Monument record MDR4697 - Salterwood Colliery (site of) and earlier coal and ironstone workings, Denby Park, Denby

Sanderson's map of 1835 shows 'Denby Colliery' at the northern end of Salter Wood, connected with 'Pits' at the southern end of the Wood. (1) Similarly, the 1st ed. 1" Ordnance Survey map has 'Colliery', linked by a branching tramway or railway with other sites to the north and south. (2) The 1st ed. 25" Ordnance Survey map of c. 1880 shows several tramways, old coal pits, old ironstone pits and shafts, as well as a small colliery, 'Salterwood Colliery' towards the southern end of the Wood. (3) Salterwood Colliery expanded at the end of the 19th century. (4) During opencast coal operations, a group of bell-pits were identified in the Tupton (or Low Main) Seam at Salterwood opencast site near Denby. Interspersed among the old (possibly 16th century or earlier) bell pits, which are usually between twlve and twenty feet in diameter, there are also some shafts sunk chiefly for iron ore at a much later date (late 18th or early 19th century) which are considerably smaller. The largest bell pit is oval in shape, measuring 16ft by 10ft at the top of the seam and 19ft by 12ft at the base. The shaft was approximately 20 ft deep. In the Silkstone Seam (about 145ft below the Tupton), pillar and stall workings were identified. A section of a wooden curb was found in this seam which, because it bears impressions of bricks, was clearly a support fitted in a shaft with a permanent brick lining. (5)