Hi, I'm new around here and I feel like a bit of an interloper as I know not the first thing about mines or mining.

My interest is family history research (arghhh! I hear you say, not another ...)

The thnig is I'm desperate and this is a last hope to find some info about my great-grandfather who we know very little about and just keep drawing blanks about - have only got one census record and a marriage certificate. He was sadly interned during WW1 because he was German and disowned in effect by my great grandmother and the family lost all contact with him.

He was a German engineer who came over to the UK (I have no idea why - maybe someone would know why someone like him would?) to work in the Collieries as an engineer. At some point he was working as a 'Coke oven engineer' (from census info)

I know that in 1909 he lived at 220 Sheffield Road Birdwell so I'm wondering where he might have worked - guessing that it would be within walking distance? If anyone can help point me in the right direction in terms of how i find out what collieries existed around there at that time I'd be hugely grateful or if any records are kept anywhere about the collieries and their employees?

Thanks everyone. Hugely appreciate your time.

Old Maps show many mines and interesting bits in the general area, (if I've got the right place).

Not sure if this site may turn anything up.

http://www.dmm.org.uk/company/h1026.htm 

One line of enquiry to try would be looking for collieries with a coking plant attached on Old Maps, off the top of my head I can't think of any but perhaps some of the ones at Chapeltown, or closer to Barnsley itself?

Also, have you been in touch with the National Mining Museum at Caphouse, someone there might be able to advise further?

Edit - just had a quick look myself, and just to the east of Birdwell was Rockingham Colliery, and guess what you can see on the 1905 25" map there.....

---

Elsecar Colliery would be within walking distance at that time maybe

A number of collieries around Birdwell. Including Rockingham, Thorncliffe, Tankersley, Wharncliffe Silkstone. The main coal companies in the area were Newton Chambers Co;Wharncliffe Silkstone Colliery Co; and Hoyland Silkstone Coal & Coke Co
The list of coal mines for Yorkshire in 1908 is split in to 3 parts
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cmhrc/lom08lin.htm 
M-R =http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cmhrc/lom08lin1.htm
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cmhrc/lom08lin2.htm 

http://www.aditnow.co.uk/map/ 

---

Thanks for your reply - can you explain how I see this map?

I assume you mean that this particular colliery did have a coke plant? Sorry I'm probably being a bit dense but to be honest I know so little about collieries that I didn't even think of this. Presumably not all mines / collieries had coke plants?
:thumbup:

oops - sorry - I'm new to forums - meant to say in my previous post, thank you to everyone for your replies about collieries near Birdwell.

There is an article 'Newton, Chambers: Thomas Smith and the Steam Powered Coke Drawer' by Paul Jackson in the latest (Issue 75) of Archive, published by Black Dwarf. It includes details of Coke Ovens at Thorncliife Works, Rockingham, Smithy Wood and Grange Collieries. In particular it refers to the Rockingham Koppers by-product ovens, which started in 1910. I don't know if Koppers was a German company - but this may be a clue.

thank you - I've just ordered a copy - hopefully I can learn a bit more.

A quote from 'The Earl FitzWilliam's Elsecar Colliery in the 1850's' by John Goodchild in 'British Mining' No. 78 Page 21 - "A New Coke Works was built in 1916 for the Earl at Park Gate by the Otto Coke Ovens Co. Ltd. of Leeds."

http://www.old-maps.co.uk/index.html  and put Birdwell into the search box. This will centre the map on Birdwell, but you need the grid square to the east - click on this ( just to the south-east of Shortwood Business Park) and the pin marker will move to the point you've clicked. From the list of maps on the right-hand side, scroll down to the 1905 25" OS and click "enlarge map" to view, click on the map window to enlarge further. As you'll be able to see, Rockingham Colliery had three large banks of coke ovens, and I suspect the pit was wholly engaged in coke production. Since it was ten minutes' walk from Birdwell (if that!) I think this is the most likely candidate for your predecessor to have been employed at.

---

Thank you so much for this helpful information, it gives me a good place to start. I'm going to try and do the same for Aspatria in Cumbria now as that's where he ended up the following year! Thanks for the help with the maps - I would never have found that.

A German mining engineer aged 23 was one of the victims of the explosion at Trimdon Grange Colliery in 1882. I guess like many other keen young men he was working in his chosen career in a foreign country for the money and the experience.

---

German contractors seemed to be doing the rounds in the UK prior to 1914, erecting German "Carl Still" design coke ovens, to replace the inefficient Bee Hive designs.
One, Karl Kreamer (who became notorious here) is recorded as cycling from Wakefield to N. Staffs around 1912 to work on the new ovens at Birchenwood Colliery for William Lehr a German civil engineering contractor, with a number of other Germans.
Kreamer was later found guilty of murdering the family of the one of the colliery staff, with whom Lehr was lodging.

---

barrow main had a coking plant were i worked also manvers main had a coking plant

if you watch the film kes there is a shot good of barrow main coking plant working shortly before it closed the last oven was pushed by a guy called joe ramsden

Well there's the Monckton Colliery Coke Works (and still working) which is the other side of Barnsley might be worth a try. Perhaps a bit too far away (20 miles-ish), but if he moved around alot, there was a huge coke works at Glass Houghton near Castleford (where the Xscape leisure park now stands). I mention this because according to local legend it was built in the 1920s by German engineers and because the locals could never understand why, as they knew its location, the Germans never suceeded in hitting it with bombing during the WWII.

...I mention this because according to local legend it was built in the 1920s by German engineers and because the locals could never understand why, as they knew its location, the Germans never suceeded in hitting it with bombing during the WWII.

Probably coudn't see it because of the smoke.

You could well be right! and, if I ever get the slide scanner to work ... I show you the proof.

You could well be right! and, if I ever get the slide scanner to work ... I show you the proof.

Seem to remember it did occasionally cause problems for traffic on the M62. I wonder if the Lufwaffe got the rotten egg smell at 10 000 feet. Be good to see your photos anyway.