Sheffield, Italy
Rother Vale Collieries were a group of coal producing pits originally in the Rother Valley parishes of Treeton, Woodhouse and Orgreave, nowadays on the south east Sheffield / Rotherham boundary, in South Yorkshire, England. In the early 20th century, a new colliery at Thurcroft was developed. The Fe
nce Colliery Company was formed in 1862 with the purchase of Fence Colliery, a small coal pit sunk alongside the main Sheffield to Worksop road at the lower end of the village of Fence. This pit had already been in operation for over 20 years and under new ownership was considerably developed. It closed as a coal producing unit in 1904, coal from its reserves being brought to the surface at Orgreave, but it was retained as a pumping station and later became the National Coal Board's workshops, finally closing in the 1990s. Orgreave Colliery, then a small concern, was bought by the company in 1870. It was situated less than a mile from Fence, adjacent to the main line of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway, to the west of Woodhouse. It was joined to this railway by a steeply graded but short branch line. Five years after the purchase of Orgreave colliery the company changed...
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