On Saturday 14th February, our volunteers returned to site – after the longest, wettest, dullest January that anyone can remember; the country being lashed by Storms Goretti, Ingrid and Chandra, but the light had returned! It was still a bit nippy though as the Friends arrived at Hemingfield – with no water for the birds in Pump House Cottage garden, only ice – despite the brighter skies!
Wow. 2025 rattled by at a fair old lick, and already the new year of 2026 is upon us.
After a winter pause for the Christmas break, we are planning for the year ahead, but first, a little glance back over our shoulder at 2025…
Continue readingThe Friends of Hemingfield Colliery are pleased to update their Forward plan for the site, including identifying specific funding initiatives which will help to conserve and repair this unique surviving piece of mining heritage.
150 years ago on Monday 6th December 1875, a terrible explosion ripped through the underground workings 230 yards beneath the surface at Swaithe Main Colliery, near Worsbrough, near Barnsley. A second explosion had also likely been triggered by the first.
239 men and boys were at work underground at the time, and altogether the disaster claimed 143 lives, although the specific cause was never ascertained.
The explosion killed horses and men, flame burning a number of victims and charring the wooden props, as well as blasting coal tubs (corves) and other debris and causing roof falls blocking parts of the workings. Two of the first rescuers also succombed to afterdamp.
We remember them and the real dangers of working the Barnsley Coal seam in the 19th Century, just as was worked at Hemingfield Colliery, Lundhill and the Oaks which all saw disasters in the 1850s and 1860s.
Continue readingPutting a name to a face is one thing, but what about a face to a name?
John Hartop is a name few might instantly recognise, and yet, from 1857 to 1886 at least, one which figured largely in the working lives of hundreds of Earl Fitzwilliam’s colliers and their families around Elsecar and Parkgate. Despite this there appear to be no obviously identified images or published photographs of him, unlike many other prominent figures before and since.
Even when people lived and worked well into the era of photography, it can be a challenge for local or family historians to track down such images. Photographs may survive, unlabelled or unloved; faces unknown, names detached as it were; the context lost, and as friends and family fade away, time dissembles all.
So, where to begin for a name without a face?
Perhaps at the beginning…
Continue readingThis post follows the Friends and volunteers on their activities, and new adventures from July through to September 2025.
It has been a busy time, with our regular volunteers attending and assisting a wide range of events and joining with others to support and celebrate our local heritage.
Continue reading114 years ago, in July 1911, the Society of Chemical Industry held their Annual General Meeting at Sheffield.
On Wednesday 12th July, members gathered at the Cutlers’ Hall to begin proceedings before a meal at the Grand Hotel.
Their gathering also included visits to related industrial sites, including local factories, collieries and ironworks. This post explores a couple of the highlights relevant to South Yorkshire’s industrial history with a focus on areas close to our own.
Continue readingWarm weather continued into June, as nature’s pollinators revelled in their constant gardening on site.
Ostensibly a quietish month as we plan for the Autumn open days and await permissions for restoration work on our scheduled monument site and the listed Pump House Cottage.
Again, we are exceptionally grateful to South Yorkshire’s Community Foundation for their support this year which has helped us with site insurance to open for visits and prepare displays and activities with our volunteers.
And that said – plenty to report, both good and bad as you will see!
Continue readingMay 2025 was hot. Ridiculously so. Following April’s unseasonal heat, the burning sun clung on tenaciously until the late May Bank Holiday weekend.
Continue readingLate March ran rapidly into into April as the Friends held their first full Open Day of the year in 2025: Easter Sunday. It was a lovely day, with perhaps the best of the Sunny weather over the long bank holiday weekend. But the volunteers had been kept busy in the weeks building up to the open day itself as you will see.
Once again we owe a huge thanks to South Yorkshire’s Community Foundation in supporting our activities on site, without them this year we would not have been able to hold an Open Day.
Continue reading