East Gawber Hall Colliery was sunk in 1854 by Robert Craik & Co. who made his money originally as a linen manufacturer and bleacher and ran the Old Mill bleach works (Goodchild 1998, 61). The mine was connected via railway to Barnsley Canal in 1858. By 1870 a new railway line had been built between Applehaigh and Stairfoot that the colliery utilised. (ibid, 58-61). The mine changed hands more than once and finally closed in 1931 (Gill 2007b). There is no legibility of the mine or probable assarted woodland that previously characterised this area.