Been meaning to get this posted for ages! This is my first report so apologies if it's not as refined or well structured as some of the more experienced urbexers on here.
Background
Stillingfleet Colliery was one of six pits that was opened around Selby, Yorkshire, as part of the government's 'Plan for Coal'. Shafts were sunk in the late 1970s and the pits were gradually opened throughout the 1980s. Although coal mining had previously occurred near Selby, such as at Kellingley Colliery AKA 'Big K', this was the first time the industry was centred on the town. These new mines were some of the most modern in the country and drew in miners from across the dwindling Yorkshire Coalfield and beyond, until their phased closure in the mid noughties, around when I was born! I've always been interested in the coalfield so was keen to go mooch about.
Getting to Stilly Colliery
The pit was, as the name suggests, near the village of Stillingfleet, between Selby and York. I drove up with some mates in May of this year, parking by the site's entrance barrier just off Cawood Road. We stepped under the barrier and walked along a private road that cuts through farmland before coming to a wooded area which once enclosed the colliery. This is a bit more difficult now as metal fencing has been erected, probably in response to a rave that happened there a week or two prior to us visiting. If you can get into the surrounding fields though you could still quite easily get to the colliery. Probably worth mentioning that there were signs at the pit warning of guard dog patrols, but we didn't see or here anybody.
The Colliery
Unsurprisingly, the site had some overgrown vegetation due to being largely disused for the best part of 20 years, but we soon got our bearings: to the west of the colliery was a large car park. Remember, many of the Selby mineworkers didn't live in the area and would commute from Castleford, Pontefract, Doncaster and so forth; so the Selby pits had to have parking space to accomodate. The car park was barricaded with heaps of rubble but they were easy enough to get over.
To the east was the mine itself. As with the other Selby mines, the pithead was gone and the shafts blocked up. There was however huge warehouse-style buidlings interlinked with rusting tracks. We didn't mange to get round every buidling, but we did go round one; where we found a newspaper from 2002 (the pit closed in 2004), a small break room, a bit of retro electrical hardware and what I think may have been a store room.
Dotted about outside we found small empty helium canisters which were probably left behind after the aforementioned rave. We also found used cartridges, which I think may have been ones used by the police as I've heard they've done firearms training there before. That or the police went Rambo on a group of partying adolescents.
The buildings to the south of the site, around where the pithead must have been, looked to be in use as we could hear noise coming from it and I think there was a company sign displayed. Apparently this is related to the extraction of subterranean gas from the shaft.
Photos
One of my favourite bits of urbex is getting photos, so here are a few I got at Stillingfleet. I won't upload them all but if you'd like to have a look at them, I've got some more of the buildings & tracks and some arty farty ones posted to Instagram and onto Selby Past and Present facebook page - just look up 'Isaac Betts Stillingfleet Mine' in the group and they should come up.
Cheers for reading!
Background
Stillingfleet Colliery was one of six pits that was opened around Selby, Yorkshire, as part of the government's 'Plan for Coal'. Shafts were sunk in the late 1970s and the pits were gradually opened throughout the 1980s. Although coal mining had previously occurred near Selby, such as at Kellingley Colliery AKA 'Big K', this was the first time the industry was centred on the town. These new mines were some of the most modern in the country and drew in miners from across the dwindling Yorkshire Coalfield and beyond, until their phased closure in the mid noughties, around when I was born! I've always been interested in the coalfield so was keen to go mooch about.
Getting to Stilly Colliery
The pit was, as the name suggests, near the village of Stillingfleet, between Selby and York. I drove up with some mates in May of this year, parking by the site's entrance barrier just off Cawood Road. We stepped under the barrier and walked along a private road that cuts through farmland before coming to a wooded area which once enclosed the colliery. This is a bit more difficult now as metal fencing has been erected, probably in response to a rave that happened there a week or two prior to us visiting. If you can get into the surrounding fields though you could still quite easily get to the colliery. Probably worth mentioning that there were signs at the pit warning of guard dog patrols, but we didn't see or here anybody.
The Colliery
Unsurprisingly, the site had some overgrown vegetation due to being largely disused for the best part of 20 years, but we soon got our bearings: to the west of the colliery was a large car park. Remember, many of the Selby mineworkers didn't live in the area and would commute from Castleford, Pontefract, Doncaster and so forth; so the Selby pits had to have parking space to accomodate. The car park was barricaded with heaps of rubble but they were easy enough to get over.
To the east was the mine itself. As with the other Selby mines, the pithead was gone and the shafts blocked up. There was however huge warehouse-style buidlings interlinked with rusting tracks. We didn't mange to get round every buidling, but we did go round one; where we found a newspaper from 2002 (the pit closed in 2004), a small break room, a bit of retro electrical hardware and what I think may have been a store room.
Dotted about outside we found small empty helium canisters which were probably left behind after the aforementioned rave. We also found used cartridges, which I think may have been ones used by the police as I've heard they've done firearms training there before. That or the police went Rambo on a group of partying adolescents.
The buildings to the south of the site, around where the pithead must have been, looked to be in use as we could hear noise coming from it and I think there was a company sign displayed. Apparently this is related to the extraction of subterranean gas from the shaft.
Photos
One of my favourite bits of urbex is getting photos, so here are a few I got at Stillingfleet. I won't upload them all but if you'd like to have a look at them, I've got some more of the buildings & tracks and some arty farty ones posted to Instagram and onto Selby Past and Present facebook page - just look up 'Isaac Betts Stillingfleet Mine' in the group and they should come up.
Cheers for reading!
