Sinking began in 1919 by the Holly Bank Colliery Co. to exploit new coal reserves and was completed by 1923. Colliery officially opened in September 1924, and closed in 1969.
Addendum by RF 2020
Hilton Main and Holly Bank Coal Company Ltd was registered in June 1932 to take over the assets of the previous Holly Bank, see previous history under that mine. In 1935 the company name was changed to Hilton Main and Holly Bank Collieries Ltd and a second shaft sunk at Hilton Main. This was of 16 feet diameter and 622 yards depth, it became the upcast shaft, completed in 1936.
This made Hilton Main independent of Holly Bank for ventilation and egress and centralised production.
In January 1947 the pits were nationalised and continued in production until 1952 when Holly Bank became exhausted and was closed down, however in 1954 there was a lot of capital investment in new technology including trunk conveying, however after some successful years the new mechanisation proved to be the downfall as it proved difficult to use in the faulted geology. This finally resulted in closure of the coliiery in January 1969.
Today (2020) most of the site is occupied by Tarmac and all of the remains of the colliery have been demolished.