See also:
The main main coal mining page
Poem 1925: The man who gets the coal
What now for Coal? The Reign of King Coal pt II: 2008 - ?
Or maybe the party is nearly over - Peak Coal (2025?)
There were 4 deep mining pits in the villages area that closed in the early to mid 1990s i.e. Dinnington, Kiveton, Shireoaks and Thurcroft, (and dozens of others of the Yorks and Notts coalfields - see List of pits 1987).
Coal Seam |
Description |
Approx depth (m) |
Approx depth (m)at Kiveton |
Mansfield Marine Band |
Layer of shale common throughout the coalfield containing distinctive fossils. It, and other marine bands, are used to identify the seams of coal. |
363 |
105 |
Aston Common Seam |
A household coal also used for coke making. Also called Meltonfield , Wath Wood , Wakefield Muck , or Clowne coal. |
447 |
190 |
Fox Earth Coal |
Designated Coal and Bat (inferior) |
470 |
218 |
Sough Coal. |
The seam was rarely worked and was often split by a dirt parting. Also called Two Foot Seam , Royston , Cat Coal , or Halfyard Seam . |
480 |
231 |
Furnace Coal |
This seam is called the Winter seam north of Barnsley and the Abdy seam south of the town. A household coal not mined extensively because the roof of the seam was often a shaly mudstone which made mining it difficult. Also called Scale coal . |
492 |
241 |
The Top and Low Beamshaw Seams |
These seams produce a good household coal with a low sulphur content but are often split by shales and in places they are separated by 10m of dirt. Also called Stanley Main coal. |
506 |
257 |
High Hazels Seam |
A good household coal, often mined. AKA Kents Thick , Mapplewell . The seam is split by a thin dirt parting known locally as Bannocking dirt. |
525 |
284 |
Top Hards seam AKA the Barnsley Seam |
This was the most important seam in the coal field and 50%
of the coalfields' output came from this seam. . |
605 |
365 |
The geology gets a little confusing here because a fault plane crosses the area at circa 600m. However, Sections of Strata also recorded Swallow Wood, Lidgett, Joan, Parkgate, and Thorncliffe coals below the fault. | |||
Base of lower Coal Measures |
350 million year old rock. Below this is Devonian rock |
1000? |
836 |
Note how the same seams at Kiveton are much closer to
the surface - partly explained by Kiveton's shaft starting at 110m
above sea level, but probably mostly due to Dinnington being in the Maltby
Trough and maybe displacement due to the fault called the
Rotherham-Kiveton-Manton
anticline. The coal seams are over 100m deeper at Thurcroft,
presumably because the strata dip into the Maltby trough.
In the J31 area the most important seams are the
Silkstone
,
Parkgate
,
Swallow Wood
,
Barnsley
/
TopHard
and
High Hazels
seams. In general the upper seams like High Hazels are high oxygen readily burning coals, whereas the lower seams and low oxygen coal that can be made into coke (smoke free fuel).
See also:
The main coal mining page
Poem 1925: The man who gets the coal
What now for Coal? The Reign of King Coal pt II: 2008 - ?
Or maybe the party is nearly over - Peak Coal (2025?)