Just been looking at my old OS maps to try to sort out the collieries named Barrow near Barnsley and Worsbrough.

The map reference for Barrow Main in AditNow is clearly wrong as the map shows an overseas location. The description puts it near Worsbrough.

OS maps from various years show the colliery near Worsbrough as "Barrow Collieries" at something like SE 358 027.

Another Barrow Colliery was on a site in east Barnsley which has had numerous names on OS maps - Oaks Colliery in 1850, Rylands Main on the 1892 OS, Barnsley Main on OS maps 1902 to 1970s, then finally Barrow Colliery on the 1993 OS map.

Q: Was "Barrow Main" ever the formal name of either of these collieries?

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Hi,

I can confirm the Barrow Colliery near Worsborough (grid ref 435875 402605) that keeps its name from beginning to end (1873 - 1985).

Same for the other Barrow Colliery (436425 406415) begins its life on OS maps (1854) as one of two pits named Oaks Colliery.

The southernmost pit becomes Old Oaks in 1893, and the northern pit Rylands Main. 1906 sees Rylands renamed to Barnsley Main while Old Oaks keeps its name. The two come together as Barnsley main on the 1931 map.
A split appears in 1978 with the northern pit called Barrow Colliery and the southern pit Barnsley Main. On the 1983-84 map, the northern pit is back again as Barrow Colliery and Barnsley Main has disappeared.

I haven't any references to a Barrow Main Colliery, but the owners of the two pits were at one time the
"Barrow Barnsley Main Collieries Ltd." - which is near enough to Barrow Main in my books.

Barnsley Main closed in 1966, but reopened in 1985 and took on the workforce of Barrow Colliery after the pit had to be shut down for geological reasons.

Final closure was in 1991.

To make things even more interesting - there's also a Barugh and a Boro' not too far away 🙂

there'll be barrow confusion tomorrow ,mines gone flat so im gonna pinch the brickies- :lol:

I have now edited the AditNow entry for Barrow Main which lacked a location other than Worsbrough in the description and added a grid reference and amended description to distinguish it from the Barnsley Main Barrow.

I have an alloy pit check for Barrow Colliery - it is square and colliery is in the singular, so I presume this is from the late working of the pit next to Oaks and Barnsley Main, not the Worsbrough site???

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