2-357-483 - Worldwide Photography/Heritage-Images

Heavy lifting gear at Hickleton Main pit, Thurnscoe, South Yorkshire, 1961. A Cole's Crane operated by Mobile Lifting Services was brought in to lift heavy girders during the refurbishment work on Hickleton Main Pit in July 1961. The pit was sunk in 1892 and the Barnsley seam was worked from there for the next 63 years. By the mid 1930s it employed over 4100 men, of whom 3300 worked underground and the annual output from the pit was one million tons. After its closure, the shafts were filled in and the surface buildings demolished in 1994.