| AdminHistory | John Brown established his business in 1837. John Brown and Company Limited soon became the leading manufacturers of steel at the Atlas Steel and Iron Works which had been established in 1856. The company were also colliery owners with large concerns in the Rotherham area including: Rotherham Main, Aldwarke Main and Carr House Collieries.
Aldwarke Colliery was situated two miles north east of Rotherham. The colliery was originally leased by Messrs. Waring and Company who leased the rights to the Barnsley Bed Seam.
In 1873 John Brown and Company of Sheffield acquired Aldwarke Main and Carr House collieries in Rotherham, and in the period 1890 - 1893 sank Rotherham Main colliery at Canklow.
By 1914 the company had become one of the largest coal producers in South Yorkshire with an annual output of 2.5 million tonnes. Further expansion of coal interests was probably limited by the formation of United Steel Company in 1918, which acted as the company's main competitor.
Aldwarke Main and Rotherham Main collieries remained part of John Brown and Company Limited until nationalisation in 1947.
(Source: Alan Hill, The South Yorkshire Coalfield: a history and development, Tempus: 2001, p.104; Warwick Taylor, South Yorkshire Pits, Wharncliffe Books: 2001, pp.25-27). |
| Description | These records relate almost entirely to two collieries, Aldwarke Main and Rotherham Main.
Accident report books - Aldwarke, Carr House and Rotherham Main Collieries, (COAL/JBC/1)
Output books, Rotherham Main Colliery, 1893 - 1948; Aldwarke Main Colliery, 1931 - 1950 (COAL/JBC/2-3)
Compensation payments registers - Aldwarke and Rotherham Main Collieries, 1938 - 1955 (COAL/JBC/4)
Notes of deputations, Aldwarke Main Colliery, 1879 - 1947 (COAL/JBC/5)
Agreements, 1925 - 1946 (COAL/JBC/6)
Signing-on books, 1915 - 1954 (COAL/JBC/7)
Salaries, Rotherham and Aldwarke Main Collieries, 1941 - 1948 (COAL/JBC/8)
Unclaimed wages books, Rotherham Main Colliery, 1931 - 1947 (COAL/JBC/9)
Papers regarding coking plant, 1924 - 1953 (COAL/JBC/10)
Sinking contracts and correspondence, 1877 - 1908; correspondence regarding Aldwarke Main, 1928 - 1946 (COAL/JBC/11-12)
M[ines] D[epartment] Returns, 1924 - 1948 (COAL/JBC/13)
Other miscellaneous records, 1881 - 1948 (COAL/JBC/14-35) |