National Coal Mining Museum for England
Encyclopedia
The National Coal Mining Museum for England is based at the site of Caphouse Colliery
in Overton
, near Wakefield
, West Yorkshire
, England. It opened in 1988 as the Yorkshire Mining Museum and was granted national status in 1995.
The Yorkshire Mining Museum opened in 1988 and the museum became the National Coal Mining Museum in 1995.
and industrial history
of the mines. The extensive library and archive contains issues of "Coal News" and details of collieries throughout England. Other features include the pit head baths, steam winding house, boiler house and coal screening plant. It is possible to see former working pit ponies, ride the paddy train, follow the nature trail.
The museum is an Anchor Point of ERIH, the European Route of Industrial Heritage
.
, in Overton near Middlestown
between Wakefield
and Huddersfield
. It is signposted from the M1 motorway
. There is free car and coach parking. It is accessible by public transport, local bus services run within walking distance. From Wakefield or Huddersfield, the Huddersfield Bus Company (ex Yorkshire Traction/Stagecoach) 232 bus stops at the Reindeer pub with a short walk to the museum. The 128 service from Wakefield to Dewsbury
passes the Museum.
The NCM has occasionally featured in television programmes. In June 2005, Most Haunted Live!
visited the location on Summer Solstice
.
Caphouse Colliery
Caphouse Colliery, originally known as Overton Colliery, was a coal mine in Overton, near Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. It was situated on the Denby Grange estate owned by the Lister Kaye family, and was worked from the 18th century until 1985...
in Overton
Overton, Wakefield
Overton is a small village in West Yorkshire, England, between Wakefield and Huddersfield. It lies about south west of Wakefield, south of Ossett, west of Netherton and south west of Horbury....
, near Wakefield
Wakefield
Wakefield is the main settlement and administrative centre of the City of Wakefield, a metropolitan district of West Yorkshire, England. Located by the River Calder on the eastern edge of the Pennines, the urban area is and had a population of 76,886 in 2001....
, West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....
, England. It opened in 1988 as the Yorkshire Mining Museum and was granted national status in 1995.
History
Caphouse Colliery was sunk in the 1770s or 1780s and the Hope Pit in the 1820s. Sir John Lister Lister Kaye of Denby Grange took over James Milnes' leases the mineral rights in 1827 and his pits became the Denby Grange Colliery. The boiler house and stone and brick chimney at the museum are Grade II listed structures built around 1876 for Emma Lister Kaye along with the steam winding engine house, boiler yard, heapstead and ventilation shaft which are Grade II* listed. The boiler house has two Lancashire boilers and powered the winding engine. The timber headgear at Caphouse and the wood framed screens building at Hope Pit date from between 1905 and 1911. Pithead baths and an administration block were built between 1937 and 1938. The colliery was nationalised in 1947 and a drift mine opened in 1974. The colliery closed in 1985.The Yorkshire Mining Museum opened in 1988 and the museum became the National Coal Mining Museum in 1995.
Museum
The museum offers free guided underground tours where visitors can experience the conditions miners worked in and see the tools and machines they used as the industry and the mine developed through the years. Above ground there is a visitor centre which houses exhibitions on the socialSocial history
Social history, often called the new social history, is a branch of History that includes history of ordinary people and their strategies of coping with life. In its "golden age" it was a major growth field in the 1960s and 1970s among scholars, and still is well represented in history departments...
and industrial history
Industrial history
Industry in the sense of professional manufacturing has existed for millennia, since the first cities rose.-Cottage industry:A cottage industry is an industry – primarily manufacturing – which includes many producers, working from their homes, typically part time...
of the mines. The extensive library and archive contains issues of "Coal News" and details of collieries throughout England. Other features include the pit head baths, steam winding house, boiler house and coal screening plant. It is possible to see former working pit ponies, ride the paddy train, follow the nature trail.
The museum is an Anchor Point of ERIH, the European Route of Industrial Heritage
European Route of Industrial Heritage
The European Route of Industrial Heritage is a network of the most important industrial heritage sites in Europe. The aim of the project is to create interest for the common European Heritage of the Industrialisation and its remains...
.
Location
The museum is situated on the A642A642 road
The A642 is an A-road in West Yorkshire, England which runs from Huddersfield to the A64 near Leeds. It connects with the M1, M62 and A63.The road begins at Waterloo east of the town centre before going on via Lepton, Grange Moor, Middlestown, Horbury into Wakefield City Centre.The road then goes...
, in Overton near Middlestown
Middlestown
Middlestown is a small village in West Yorkshire, England, in the civil parish of Sitlington. The villages of Middlestown, Netherton, Overton and Midgley are built around and overlook the Coxley Valley....
between Wakefield
Wakefield
Wakefield is the main settlement and administrative centre of the City of Wakefield, a metropolitan district of West Yorkshire, England. Located by the River Calder on the eastern edge of the Pennines, the urban area is and had a population of 76,886 in 2001....
and Huddersfield
Huddersfield
Huddersfield is a large market town within the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, in West Yorkshire, England, situated halfway between Leeds and Manchester. It lies north of London, and south of Bradford, the nearest city....
. It is signposted from the M1 motorway
M1 motorway
The M1 is a north–south motorway in England primarily connecting London to Leeds, where it joins the A1 near Aberford. While the M1 is considered to be the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the United Kingdom, the first road to be built to motorway standard in the country was the...
. There is free car and coach parking. It is accessible by public transport, local bus services run within walking distance. From Wakefield or Huddersfield, the Huddersfield Bus Company (ex Yorkshire Traction/Stagecoach) 232 bus stops at the Reindeer pub with a short walk to the museum. The 128 service from Wakefield to Dewsbury
Dewsbury
Dewsbury is a minster town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, in West Yorkshire, England. It is to the west of Wakefield, east of Huddersfield and south of Leeds...
passes the Museum.
The NCM has occasionally featured in television programmes. In June 2005, Most Haunted Live!
Most Haunted Live!
Most Haunted Live was a spin-off of the paranormal reality television series Most Haunted and was also produced by Antix Productions. The show consists of paranormal investigations broadcast live over a period of one or more nights, usually with interactive sections that involve the...
visited the location on Summer Solstice
Summer solstice
The summer solstice occurs exactly when the axial tilt of a planet's semi-axis in a given hemisphere is most inclined towards the star that it orbits. Earth's maximum axial tilt to our star, the Sun, during a solstice is 23° 26'. Though the summer solstice is an instant in time, the term is also...
.
See also
- Rhondda Heritage ParkRhondda Heritage ParkRhondda Heritage Park, Trehafod, Rhondda, South Wales is a tourist attraction which offers an insight into the life of the coal mining community that existed in the area until the 1980s....
and Big Pit National Coal Museum in the South Wales ValleysSouth Wales ValleysThe South Wales Valleys are a number of industrialised valleys in South Wales, stretching from eastern Carmarthenshire in the west to western Monmouthshire in the east and from the Heads of the Valleys in the north to the lower-lying, pastoral country of the Vale of Glamorgan and the coastal plain...