Coal from
Brierley
Colliery
This short story started
when a friend of mine who collects railway memorabilia for the Barnsley
district; and knows I am interested in all things connected to Brierley,
said he had an old invoice relating to the transporting of coal from
Brierley colliery.
He loaned
me the invoice which was headed Dearne Valley Railway and dated
September 1920 and the coal listed was from Brierley colliery. I had
never heard of the Dearne Valley Railway or its route and how did coal
from Brierley colliery get to it .
I
found Dearne Valley Railway on Wikipedia along with a map of its route
and its connections to other railway lines. The nearest the railway line
came to Brierley was Ferrymoor colliery at Grimethorpe so how did the
coal get from Brierley to Ferrymoor. Information on this came from two
sources ; my uncle, Jim Radford who worked in the colliery offices at
Brierley and my cousin Jim Kerr who spent his childhood living on “Pit
Row” and playing in the area. The coal was moved in tubs (small wagons)
running on a tramway (small railway line) which was powered by a
continuous moving rope to which the tubs were attached. The rope was run
from an engine house sited in the pit yard.
The tramway was known locally as the “ginny run”
and it’s route was
down the hill from Brierley Colliery, past Grimethorpe and across the road at the
far end of Grimethorpe and to the coal washer at Ferrymoor.
The coal then
transferred to rail wagons on the Dearne Valley Railway which then moved
the coal to wherever it was needed on its own route or by linking with
other lines.
Photograph
above that was taken from the top of the old colliery yard (now the path
at the back of Monument Drive) around 1999 showing the “ginny run” .
Please feel free to
correct or add to my story and thank you for taking time to read it.
DAVE NICOLL Feb. 2009
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