Manvers Main Colliery

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Manvers Main Colliery was a coal mine, sunk on land belonging to the Earl Manvers and was situated on the northern edge of the township of Wath-upon-Dearne, between that town and Mexborough,in the Dearne Valley South Yorkshire. Within the complex was the Regional headquarters and laboratories of British Coal.

Manvers was, in fact, a complex of collieries, the original sinkings being known as "Old Manvers", the later sinkings as "New Manvers", and a coke and by-products plant. The first shaft was sunk in the late 1800s and this was followed by the second shaft, sunk between 1900 and 1901 and later a third shaft was added.

The Manvers Main Colliery Company were also responsible, in 1911, for the sinking of two shafts at Barnburgh, a village about two miles north east. The collieries were connected by a private railway.

On 4 March 1945 the colliery suffered an accident which caused the death of 5 underground workers. The cause was an explosion of firedamp ignited by sparks from a damaged trailing cable.

Immediately prior to nationalization Manvers was owned by Manvers Main Collieries Ltd. The coke ovens and coal by-products plant was closed in 1981 and the colliery complex on 25th March 1988.

[edit] Dereliction and rebirth

The land remained derelict until the mid – 1990s when the government started a regeneration programme with the assistance of the European Social Fund. Manvers, and the adjoining areas that were formerly the Wath Main Colliery, the Wath marshalling yard and locomotive depot, were bulldozed, landscaped and are now an area of light industry and commerce, including the call centres of companies such as Ventura, TSC, Ikea, T-Mobile and many others occupying the purpose-built units. They are now the area's largest private employers with approximately 60,000 employees between them. It is also home to the nursing campus of the University of Sheffield.

Plans have now been put in place, to develop more land to be used for 9 hole golf course with driving range, hotel, restaurants and residential home after the original plan for a multiplex cinema was objected to by Barnsley Council.

Several very large distribution and warehousing centres are currently under construction in Manvers: these are so large as to dominate the surrounding area.