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Nunnery Colliery was a coal mine close to Sheffield at Darnall, South Yorkshire. The mining company, known as The Waverley Coal Company, also worked High Hazels Colliery about 3 miles (5 km) further east.

History

Mining started on the Nunnery site in 1868 and it is claimed that its coal supplied the bulk of the coal trade within the city of Sheffield. A fire broke out in one of the shafts of the colliery on 12 July 1871, though all miners were able to escape via the other shaft and the fire was soon put out, but work was halted for several days.

The colliery was nationalised in 1947 becoming part of the National Coal Board and closed in August 1953, its reserves said to be exhausted.

The Nunnery "Paddy Mail" accident

On 3 December 1923 an accident was caused by the breaking of a rope hauling an underground Paddy Mail train, carrying 90 men and 30 boys. Seven people were killed and around 50 others injured.

The 500-yard (460 m)-long rope was 19 months old but, the management stated that there was no guidance in the Mines Act (or elsewhere) as to the life, or required strength, of a rope. A section of the broken rope was submitted for examination to a local testing company and Dr C. H. Desch, Professor of Metallurgy at Sheffield University. The strain on the rope was at its highest level when the coal was being drawn, and one of the mysteries of the accident was that it occurred when the men were in the train and the strain would therefore be lighter.

James Hoyland, superintendent at the testing works said the test did not prove that the rope had materially weakened. Dr C. H. Desch said that he had examined the two pieces of broken rope 2 ft (60 cm) long taken from a short distance on each side of the fracture. He was unable to throw any light as to how the rope fractured in the way it did but it was clear that it broke in a tension pull. The jury at the inquest returned a verdict of "accidental death".

The Locomotives

The Waverley Coal Company locomotives could be found working at Nunnery or High Hazels Collieries. All the locomotives listed below, except those shown as being scrapped became the property of the National Coal Board from 1 January 1947.

Abbreviations

Cylinders:

• IC Cylinders inside frames.
• OC Cylinders outside frames

Builders:

• AB Andrew Barclay & Sons Co.
• FW Fox, Walker & Co.
• HE Hunslet Engine Company
• HL Hawthorn Leslie and Company
• KS Kerr Stuart & Co.

Other

• M.D. & H.B. Mersey Docks and Harbour Board
• S.& M.R. Shropshire and Montgomeryshire Railway

References

1. "State Of Trade". The Times. No. 31257. 6 October 1884. p. 11. ISSN 0140-0460.
2. "The Nunnery Colliery, Sheffield". The Times. No. 27115. 14 July 1871. p. 4. ISSN 0140-0460.
3. "Sheffield Mine Accident". The Times. No. 43515. 4 December 1923. p. 12. ISSN 0140-0460.
4. Elliott, Brian (2009). South Yorkshire mining disasters, volume 2; the twentieth century. Barnsley: Wharncliffe. p. 68. ISBN 9781845630577.

• East of Sheffield by Roger Milnes. "Forward" – The journal of the Great Central Railway Society, No.16, July 1984. ISSN 0141-4488 (This article also uses unpublished material researched for "East of Sheffield").
• The Times, 7 December 1923

53°23′7.3″N 1°26′7″W / 53.385361°N 1.43528°W / 53.385361; -1.43528

• Railway accidents and incidents in Yorkshire
• Coal mines in Sheffield
• Underground mines in England
• 1923 disasters in the United Kingdom