Green Lane Community Website

In 1882 an Enclosure Award made Green Lane a Public Bridleway and borders the old Barnburgh Main Colliery site on the outskirts of Barnburgh village. The Award stated that it should be maintained at Public expense. However, its has been surfaced and maintained by the Colliery Company and later by the National Coal Board to retain access to the Colliery site until its closure in 1989. The ownership of the bridleway is still unknown and it has never been an adopted highway leaving its residents pondering such an unusual anomaly.

The first Pit Shaft was sunk in 1911 and eventually reached the Barnsley Seam in 1914. The deeper Parkgate Seam was reached later. In 1947, the colliery was nationalised by the Coal Board where it remained until its eventual closure in 1989. On 26th June 1957, 6 mine workers were sadly killed in an underground explosion.
 
In 1999, the site of the old coal-works was re-developed and turned into a country park. The old mine heads are now capped with large stones and can be seen by walking towards the highest elevation. One of the old winding wheels has been erected as a commemorative monument towards the village end of the park, adjacent to Harlington Lane. However, ex officials at the pit say that wheel came from the old barn store at the pit as a spare and was never used at Barnburgh as it came from another pit !
 
Green Lane was formerly where workers at the pit lived, property numbers 1 and 2 being officer’s houses. There are currently 37 properties, numbers 3 and 4 were demolished owing to a natural fault deep in the ground some time ago. The old Green Lane Club was demolished in the 2000's and there now stands a large residential property. The houses are nearly 100 years old, being built at the time of the original colliery but in all that time they have seen many modifications, internally and externally whilst retaining there original charm. The lane is now much more peaceful since the coal lorries stopped hauling their cargo.
 
There is some dispute to the origins of Barnburgh Village itself but certainly it appears in the 'Doomsday' book of 1086, as completed for William I (William the Conqueror). Other reports suggest that pillaging Vikings settled in the area several hundred years before that. The church is also at the centre of local folklore with its own tale of derring-do and noble chivalry in the form of the Cat and Man tale. In 2001, the census for Barnburgh and Harlington reported 1,979 residents living in the parish (including Green Lane).
 
Prior to the Enclosure Act of 1801, where common land was given as a right to the population, fields of crops were split by 'mounds'. To the rear of the church, adjacent to the school, evidence of this ancient form of agriculture can still be seen.