 Ryhill Main Colliery was situated on West Fields, Ryhill and had a tramway that connected up to the Barnsley Canal, Old Royston junction of the Midland Railway and the Barnsley Coal Railway which ran through Ryhill.There was also a second pumping shaft situated at the bottom of Newstead hill.The first sinking was opened by Henry Lodge Snr, a former weaver from Skelmanthorpe in 1874 to a depth of 324 feet, and taken over by his son Henry Lodge Jnr following his death in 1889, running through to 1922 when, after the stresses of consecutive strikes and spiralling costs of deeper shafts, safety regulations and mechanisation by its competitors, Ryhill Main closed.