Not such a pit these days.

 After a night at Sprotbrough Lock we continued up stream on the River Don. We were looking out for the castle on the hill at Conisbrough but also for the old Conisbrough Lock. 

Almost beneath the walls of the castle there was a natural bend in the river from the north to south bank. At some time between 1854 and 1886 a lock was built here. In this photo you can see the 'bullnose' of the lock entrance. The natural river flowed off to the left of the picture.

I think the remains of the bend in the river are now used as a fishing lake. You can clearly see the recesses in the lock walls for the gates.

And even better in a close up. The lock was removed when the navigation was upgraded to the 700 tonne Eurobarge size in 1983. The river now runs through where the lock once was, but wider.

To me this looks like roughly the same orientation as the first photo with the old river running to the left of the photo.

The old photo of the lock still looks quite bucolic and rural, as it does today, but in the past the truth was far different.

In 1889 a new comapny was formed to raise the money to sink another colliery in the area to exploit the Barnsley see, that ran under the area. It was thought that it would be found around 400 yards below the surface. It took four years to dig down to the seam, found at 450 yards, but then massive tonnages of coal were produced and exported via the river as well as railway. In the above picture you can clearly see the river running past the mine. The lock would be to the right of the picture.

The mine continued producing coal until 1986. By 1987 there was little to show for it as everything had been bulldozed. In 1999 the Earth Centre Opened as an environmental attraction that was supposed to be both education and entertainment around environmental and sustainable issues. It cost £42 million. It closed in 2004!! Obviously ahead of its time. Did anyone go? Let me know what type of thing was found there.

It looked a little different in its heyday. On 9th July 1912 there was an explosion underground and 35 men were killed. Six hours later the site was struck by a second explosion and this time the 53 men lost their lives as many managers and rescuers where there trying to locate the first casualties. There was a third explosion the next day and that section of the seam was blocked off. 

Just a little further up river towards Mexborough Lock the first colliery by the river was Denaby Main Colliery. This opened in 1863 and coal was struck four years later. Denaby hadn't got a wharf by the river, and their coal was exhausted by 1967. However in 1956 it had been joined underground with Cadeby pit and all Denaby's production came up their shafts. Denaby's head gear was maintained as emergency access and maintenance access for the two pits.

The wonder of nature is that in just 35 years the land can have recovered to the state it is now in. The young of the area will have never known anything else. In this time of global warming worries it could be thought of as heartening that nature can restore the land so maybe we can too.