HISTORY FEATURE: Honouring Rotherham’s mining heritage

While the pits themselves now provide land for nature reserves, retail parks and housing estates, we continue to preserve this important part of our industrial heritage. Two prominent events this year alone commemorate Maltby Main and celebrate Silverwood, as BOB WESTERDALE and GARETH DENNISON report.   

BRITISH “Tommy” John Spilsbury survived the horrors on the battlefields of the Somme.

While 420,000 of his countrymen perished in and around the trenches on the Western Front, John was one of the fortunate who returned home to Blighty.

Post-war work was scarce, so he walked from his home in Stoke to seek employment in the South Yorkshire coalfield, eventually settling down with his family in Cavendish Place, Maltby.

Five years after the end of the First World War, his luck ran out.

The 33-year-old was one of 27 colliers whose lives were instantly ended by a huge explosion in 1923 — one which would have mirrored the terrifying artillery blasts of seven years earlier in France.

On July 28, this year — a century to the day — his grandson Bill will be one of the many townsfolk who will gather to pay their respects.

Bill (75) is helping to organise a memorial service on Line Kiln Lane — 800 yards above the remains of the men, which still lie underground.

It is a landscape owned by Richard Lumley, the 13th Earl of Scarbrough, although the field is effectively consecrated ground.

The July service will be followed by a reception in the Maltby Catholic Club, Millindale.

For former Maltby Grammar schoolboy Bill, it will be a chance to honour the memory of not just his grandfather but the rest of the pitmen, who were aged between 15 and 48.

The disaster was a gruesome event that blighted Maltby for generations.

“Only one body was recovered at the time, his name was Original Renshaw, who lived in Farquhar Road, then the area was sealed up,” said Bill, of Greenland Avenue.

“Another unknown miner was found in 1947, when I was six days old.

“It was discovered when work was being done on an adjacent seam and the body just fell out.

“When the air got to the body it crumbled into dust and was instantly unrecognisable. The remains were moved with a dustpan and brush into a box and then a coffin.

“It was a very gassy mine so it was just too dangerous to bring the other bodies up. So my grandad was never found.”

The remains of both men who were discovered were lain to rest in the cemetery on Grange Lane.

But for the others, the monument on Lime Kiln Lane is effectively their only tombstone.

Little is known about the lives of many of John Spilsbury’s tragic colleagues, a century ago.

But locals say collier Joseph Spibey (29) was a talented footballer, who had trials with Manchester United.

He had just moved to Maltby after a pit closed in Wigan and was so new to the area that he was living in digs, awaiting a house being delegated for him.

Leonard Meredith (22) woke up late for his shift at the pit, and didn’t have time to tie up the laces of his pit boots, charging off to ensure he got in the lift shaft, alongside his mates.

He reached it just in time, sparking the suggestion that had he stopped to tie his laces, he might have survived.

Ernest Clixby (27) was a gas analyst who was called in to check underground methane levels.

Not many people seemed to know him — and it was only later that people realised a yellow sports car left unattended in the pit car park for weeks was his.

The pit remained open for business after the disaster and provided coal until April 2013.

Locals held a parade through town to mark the closure — and remember those who had lost their lives there both in the disaster and at other times.

Great-grandfather and widower Bill, whose dad worked at Thurcroft and Maltby collieries, says the day’s activities will be independent of other activities planned by Maltby Main Football Club.

The non-league club is spending around £6,500 on a new monument at their ground. It will be unveiled by a family descendant of one of the 27 victims.

Bill, who is chairman of the Maltby Miners’ Memorial Community Group, says the football club is entitled to do what it wants, but he foresees issues with the monument.

“We have nothing to do with Maltby Main,” he said. “We have been going a lot longer than when they started with their idea.

“There has been a monument with all the names on it at Lime Kiln for six years.

“And if that is not central enough, there is a monument to all miners in general on the main road near the sports centre.  

“What annoys me is I hear they are going to set the monument in the wall near the gate at the club.

“The club’s lease will run out in 23 years and that area is, and will be, prime building land.

“Any monument could disappear like the Stute (Welfare Club) did and we have seen other things disappear to contractors in former pit villages like Dinnington, Thurnscoe, Shirebrook, and Silverwood.”

A club member at Maltby Main said: “We decided to do the monument simply because it was 100 years and we wanted to show our respects.

“We are doing it for those who died and the community. Maybe in another 50 or 100 years, somebody will do something else.

“As for the possibility of development in 25 years’ time — well, if we had to move it, we’d move it.”

Over in central Rotherham, inside Clifton Park Museum’s “test space” gallery, is Silverwood Colliery Heritage Group’s exhibition.

This had been touring various village halls as a pop-up display but the level of interest was so high that it made the step up and opened on January 21.

The exhibition consists of artefacts, memorabilia, facts, memories and stories relating to Silverwood Colliery, which was sunk in 1900 and closed in 1994.

Group founder Neil Bingham said his team had already been supported by the museum staff for several years — and were thrilled to be given the opportunity of creating and displaying their collection there.

The exhibition took about four months to organise and had been set to close in mid-March — but has now been given an extension of almost three months.

Neil said: “It has been surrounded by nothing but positivity. I couldn’t be happier with the interest and praise the exhibition has received.

“It has been enjoyed and appreciated by all age groups, the former Silverwood workforce, their families and provides an insight for anyone wanting to learn about the life of a coal miner and life in a coal-mining community.

“With the exhibition still attracting visitors to the museum and still gaining public interest, the decision was made to change the closing date to June 4.”

Lisa Howarth, Rotherham Council museum, arts and heritage manager, said: “We offer our test space gallery to community groups or artists to put on their own exhibitions or develop creative ideas.

“Silverwood was one of the community groups we had been aware of for quite a while. We kept checking in with them every so often and they were very keen to do this exhibition.

“Our collections team worked with them on how they would put on the exhibition and helped them to tell their story in their own way, because groups like this are the experts on their topics.

“When I walked in, I was so proud of what the heritage group had done. It had been a learning curve to take it from the village halls to an exhibition at the museum.”

Lisa said the Silverwood exhibition was sparking many memories and conversations among visitors — and was part of efforts to keep the museum fresh and encouraging return trips.

She added: “Our visitors are really loving this one, and Rotherham is full of different stories like Silverwood’s. It’s such a lovely thing for us to be able to tell these stories and reach new visitors.

“We’re pleased that the exhibition is continuing because it has been so well received. Word of mouth has played a big role in this one.

“One of the key things for us is to keep things fresh. It’s important to give people the opportunity to see new things and visit more than just once a year.”

Neil said discussions had already taken place for his group — including committee members Reg Crofts, Sylvia Crofts, Pauline Hinds Davies and Andy Aucott — to continue to work with the museum team.

He added: “I’m in the very early stages of planning a new exhibition for a special anniversary event next year and hopefully putting together a presentation and programme to be taken into schools.

“We are also currently planning a group outing to the Durham Miners’ Gala this year and are working on future remembrance and memorial services.

“I’m so proud of what we have achieved this far as a group and the way in which everyone has got behind the vision of keeping the memory of Silverwood Colliery alive and for its history and legacy to be passed on for generations to come.”