Part of a series of coal mines around the village of Elsecar, South Yorkshire (formerly the West Riding of Yorkshire), operated by the Earl Fitzwilliams. The shafts at Elsecar Main were sunk 333m to the Parkgate seam about 1905-08. Replacing the Simon Wood Colliery (which ceased production in 1903) it worked a number of seams: Haigh Moor, Parkgate, Silkstone, Thorncliffe, Swallow Wood, Lidgett, and (towards the end of its life) Kents Thick seams.
Nationalised in 1947, it was the last operating mine in the Elsecar area and closed in October 1983.