Sheffield Daily Telegraph – Thursday 02 February 1928

Seam To Be Closed.
400 Men Affected by Hickleton Decision.
Thurnscoe Bombshell

The Parkgate seam of the Hickleton Main Colliery at Thurnscoe will be closed down on February 11th, and the miners employed in the seam, over 400 in number, will be thrown out of work, writes a Thurnscoe correspondent.

I learned of this drastic action yesterday from the manager, Mr. J. Minnikin, who said the company were forced to abandon the Parkgate seam temporarily because of the bad state of the coal market. They had no market for the coal already in the pit yard in 500 waggons, and until the trade revived and some orders came in they could not continue to work the seam.

It is feared that few of the 400 men involved in the decision will able to be absorbed elsewhere in the colliery. A great many of the miners are Durham men who migrated to Thurnscoe after the dispute. Hickleton Main got a reputation then for having plenty of work for men. They were taken on daily, and commenced work in the new Parkgate seam, which, with a separate shaft, had just reached coal before the dispute commenced. Great progress was made, and the seam was headed 10.000 yards through.

It is this new part of the mine which is to be abandoned for the time being. I asked if there was any likelihood of the men being absorbed in the other seams of the colliery. The reply was that there was a chance of a few of the men being found places. Among those affected are 50 surface men.

Altogether 4,000 men are employed at Hickleton Main, of whom 650 are surface men. Hickleton Main is among the latest collieries to be sunk in the South Yorkshire coalfields, and is also one of the biggest. Miners hearing that there were houses to be had in the village and work at the pit have flocked to the village in scores each day, and while the decision to close the new seam was made some 50 miners who applied for work were being turned away.