National Coal Mining Museum for England

Last updated

National Coal Mining Museum for England
National Coal Mining Museum.jpg
National Coal Mining Museum
National Coal Mining Museum for England
Former name
Yorkshire Mining Museum
Established1988
LocationCaphouse Colliery, New Road, Overton, Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England [1]
Coordinates 53°38′36″N1°37′16″W / 53.6433°N 1.6211°W / 53.6433; -1.6211
Type Heritage centre
Collection sizeOver 45,000
Visitorsc.110,000 (2019/20)
Employeesc. 85 (March 2021)
Website www.ncm.org.uk

The National Coal Mining Museum for England is based at the site of Caphouse Colliery in Overton, Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. It opened in 1988 as the Yorkshire Mining Museum and was granted national status in 1995.

Contents

History

Caphouse Colliery was sunk in the 1770s or 1780s and the Hope Pit in the 1820s. Sir John Lister Kaye of Denby Grange took over James Milnes' leases the mineral rights in 1827 and his pits became the Denby Grange Colliery. The boiler house and stone and brick chimney at the museum are Grade II listed structures [2] built around 1876 for Emma Lister Kaye along with the steam winding engine house, boiler yard, heapstead and ventilation shaft which are Grade II* listed. [3] The boiler house has two Lancashire boilers and powered the winding engine. The timber headgear at Caphouse and the wood framed screens building at Hope Pit date from between 1905 and 1911. Pithead baths and an administration block were built between 1937 and 1938. [4]

Lockwood and Elliott who owned Shuttle Eye Colliery had acquired the colliery by 1942. [5] The colliery was nationalised in 1947 and a drift mine opened in 1974. The colliery closed in 1985. [4]

The Yorkshire Mining Museum opened in 1988 and the museum became the National Coal Mining Museum in 1995. [4] In October 2022 the museum staff voted to strike over a below inflation pay offer. [6]

Museum

Headstock Caphouse Headstock.jpg
Headstock

The museum offers guided underground tours where visitors can experience the conditions miners worked in and see the tools and machines they used as the industry and the mine developed through the years.

Above ground, the museum sits on a 45-acre (18 ha) semi-rural site, with over a dozen galleries documenting the social and industrial history of the mines. The extensive library and archive contains a first edition of De re Metallica, as well as issues of "Coal News" and details of collieries throughout England. There are numerous other original features on site, including the pit head baths, steam winding house, boiler house and coal screening plant. The site maintains an operating paddy train connecting the main Caphouse hub to the Hope Pit area of the site, where a natural Water Treatment facility with reed beds and bird hides is operated in partnership with the Coal Authority. There is also an interpretive nature trail connecting the wooded valley area of the site.

The museum has had many developments in recent years. [7] The Miners Memorial Garden was opened in 2015, and a large mining-themed adventure playground was built in 2017. Significant improvements to the visitor welcome hub, which contains the museum's retail, education, catering and conferencing facilities were made from 2018 onwards owing to funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Since the early 1990s, the museum has hosted pit ponies and other horses with links to the Coal Mining industry. A new interactive Pony Discovery Centre was opened in 2021 replacing the older stables block sited in the Boiler Yard.

The museum is an Anchor Point of ERIH, the European Route of Industrial Heritage. [8]

The museum held the exhibition 'My Mining Days' for mining artist Tom Lamb in 2008–2009. [9]

Collection

Railway Locomotives

Battery Electric Locomotives

  • Narrow Gauge
    • Atlas 2463 [10]
    • 713007 (Clayton B0182B) [10]
    • Clayton No. 7 SICK NOTE [10]
    • Clayton B3538 COMPO [10]

Diesel Hydraulic Locomotives

Disused engine, Caphouse Colliery Museum - geograph.org.uk - 625181.jpg
  • Narrow Gauge
    • Hunslet 7530 [10]
    • Hunslet 8832 (flameproof) [10]
    • YKSMM 2001.831 (GMT 4w-4wDHF Rack) [10]
    • GMT 0592 KIRSTIN [10]
    • Hunslet 9271 (rack fitted) [10]
  • Standard Gauge
    • NCB 44 (Hunslet 6684) [10]
    • Hunslet 7307 [10]
    • Thomas Hill 249V [10]

