The shaft was sunk 1839 and the colliery worked from 1840 until 1932. It employed, at its peak in 1910, 686 men and boys. There were coke ovens on site and a firebrick works?

The Love family owned the colliery around which the village developed. (Strakers & Love)

Industrial relations at the colliery were poor: – The Love family required workers to rock each tub full of coal so that it settled and to then fill it to the brim of the tub. If a tub was not full to the brim when it was taken to the surface, the group of workers who had hewn the coal, filled the tub and taken it to the surface would not be paid.

In 1863 a Union was formed and the men came out on strike.  The ‘Rocking Strike’.