Shuttle Eye Colliery 1948.[1] Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland.
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Shuttle Eye Colliery was on the South Yorkshire Coalfield at the crossroads on Grange MoorA tract of moorland more than 700 feet above sea level gave its name to this Yorkshire village. in West Yorkshire, between Wakefield and Huddersfield on the A642 road.
Coal was mined on a small scale from 1837, accessing shallow seams, probably the Joan Coal or Flockton Thick. The deep colliery was started in the 1850s by Benjamin Lockwood and Joshua Ellam. Lockwood had made his money weaving textiles and was the licensee of the Blacksmiths Arms public house at Grange Moor crossoads. After 1882 his son Job Lockwood was in charge. He formed a partnership with Benjamin Elliot, and together they developed the pit.[2]
The colliery had two shafts, the deepest 288 yards (263 m). It produced coal from the Beeston and Black Bed seams. Coal was transported to mills on the east side of Huddersfield by horse and cart.[2] Elliott had entered into partnership with Jesse Jagger, owner of Grange Ash CollieryColliery that operated between 1871 and 1966, south of the A642 road east of Grange Moor crossroads. to the east of Shuttle Eye by 1896.[3]
The colliery was nationalised in 1947.[4] In 1896 the colliery had 86 underground workers and 13 on the surface. By 1923 the workforce numbered 179, and 175 ten years later; at nationalisation the colliery had 234 underground and 40 surface workers.[4] It employed 222 workers in the 1970s.[5]
Two drift mines at Gregory Spring in Hopton near Mirfield to the north were linked to Shuttle Eye in 1962.[5] The colliery closed in 1973.[5] The shafts were filled and capped and the site was cleared and is now occupied by warehousing.[2]