1910, Barnsley Bed Reached

Transcribed from the Sheffield Daily Telegraph – 20 June 1910

RICH COAL FIND

Barnsley Bed Struck at Maltby

A rich seam of the Barnsley bed of coal was reached on Friday at the Maltby Main, one of the new collieries that have recently been sunk in the Rotherham District.

The seam is no less than 8ft. 6in. Thick and of splendid quality, whereas at many pits in the district it is only 4ft. 6in. Thick. The depth at which the coal was found was 818 yards, which means that the Maltby Main Pit will be the deepest in Yorkshire.

It is expected that employment will soon be found for some thousands of miners, and that the village of Maltby, which up to the present has been a purely agricultural district, will become a thriving colliery centre. Situated some six miles from Rotherham, Maltby has formed part of the estate of Lord Scarbrough, and the site of the new colliery is erected in the erstwhile beautiful sylvan Maltby Wood. The picturesque ruins of Roche Abbey, still the Mecca of hundreds of pilgrims, and the trysting place of thousands of holiday makers, is only the proverbial stones throw away from the colliery.

Sinking operation at the Maltby Colliery were commenced over three years ago, and in the course of the work a good deal of hard rock was encountered. It was estimated that the Barnsley seam would be reached at a depth of from 750 to 800 yards, and that the coal would prove to be from five to six feet thick. Although the estimate as to the depth of the coal has been exceeded, more than adequate compensation has been forthcoming by the magnificent quality of the mineral, and the extra-ordinary thickness of the seam.

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