| AdminHistory | The first Mining Records Office (MRO) was established by the Government in 1840, for the voluntary registration and preservation of abandoned mine plans. The Select Committee on Accidents report led to the passing of the Inspection of Coal Mines Act in 1850 for Great Britain. The Act required a coal mine owner to keep a plan at each mine. This Act was meant to be temporary and stay in force for only five years but was re-enacted in 1855.
The Coal Mines Regulation Act and Metalliferous Mines Regulation Act (1872) made the deposition of plans of abandoned mines with the Secretary of State a statutory requirement. Both Acts placed an obligation on mine owners to deposit their plans within a period of three months from the date of abandonment. Non-coal mines were not required to deposit plans if there had been less than 12 men employed below ground, and this relaxation was perpetuated in all subsequent legislation until 1993. All that was required to be shown on these plans were the boundaries of the mine workings up to the time of abandonment. There was no requirement for orientation with the surface, or depth or section information to be shown. Once deposited no person except a mines inspector could view the plans for a period of 10 years.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) was set up in 1975 and took over the Ministry’s role of arranging archiving of abandonment plans. In 1984 non-coal abandonment plans were transferred to HSE Bootle, Merseyside. These were later dispersed to Local Record Offices.
In 2001 coal abandonment plans were transferred to the Coal Authority's headquarters at Mansfield in Nottinghamshire. As the non-coal mines plans for South Yorkshire related to coal extraction as well as to mineral extraction, they were retained by the Coal Authority and colour facsimilies were produced for Sheffield Archives [in 2003]. |