Diesel Mechanical Locomotives

  • Narrow Gauge
    • Hunslet 6273
    • Hudswell-Clarke DM1356 [10]
    • Hudswell-Clarke DM655 [10]
    • Hudswell-Clarke DM746 [10]
    • Ruston & Hornsby 375547 [10]
    • Ruston & Hornsby 379659 [10]
  • Standard Gauge
    • Hudswell-Clarke D1121 MANTON

Steam locomotives

  • Standard Gauge
    • RSH 7298 PROGRESS 0-6-0ST [10]

Location

The museum is situated on the A642, in Overton near Middlestown between Wakefield and Huddersfield. It is signposted from the M1 motorway. It can be reached by car or public transport. [11]

The museum features regularly on television programmes, especially those with a focus on genealogy and mining culture.[ citation needed ]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bowes Railway</span> British preserved standard gauge cable railway system (built 1826)

The Bowes Railway, built by George Stephenson in 1826, is the world's only operational preserved standard gauge cable railway system. It was built to transport coal from pits in Durham to boats on the River Tyne. The site is a scheduled monument. The railway is open every week on Thursday, Friday and Saturday as well as on a number of event days throughout the year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Astley Green Colliery Museum</span> Museum in Greater Manchester, UK

The Astley Green Colliery Museum is a museum run by the Red Rose Steam Society in Astley near Tyldesley in Greater Manchester, England. Before becoming a museum, the site was a working colliery that produced coal from 1912 to 1970; it is now protected as a Scheduled Monument. The museum occupies a 15-acre (6 ha) site by the Bridgewater Canal which has the only surviving pit headgear and engine house on the Lancashire Coalfield.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northamptonshire Ironstone Railway Trust</span>

The Northamptonshire Ironstone Railway Trust operates a 1+12-mile (2.4 km) long heritage railway line at Hunsbury Hill, south-west of Northampton. The line is mainly dedicated to freight working, featuring many sharp curves and steep gradients which were typical of the industrial railway, but rides are available in a variety of vehicles including a converted brake van.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hunslet Austerity 0-6-0ST</span> Class of steam locomotive

The Hunslet Austerity 0-6-0ST is a class of steam locomotive designed by Hunslet Engine Company for shunting. The class became the standard British shunting locomotive during the Second World War, and production continued until 1964 at various locomotive manufacturers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scottish Industrial Railway Centre</span> Railway museum in Patna, Scotland

The Scottish Industrial Railway Centre is an industrial heritage museum operated by the Ayrshire Railway Preservation Group. The centre owns a number of standard gauge steam locomotives and diesel locomotives as well as some narrow gauge items and an extensive collection of photographs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pontypool and Blaenavon Railway</span>

The Pontypool and Blaenavon Railway is a 3.5-mile (5.6 km) volunteer-run heritage railway in South Wales, running trains between a halt platform opposite the Whistle Inn public house southwards to the town of Blaenavon via a two-platform station at the site of former colliery furnace of the Big Pit National Coal Museum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hudswell Clarke</span> Rolling stock manufacturer

Hudswell, Clarke and Company Limited was an engineering and locomotive building company in Jack Lane, Hunslet, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Middleton Railway</span> Railway line in Leeds, England

The Middleton Railway is the world's oldest continuously working railway, situated in the English city of Leeds. It was founded in 1758 and is now a heritage railway, run by volunteers from The Middleton Railway Trust Ltd. since 1960.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caphouse Colliery</span>

Caphouse Colliery, originally known as Overton Colliery, was a coal mine in Overton, near Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. It was situated on the Denby Grange estate owned by the Lister Kaye family, and was worked from the 18th century until 1985. It reopened as the Yorkshire Mining Museum in 1988, and is now the National Coal Mining Museum for England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manning Wardle</span>

Manning Wardle was a steam locomotive manufacturer based in Hunslet, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Netherton, Wakefield</span> Human settlement in England

Netherton is a village in the City of Wakefield metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, England. It lies about 4 miles south-west of Wakefield, 3 miles south of Ossett, 1 mile south of Horbury. The village is in the Wakefield Rural ward of Wakefield Metropolitan District Council. The village name is shown on map "Dvcatvs Eboracensis pars occidentalis" from 1646.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Hudson (company)</span>

Robert Hudson Ltd was a major international supplier of light railway materials, based in Gildersome, near Leeds, England. The name was later changed to Robert Hudson (Raletrux) Ltd.

