Explored with Raz
Bit of background
Kellingley Colliery was the last deep coal mine in Britain. It is situated at Beal in North Yorkshire. The colliery's location was influenced by the proximity of road, rail and canal routes. Its workings extended into West Yorkshire. The colliery was owned and operated by UK Coal.
Exploratory boreholes sunk in the 1950s established there were up to seven workable seams of coal at Kellingley. Sinking its two shafts started in 1960. Sandy and porous geology down to about 600 feet (180 m) was waterlogged. Boreholes drilled around each shaft position had sub-zero-temperature brine pumped through them to freeze the ground down to about 640 feet (200 m). The sinking personnel had to work in subzero temperatures until the shafts were below this frozen ground. The shafts were eventually sunk to a depth of around 870 yards (800 m).
After a concrete lining sealed the shafts, the cooling brine was stopped and the frozen ground allowed to thaw. Grout, a thin cement mixture, was pumped at high pressure through holes bored through the shaft's concrete lining into the water-bearing strata. When it set, most of the water leaking into the shafts was stopped and the ground around the upper part of the shafts was stabilised. The pressure needed to pump in the mixture caused the ground above to heave, causing the winding engine towers mounted above the shafts to tilt slightly. This had been anticipated and provision had been made to jack up the four legs that each tower stood on. The procedure was done regularly during the pumping phase to bring the towers into alignment. To keep the shafts to the correct alignment, plumb lines were used. Four steel lines, evenly spaced, were suspended around the inside of each shaft, all the way to the bottom.
The colliery began production in April 1965. During planning and building the surface infrastructure for the new colliery, employment of 3,000 mineworkers was expected at completion. Due to updated methods and machinery, only about 2,000 men were employed there at any one time. Many of the miners relocated from Scotland to work at the colliery, having lost their jobs at Scottish pits that closed in the 1960s. In March 2004, the pit received £7.2 million from the Coal Investment Aid Scheme.
Kellingley Colliery closed on 18 December, 2015, marking the end of deep mining in the United Kingdom. UK Coal had first proposed its extension by three years, alongside a similar extension to the life of Thoresby Colliery in Nottinghamshire, which closed in July 2015. But business minister, Matthew Hancock, argued that the £338m said to be required for this plan "does not represent value for money".
The explore;
As Yorkshireman, the closure of this colliery has been the topic of conversation and outrage for many months, but in certain small circles it has been the topic of excitement. Kellingley is but a short 10 minute drive from us so lets face it, it would have been rude of us not to hit it on the night it closed. On arrival we parked a short walk away, and killed a little time watching photographers grab shots while Hargreaves 8x4 tippers rolled past to reclaim the coal.
As night fell, we struck. After first dumping the car we took a path by the river, and met a man who in all honestly, was some kind of water pikey. Living in his house boat he was acquiring and selling coal to other boatmen... well I guess theres enough to go around.
Through the fence we went and by now we realised the site wasnt quite as dormant as we had first thought, no matter. The diggers and dumpers seemed to follow a pattern, which we then used to our advantage. However, our plan was foiled by the arrival of not one but two coal trains blocking our path by moving about 2mph. So instead we went up into the conveyors and went towards the main buildings via fast track, over the heads of the oblivious workers who we could see through the floor. When we hit the main buildings... well it was very much live, with coal still moving around on the conveyor belts and a turbine making a massive racket.
It was at that point we came across a member of the nightshift...
"what are you lads up to?"
"just Tekken a few photos"
"alright the let us through"
-worker walks past us-
"we alrate to stay here mate"
"up to you"
We retreated hastily, ready to lay low and wait it out, when across the tanoy system came;
"Rate, (insert name) just came across 2 cameramen who shouldn't be on site, we have alerted security who have dispatched dogs.
Queue speedy fuckin exit lol
Looking pretty pleased with himself....
Plenty more to do, I will be back.
Thanks for looking 
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