South Yorkshire Times – Saturday 18 September 1943

Fifty Years Ago

It is fifty years ago this month since the whole of South Yorkshire was thrown into a turmoil by an outbreak of rioting which marked the climax of one of the many disputes between coal owners and miners which have punctuated the history of the coalfield. On September 8th, 1893 a mob of between two and three thousand people attacked the Wath Main Colliery and did damage estimated at £4,000. Reports in our files conjure up a graphic picture of the wild scenes which took place not only at Wath Main but also at Rockingham and Hoyland Silkstone Collieries which were extensively damaged.

On the morning of Wednesday, September 8th, there collected at Winterwell what a Times reporter of the day described as “a howling, shrieking, intoxicated gang of ruffians.” This band of mischief-makers, after deciding to march on Denaby Colliery, heard that coal was being filled from the Wath Main stacks by the Midland Railway Company and there and then changed their plans. They swarmed down upon the pit armed with hedge stakes and such other rough and ready weapons as they could lay their hands on, smashed the windows of the offices, broke down doors, wrecked furniture, pulled out and ransacked drawers, and also started several fires. After this they withdrew, though not before they had routed an inadequate force of a dozen police sent to cope with them.