Kilnhurst Colliery, formerly known as either Thrybergh or Thrybergh Hall Colliery, was situated on the southern side of the village of Kilnhurst, near Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Overton, West Yorkshire</span> Village in West Yorkshire, England

Overton is a village between Wakefield and Huddersfield in West Yorkshire, England. The village is situated approximately 5.5 miles (9 km) south-west of Wakefield, 4 miles (6 km) south of Ossett, 1 mile (1.6 km) west of Netherton and 4 miles south-west of Horbury. Overton is conjoined at its north-east to the larger village of Middlestown. Coxley Woods are less than 1 mile (1.6 km) to the south-east.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cefn Coed Colliery Museum</span> Mining museum in Neath Port Talbot, Wales

Cefn Coed Colliery Museum is a former coal mine, now operating as a museum. It is located at Crynant near Neath in the South Wales Valleys.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anson Engine Museum</span>

<span class="mw-page-title-main">RNAD Broughton Moor</span>

RNAD Broughton Moor is a decommissioned Royal Naval Armaments Depot located between Great Broughton and Broughton Moor in the County of Cumbria, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chatterley Whitfield</span> Disused coal mine in Chell, Staffordshire, England

Chatterley Whitfield Colliery is a disused coal mine on the outskirts of Chell, Staffordshire in Stoke on Trent, England. It was the largest mine working the North Staffordshire Coalfield and was the first colliery in the UK to produce one million tons of saleable coal in a year.

Gin Pit was a coal mine operating on the Lancashire Coalfield from the 1840s in Tyldesley, Greater Manchester then in the historic county of Lancashire, England. It exploited the Middle Coal Measures of the Manchester Coalfield and was situated to the south of the Tyldesley Loopline.

Sitlington is a civil parish in the metropolitan borough of the City of Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. The parish contains ten listed buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage List for England. Of these, two are listed at Grade II*, the middle of the three grades, and the others are at Grade II, the lowest grade. The parish contains the villages of Middlestown, Netherton, and Overton, and the surrounding countryside. In the parish is the large house, Netherton Hall, which is listed together with associated structures. Also in the parish is the former Caphouse Colliery, later the National Coal Mining Museum for England, which contains two listed buildings. The other listed buildings consist of farm buildings, a wagonway tunnel and its portal, a row of cottages, a milepost, and a church.

References

Footnotes

  1. "Contact | National Coal Mining Museum for England". www.ncm.org.uk. Retrieved 3 April 2020.
  2. Historic England. "Chimney and attached boiler house at Caphouse Colliery (1135481)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 31 December 2014.
  3. Historic England. "Winding house, heapstead and headstock at Caphouse Colliery (1135482)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 31 December 2014.
  4. 1 2 3 Historic England. "Caphouse Colliery (765996)". Research records (formerly PastScape). Retrieved 31 December 2014.
  5. Taylor (2001), p. 62
  6. "Wakefield's National Coal Mining Museum staff to strike over pay". BBC News. 20 October 2022. Retrieved 23 October 2022.
  7. "About Us". National Coal Mining Museum. Retrieved 1 October 2021.
  8. National Coal Mining Museum for England, European Route of Industrial Heritage, retrieved 31 December 2014
  9. "Mining art exhibition opens in Yorkshire". Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining . 22 October 2008. Archived from the original on 18 February 2017. Retrieved 17 February 2017.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Industrial Railway Society (2019). Industrial Locomotives (18EL). Industrial Railway Society. ISBN   978 1 901556 99 5.
  11. "Map and Directions". National Coal Mining Museum for England. Archived from the original on 24 September 2009. Retrieved 25 July 2009.

Bibliography