Darton (L&Y/LMS) station goods facilities

[fodenway]

Does anyone have photographs, details or plans/diagrams of the goods facilities at Darton station (near Barnsley) in the 1920s/30s ?

(Including the short branch to Darton Main Colliery and the associated exchange sidings).

[Compound2632]

6 hours ago, fodenway said:

Does anyone have photographs, details or plans/diagrams of the goods facilities at Darton station (near Barnsley) in the 1920s/30s ?

(Including the short branch to Darton Main Colliery and the associated exchange sidings).

 

Here's a start for you:

 

1929 survey: https://maps.nls.uk/view/125647862.

[fodenway]

Thanks Stephen - I already have this map, and although it is helpful I really need photographs  - the ones I have are all of the Down side of the station, with the passenger facilities in view. I have memories of the station as a youngster, and of the colliery sidings  on the west side. Darton Main Colliery was sunk in 1913 by Henry Jaggar, my great uncle, and closed in 1937. In my childhood years in the late fifties/early sixties, most of the colliery buildings had gone, although some were still in use as a small glassworks making reflective lenses for catseyes and road signs, and the old wheelhouse and workshops buildings survive in use today by other light industries. The Sidings immediately along the down side of the station were at that time used for storage of condemned wagons, but the branch across the river to the pit had been lifted, clearance of the site beginning in earnest in the mid-sixties for construction of the M1 motorway, and ending in the mid-1970s to create the Longfields Park. Bakelite Xylonite Limited (BXL)  and the Spring Ram Business Park were built on the colliery site, nowadays Junction 38 Business Park and Premdor Ltd respectively.  Since the closure of nearby pits at Woolley and North Gawber, the loops behind the up platform, and the reception sidings for North Gawber to the south of the station have all been lifted leaving two-road plain track through the unstaffed station. There are remains of the brick wing walls at the entrance to the former colliery sidings on the down line, and a length of stone wall on the up side where the end loading dock appears on the map - these are the only reminders of goods activity at the station today.

[Compound2632]

5 minutes ago, fodenway said:

Thanks Stephen - I already have this map, and although it is helpful I really need photographs 

 

It can be tricky to judge where an enquirer is starting from!

 

I gathered from looking at the maps that the colliery didn't get started until after the Great War. Nevertheless, have you tried the L&Y Society? although their focus is pre-grouping, they may well have information and especially photographs taken in post-grouping and post-nationalisation days.

 

Edited February 20, 2022 by Compound2632

[Wheatley]

If you go on Facebook and find a group called "Lost Pits of Yorkshire" there are a few photos of the colliery itself, including wagons standing under the screens. I can't find any of the sidings though.

 

I'm intrigued as to what that group of buildings is on the up side, on the corner of Woolley Colliery Road - it's only ever been a clump of trees as long as I've known it ! (1980 onwards). 

[fodenway]

My grandad always referred to them as "Pye Wood Cottages", although they'd pretty much gone by the time I was aware of them, there were a few more brick remnants than there are today. It looks as though some of the northern end of the site was cleared earlier to make way for the tarmac area that was known as the Landsale, it's still there but has been unused since the pit closed.

I'll check out Lost Pits, although I suspect I've already seen the photos.

[Wheatley]

Thanks, I'll run that name past a couple of ex-Darton mates and see what they come up with. 

 

I've come across the same problem with Facebook history/memories groups and railway pictures, they tend to be scans of familiar published photos although they do turn up the odd gem. But they're sometimes worth their weight in gold if you want a photo of the local coalman's lorry, even if Grandad Fred is unhelpfully standing in front of half the lettering on the cab doors !

 

I've had a look in various books upstairs but only turned up more photos of the down side buildings and 1980s views of 56s etc in the upside loop, sorry.