Wakefield Museums and Castles

For 200 years coal mining was a central part of the Wakefield district. People came from across Britain to work in the mines. The industry changed the local landscape. 

There had been small mines near Wakefield since the 1400s. They supplied coal for limekilns. But the Industrial Revolution led to a huge increase in demand. Factories need coal to power their steam engines. By the 1770s new mines were being sunk to supply coal to industry across the country. It was transported using the new canal network.

In the 1800s bigger and deeper mines opened across the Wakefield district. Mining reached its peak in about 1920 when there were 1.2 million people employed. In 1947 mines became nationalised under the National Coal Board. Mining still employed 750,000 people. 

However, coal was declining in importance. Ships had switched to oil for fuel. The railways turned to diesel. Gas began to replace coal in power generation. Mines started to close.

In the 1980s, especially after the Miners' Strike in 1984 to 1985, the government decided coal had no future. They began to close the whole industry.

Kellingley became the last deep mine in Britain. It closed in 2015. Very quickly, the obvious physical signs of mining disappeared. 

Today the pit heads with their winding gear, slag heaps and railway sidings have gone. Instead, there are shopping malls, industrial estates and new houses. But mining heritage is still part of Wakefield. 

Miners demonstrating machinery underground at Glasshoughton Colliery, August 1970