Silverwood Colliery

Silverwood Colliery was a colliery situated between Thrybergh and Ravenfield in Yorkshire, England. Originally called Dalton Main, it was renamed after a local woodland. It was owned by Dalton Main Collieries Ltd.

Dalton Main Collieries Limited became a public company which was floated on the in December 1899. The purpose of the company was to buy out the business of Roundwood Colliery, purchase land at Silverwood, between Thrybergh and Ravenfield, and sink a new deep colliery there. These installations were to be connected to a boat staithe on the River Don by a railway. The first shaft commenced sinking in 1900 and coal was being worked by 1904.

The railway, from Roundwood Colliery, became known as John Brown's Private Railway after the company which became sole owners of the Dalton Main Collieries from 1909. There was also a line which ran from Silverwood, past Ravenfield, and down to join the existing line just north of Anston.

Shortly after 8 a.m. on 3 February 1966, miners starting their shift went down the pit to board the "Paddy mail". It was normal practice for the ‘man-rider’ to be followed by a second train which carried equipment. On this day the second train suddenly ran out of control and caught up with the ‘man-riding’ train, hitting it hard in the rear. Ten men lost their lives and a further 29 miners were injured.

The accident featured in the local and national press, much of the coverage giving prominence to Sister Adsetts, a member of the Silverwood medical team who, working with members of the Rotherham Mines Rescue team, tended the injured as they were brought from the wreckage. The unusual feature of a woman coming out from the pit led to headlines such as "The Angel with the dirty face".

The accident happened some one and a half miles from the pit bottom in the Braithwell return roadway. When the locomotives and the vehicles were removed to the underground workshops for testing, the brakes proved to be in full working order.

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