# Oaks Colliery, Barnsley, Sept 2010



## KooK. (Sep 25, 2010)

Visited with nij

Ok, so its maybe not too much with the UE, but an interesting little site anyhoo.

_For almost 50 years the worst mining disaster in the UK was at the Oaks Colliery, near Barnsley, where two explosions killed 361 men and boys.

However on the
14th October 1913 an explosion ripped through the heart of the Universal Senghenydd Colliery in South Wales killing 436 miners. Of the 436 who died, only 72 bodies were recovered._

More here, Wikipedia [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Oaks_explosion"]here[/ame]







































Thanks for looking


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## nij4829 (Sep 25, 2010)

A cracking find mate, cheers. 
Its UE in my eyes.





















Is this an origional? - I think not lol






The pit rail tracks


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## Foxylady (Sep 26, 2010)

Great to see that the headstocks have been retained. Amazing, but horrendous, piece of history to it, too...just been reading your links.
Cheers, guys.


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## borntobemild (Sep 26, 2010)

amazing to find a headstock in such good nick. Nice pics as well.


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## devonian42 (Sep 26, 2010)

A great find. I thought all the mines around the Barnsley area had long gone now (I used to commute between Manchester and Nottingham via Barnsley in the 80's when active pits were around). I guess this pit head has been retained as a monument to the disaster. Is there a plaque containing the names of those who perished here?


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## KooK. (Sep 26, 2010)

didn't see one about and we looked all around the building, but the grounds are well maintained so you're probably right. They probably lost most of the records as well.


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