Earl Fitzwilliam's Estates were responsible for the sinking of a colliery at Tinsley in 1819, the same year in which the Greenland Arm of the Sheffield Canal was opened, the Earl being a major contributor. Benjamin Huntsman & Co. acquired the lease to work coal.
The pits, at that time, were basically bell pits and situated throughout the area where a network of small wagonways was built to take the coal to the canal. In 1833 Booth & Company of Park Iron Works in nearby Attercliffe were shown in White’s Directory as the colliery proprietors; the coal being used to produce coke for their iron works. This iron works was bought out by Huntsman, son of Benjamin Huntsman the clockmaker and inventor of crucible steel.
The first shaft was sunk in 1852. Further shafts were sunk in June 1902 and 1909. Over its lifetime the colliery worked the Wath Wood, High Hazels, Parkgate, Haigh Moor and Barnsley seams.
The mine was served by the longest branch line of the Sheffield District Railway, that was over a mile in length. Earlier it was connected to the Sheffield canal by a series of wagonways.
Note: Tinsley park was a complex of pits spread over an area of about 1 sq km. Individual pit groupings to be described as separate AditNow mine entries