SE4101 : War Memorials, Knollbeck Lane, Brampton Bierlow, near BarnsleySE4101 : War Memorials, Knollbeck Lane, Brampton Bierlow, near BarnsleySE4101 : War Memorials, Knollbeck Lane, Brampton Bierlow, near BarnsleyThe thumbnail showing the war memorial and the winding wheel aren't accurately described. the war memorial was sited outside the old Cortonwood Colliery offices which were about halfway down the pit lane. As well as fallen Cortonwood miners who went to war as sappers in the First World war it listed the miners who went and served as sappers and returned to work as miners at Cortonwood after the war, if the metal nameplates are still intact on the memorial my grandfather George Pye's name is on it as he went to war as a sapper probably on the Somme and returned as a miner to Cortonwood most likely in the Barnsley Bed.I have his war medals at home, As a child he took me to see the memorial along with his name on it.
As for the winding wheel,the winding engines and winding wheels were sold and shipped out to South Africa, my manager at the Small Mines Drainage Unit based at Rawmarsh, where I last worked for British Coal, was asked for one of the winding wheels so it could where the one in the picture is. As both wheels had gone he located one at anothe pit we were closing, this was Yorkshire Main i was tasked with taking a lorry out and loading this wheel then transporting it to its present and off loading it where someone else saw to its present siting. I had nothing to do with the resiting of the war memorial.