Kiveton Park Coal

The Domesday Book of 1086 recorded the name Cienton (with the C pronounced as a K). From 1080 to 1868 Kiveton was a hamlet of the parish of Harthill-with-Woodall, after which is was transferred to Wales Parish Council. Kiveton was once the site of a stately home - Keaton Hall, home of the first Duke of Leeds..

The name Kiveton goes back at least 1,000 years with Kiveton being the last of a variety of spellings of the name Keveton, Kyveton, Keton, Kneton, Keeton etc., being previous ones!

What shaped modern Kiveton though, is the fact that coal is close to the surface around here (some stream beds are made of coal) and as early as 1598 local coal output was 2,000 tons a year. Deep mining of coal in Kiveton started in 1866 in one of the oldest deep mines in the world (with the canal and the railway to transport it. A small shaft in Anston was used as a ventilation shaft for Kiveton pit. In 1861 the population was around 300. By 1871 it was 1,400. The Dukes of Leeds who owned the mineral rights became even wealthier. Peak population was reached in 1971 at 6,300 but fell to 5,900 in 1991.

Kiveton and Wales have seen many radical changes in the last 15 years, due in large part to the miner's strike (1984) and the subsequent closure of the colliery (1994) with the loss of 1,000 local jobs - a huge blow given the population.

There is plenty of near surface coal around though and applications are still being made to open cast large tracts of open countryside.