Hatfield Colliery

Date Visited: January 2020

Hatfield Colliery was one of the last coal mines in the country and closed in 2015. Although a couple of other Yorkshire mines closed later, this one is the only one that is still (as of February 2020) standing, albeit derelict.

The Herras fencing around the headgear was patrolled by a guard dog that started barking when I was about half a mile away and alerted it's big Russian handler to my presence. He was fine with me walking round the outside of the fence which wasn't an issue as it's not like I wanted to climb up the headgear or anything. My continued presence meant the dog couldn't stop barking, the result of which was the dog handler turning on his stereo to 10 and pumping out 80's power ballads across the site for the next 45 minutes - not sure which was preferable really?

There is a decent write up of the history on Wikipedia here and by the Northern Mines Research Society here.