National Coal Mining Museum for England

The National Coal Mining Museum for England, about ten miles west of Wakefield at the former Caphouse Colliery, offers what is probably the best mine tour in Britain: a real descent of one hundred and forty metres into a working pit, led by ex-miners with first-hand experience of underground work. The tour lasts about an hour underground and gives a vivid sense of what coal mining was actually like, from medieval pillar-and-stall workings to modern long-wall faces.

Above ground the museum continues with exhibits on the social history of coalfield communities, the pit-village world that built much of West Yorkshire, and the long aftermath of the 1984–85 strike. Admission is free; the underground tour requires booking and warm clothing.

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The museum occupies the surface buildings and underground workings of Caphouse Colliery, which closed as a working mine in 1985. The descent into the pit — 140 metres down, in the original cage, with miner's lamps issued to every visitor — is led by former coal miners who worked here and remember the closure as their own history.

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