Aston Area Collieries
From about the middle of 19th Century Rotherham the area around the village of Aston was heavily mined. These are the collieries that I have found:-
Aston Colliery
Aston Colliery was sunk on Aston Common in the 1840s but soon superseded by North Staveley.
Beighton Colliery
Beighton Colliery on Park Lane, adjacent to the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway, was sunk in 1920. Though I'm not sure if this was in Rotherham or Sheffield.
Brookhouse Colliery
Brookhouse shaft was sunk to the south of North Staveley Colliery in 1929. It closed in 1985 and from 1988 the site was opencast as part of the Pit House West Opencast Site. The opencast site yielded 1.5 million tonnes of coal during its working life between 1989 and 1994, 300,000 tonnes of which came from reworking the massive spoil heaps left by the former Brookhouse Colliery. The rest came from the working of 9 seams ranging from 0.1 to 1.3 metres thick. When the coaling was complete another 12 months were spent completing the landscaping of the site.
Fence Colliery was sunk in 1842. Fence Colliery was connected underground with Treeton Colliery and all coal was hauled from the Treeton shaft after 1887. Coal ceased to be mined at Fence Colliery in 1904 but the shaft remained in use for pumping. In the 1950s the colliery site became the NCB area workshops and stores but these closed in the 1990s.
These comments are from Roger:-
"Coal mining on the site at Fence, to the west of the village adjacent to the main Sheffield to Worksop road, commenced in the mid-1830s, however the Fence Colliery Company did not come into being until 1862 when the workings were developed. In 1875 the Fence Colliery Company became part of Rother Vale Collieries and its last coal was raised to the surface in 1902. The site was retained as a pumping station and much later became the site of the National Coal Board's area workshops, these finally closing in the 1990s."
North Staveley Colliery
North Staveley Colliery opened in 1864. All I can find on my map is the railway junction. The site of North Staveley Colliery is now occupied by industrial units.
Pit House West Opencast Mine
Opencasting took place on the site of the old pit tips to the north of what is now Rother Valley Country Park.
Waleswood Colliery
Waleswood Colliery. Other than throwaway mention of the name in a book I have read I know nothing about this colliery.
All these pits have now gone. Rother Valley Country Park has been developed on part of the area they covered. The Pit House West Site opencasting site has partly been reclaimed but if plans go ahead and finances are found the Yorkshire Experience Sensation (YES), or some such name, will be built here.