Firbeck Main Colliery, July 2016
Intoduction:
Part of my quest to seek out what remains of the British Coal Industry brought me here, usually a place like this would be considered too far gone for me to even bother, but the fact that I'm really begining to get to understand and appreciate mining architecture allowed me to still very much enjoy a few hours wandering around this site.
To be fair most of the original buildings here at Firbeck do still stand, I mean there's a bath house, workshops, rail loader, power and winding houses, it's only really missing a fan drift, headstocks and coal prep plant.
Firbeck makes for a nice evening stroll anyway, and I managed to spend a good couple of hours roaming the site without a care in the world, which is a contrast in comparison to a lot of the pits I've explored in the past!
History:
Firbeck is a bit of an odd surrvivor when you consider that the pit actually closed way back in 1968! Infact, although the buildings are looking worse for wear I'd say they've done pretty well actually considering the amount of time that they've actually stood derelict.
The constuction of Firbeck Colliery began in 1923 by the Firbeck Main Colliery Company Ltd with the sinking of the two shafts, mining began in 1925 on the Barnsley Bed Seam, this seam would end up been the only one worked by Firbeck in it's rather short career.
In 1934 the Firbeck Pit Head Baths where opened, the baths still stand to this day and are recorded in the report below.
In 1940 the pit was taken over by the Doncaster Amalgamated Collieries Ltd and nationalised as part of the National Coal Board in 1947.
The colliery closed in 1968, the reason given was uneconomic production.
During the period of 1970/71 both the up and downcast shafts where filled in and the site abandoned.
Pictures:
We'd might as well start where the miners did and explore the Bath House first.
Clean side locker and changing room, long devoid of any lockers... The bath house conditioning tower can be seen to the right too. It takes a bit of imagination to picture what this pit would have looked like, but I can easilly picture it my head...
There are a few nice details left in the clean side of the bath house, including original paint, tiles and a very 30's skylight.
Heading through to where the showers would have been...
Sadly there's little to see in here now, the roof has gone and the partioning walls have been knocked down, upon inspection however there are clues to suggest that this shower room would have looked very Thoresby esque in that the white tiled partitions would have ran horizontal across the width of the bath house.
The Mansfield Massive...
Looking out from underneath the conditioning tower and back into the baths...
And the Dirty Side lockers...
Let's head over to the Power House now...
There's not an awful lot that remains inside the power house, but it's nice to just see one of these buildings still standing! They're dropping thick and fast sadly with the downfall of coal, and although stripped it still makes for a nice wander around. The power house was originally equipped with two Bellis and Morcome Steam driven air compressors. I'm not sure of the make of the winders themselves though.
No.1 Winding House.
Looking out of No.1 winding house at No.2...
Power House, where those two air compressors and other associated equiptment was housed.
The late evening light was awful for shooting in here, but it's a record...
No.2 Winding House.
Intoduction:
Part of my quest to seek out what remains of the British Coal Industry brought me here, usually a place like this would be considered too far gone for me to even bother, but the fact that I'm really begining to get to understand and appreciate mining architecture allowed me to still very much enjoy a few hours wandering around this site.
To be fair most of the original buildings here at Firbeck do still stand, I mean there's a bath house, workshops, rail loader, power and winding houses, it's only really missing a fan drift, headstocks and coal prep plant.
Firbeck makes for a nice evening stroll anyway, and I managed to spend a good couple of hours roaming the site without a care in the world, which is a contrast in comparison to a lot of the pits I've explored in the past!
History:
Firbeck is a bit of an odd surrvivor when you consider that the pit actually closed way back in 1968! Infact, although the buildings are looking worse for wear I'd say they've done pretty well actually considering the amount of time that they've actually stood derelict.
The constuction of Firbeck Colliery began in 1923 by the Firbeck Main Colliery Company Ltd with the sinking of the two shafts, mining began in 1925 on the Barnsley Bed Seam, this seam would end up been the only one worked by Firbeck in it's rather short career.
In 1934 the Firbeck Pit Head Baths where opened, the baths still stand to this day and are recorded in the report below.
In 1940 the pit was taken over by the Doncaster Amalgamated Collieries Ltd and nationalised as part of the National Coal Board in 1947.
The colliery closed in 1968, the reason given was uneconomic production.
During the period of 1970/71 both the up and downcast shafts where filled in and the site abandoned.
Pictures:
We'd might as well start where the miners did and explore the Bath House first.
Clean side locker and changing room, long devoid of any lockers... The bath house conditioning tower can be seen to the right too. It takes a bit of imagination to picture what this pit would have looked like, but I can easilly picture it my head...
There are a few nice details left in the clean side of the bath house, including original paint, tiles and a very 30's skylight.
Heading through to where the showers would have been...
Sadly there's little to see in here now, the roof has gone and the partioning walls have been knocked down, upon inspection however there are clues to suggest that this shower room would have looked very Thoresby esque in that the white tiled partitions would have ran horizontal across the width of the bath house.
The Mansfield Massive...
Looking out from underneath the conditioning tower and back into the baths...
And the Dirty Side lockers...
Let's head over to the Power House now...
There's not an awful lot that remains inside the power house, but it's nice to just see one of these buildings still standing! They're dropping thick and fast sadly with the downfall of coal, and although stripped it still makes for a nice wander around. The power house was originally equipped with two Bellis and Morcome Steam driven air compressors. I'm not sure of the make of the winders themselves though.
No.1 Winding House.
Looking out of No.1 winding house at No.2...
Power House, where those two air compressors and other associated equiptment was housed.
The late evening light was awful for shooting in here, but it's a record...
No.2 Winding House.
Heading out to the railway engine shed I came across the remains of the narrow gauge track.
And finally a couple of the little engine shed...
Thanks for looking,
TAW
And finally a couple of the little engine shed...
Thanks for looking,
TAW
