. In 1833 Booth & Company of Park Iron Works in nearby Attercliffe were shown in White’s Directory as the colliery proprietors; the coal being used to produce coke for theiriron works . This iron works was bought out by Huntsman, son of Benjamin Huntsman the clockmaker and inventor ofcrucible steel . The first shaft was sunk in 1852. Further shafts were sunk in June 1902 and 1909. Over its lifetime the colliery worked the Wath Wood, High Hazels, Parkgate, Haigh Moor and Barnsley seams.In 1938 a loan was authorised to the
Renishaw Iron Company , with in return, operational control of that company and the right to supply coke to them, were secured by the colliery Company. The following yearTinsley Park Colliery Company made an offer to acquire J. and G. Wells'Eckington Collieries, with pits at Holbrook, Norwood and Westthorpe.Profits fell during the war years, a loss being recorded in 1943. Production costs had risen but outputs were down with many the men being in the Forces. The colliery was closed in early 1943.
Canal connections and wagonways
From its opening the collieries in Tinsley Park were connected to the
Sheffield Canal by a series of wagonways. Two parallel lines headed south-east from the canal to serve these pits, the longest of these, some 1 1/4 miles in length reaching to the Peacock pit.The canal connection was still visible up to the 1990s.Railway connections
A new railway, part of the
Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railway , was opened by theDuke of Portland in 1900. This was known as theSheffield District Railway , a small but important line which ran between theNorth Midland Railway atTreeton and theMidland Railway at Brightside Junction, reaching a goods station via a spur from Grimesthorpe Junction. This line had short branches to many of the big works along its route, the longest of these at over a mile in length served Tinsley Park Colliery Company.By-products
The colliery, from the end of the 19th century, had a battery of Simon-Carves recovery ovens at work and in 1913 a new battery of 40 regenerative ovens with recovery plant for
tar andammonia were built by theKoppers Coke Oven and By-Product Company of Sheffield. Steam for the Tinsley site was provided by twoLancashire boiler s which were fitted with burners for gas firing, the gas coming from their own supplies.By 1918 coke oven gas from the Tinsley ovens was being supplied to the
Sheffield Gas Company . The ovens atOrgreave Colliery also began to supply them from 1922.References
"By Seaway to Sheffield", by Roger Milnes. "Forward" - The Journal of the Great Central Railway Society. ISSN-0141-4488(This article also contains unpublished research material gathered in writing "Seaway to Sheffield". Some of this was provided in discussions on GCRS guided walks and trips along the Sheffield Canal)
"Sheffield Canal Tramways" by Fred Hartley. "Forward"-The Journal of the Great Central Railway Society, No.58, July 1986ISSN-0141-4488
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