Prior to the 1984-85 strike, the workforce at Hatfield and its mothballed sister colliery Thorne felt that the future of their mine was under threat from Margaret Thatcher’s pit closure plans. The colliery had been working as an unprofitable venture for many years and was thought to be a prime target for the Tory axe.

These reports printed in the Guardian two years before the strike showed how precarious Hatfield's position was at that time.

Guardian July 2002

The announcement that Cortonwood in West Yorkshire was to be the first pit closed under the non-profitability issue came as a surprise to many at Hatfield who by now expected that our own colliery could and would be the first target.

The ensuing strike lasted longer than anyone had imagined and after returning to work a year later there were many more who believed that Hatfield’s days were almost certainly numbered.

Conditions underground at Hatfield had deteriorated badly during the workforce’s twelve months absence and it was several weeks before production began to climb back to pre-strike levels.

During the remainder of 1985, twenty three collieries were closed nationally. Seven of these were in Yorkshire and included Cortonwood. Much closer to home though, Edlington’s Yorkshire Main was also closed. The following year another seventeen collieries were closed nationally, which included another four Yorkshire mines. An air of despondency was prevalent, as miners wondered when it would be their turn to hand in their checks for the last time.

However, such despondency didn’t travel as far as the newly formed ‘NCB South Yorkshire Area’. In their Annual Report for the year 1985-86, Director Harold E. Taylor described 1985-86 as ‘A tremendous year for the coal industry in South Yorkshire’.
In his opening statement in the report, he reveals how productivity had improved over the year by up to 40% and that 12.5m tonnes of coal had been produced. He commented on the ‘inevitable colliery closures of Brookhouse, Cortonwood and Yorkshire Main and that ‘a third of our employees were able to take voluntary redundancy’, as well as informing readers that 13 of the 19 collieries broke performance records and that cost per Gigajoule had improved from £2 to around £1.47, with some pits even below the £1 mark.

This film, created by British Coal, was made to show the optimism in Hatfield's future at this time.

The rest of the 1985-86 report contained graphs and schematics which showed how productivity was increasing, manpower was decreasing, where the coal was sold, (9.5 thousand tonnes of the total of 12.5 thousand tonnes went to coal fired power stations), and an explanation of Gigajoules and costs.
This was followed by more graphs showing the decreasing accident rate from 1976-1984 and a brief comment about the increased accident rate in 1986, as well as yet more graphs and diagrams which informed the reader about financial results and profitability, costs of production, and finally, about the investments taking place within the coalfield.

Hatfield and Thorne collieries are mentioned here, as they were involved in driving new developments at both pits and Thorne received £2.9 million investment under the heading of New Mines.

The rest of the report gives a roundup of the Area’s 19 remaining collieries in text commentaries and photographs.

I have provided this report and, thanks to AL a second report, dated 1988/89, which is every bit as informative and in which then Area Director Ted Horton closes by saying “The year ahead will be difficult for all British Coal’s areas but I am confident that here in South Yorkshire, with our sound financial base, it will be another successful one “.

Both of these reports are vailable here for download as a pdf files:

South Yorkshire Coal Report 1985 - 86
South Yorkshire Coal Report 1988 - 89

Despite the optimism expressed by South Yorkshire Coal, Hatfield was closed in 1993. That year two more South Yorkshire collieries closed, and in the next five years the rest of the South Yorkshire coalfield collapsed like a house of cards.

The following is a list of the South Yorkshire Area and the years of their closures:

Cadeby & Denaby – 1986 Manvers Complex - 1988 Barnburgh - 1989 Brodsworth – 1990 Shireoaks / Steetly – 1990 Treeton - 1990 Askern - 1991 Dinnington – 1991 Thurcroft - 1991 Markham Main 1992, reopened 1994, closed permanently 1996 Bentley - 1993 Frickley/South Elmsall - 1993 Goldthorpe / Hickleton - 1994 Kiveton Park – 1994 Manton – 1994 Silverwood - 1994 Rossington 2006 Hatfield & Thorne - 1993, 2001 and 2004 (Source BBC & Wikipedia)

Most miners who left the industry then did so with an unanswered question; why was the belief that the industry could be successful held so dearly by the management of that time and why, if the future looked so rosy for coal then, was the industry allowed to decline?

After the announcement that Hatfield and its sister pit Thorne was to be closed in November of 1993, work ceased immediately and the workforce was laid off. Officially, production ceased in December 1993.

In January 1994, after a bleak and uncertain Christmas, Hatfield Coal Company was formed and took over control of the mine. It was at that time that Hatfield and Thorne became separate collieries again and the link between the two was ended forever.

Hatfield Coal Company made a valiant attempt to operate the mine and managed to make a profit of £2.4 million in their first year. However, they badly needed an input of cash for development of the mine and approached the government several times for investment.
In August 2001, yet another August landmark for Hatfield Colliery, Hatfield Coal Company went into receivership. They had been hoping for investment from a Japanese fuel company and for a while the futures of the mine and the men who worked there looked secure, but in a devastating last minute sucker punch, the Japanese withdrew their interest and Hatfield Colliery closed yet again.

In October of 2001 it was announced that Richard Budge’s new Company ‘Coal Power’ had taken over Hatfield Colliery, but it wasn’t until March of that year that he announced his plans for the site. (See 'Power to the people', available through the link at the bottom of this page)
The proposals were accepted in August 2003 and all that was needed was investment from another source to help Coal Power fulfil their plans.

The people of Stainforth waited, and waited, and nothing happened. For over three years the colliery lay silent. At one point the ventilation and pit bottom pumps were switched off, when the mine’s electrical supply was severed. This appeared to be the final blow for Hatfield Colliery and it looked as though its 90 years of mining history had finally come to a close.

BBC(2004), Pit closures, year by year, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3500979.stm
Wikipedia (2008), List of collieries in Yorkshire 1984-present with dates of closure, Full URL link

Hatfield Colliery, news and updates Hatfield Colliery section on Stainforth 2001