Amongst those who were at Silverwood in its final moments was Dean George Clement, who was a deputy,  transferred there from Frickly in 1993. he had previously worked at the ill fated Cortonwood, moving to Barnburgh, and then Maltby. Deans experience being a great example of how some miners were moved around from pit to pit. The following article from Dean  depicts the madness and senseless spending that was Margaret Thatcher's whilst in power, and today in 2005 how her colossal ignorance from that time is affecting every British citizen.

The article is also a very informative insight into the location of those final workings.

On behalf of everyone I would like to thank Dean for his contribution below

John Doxey

THE FINAL PIT WORKINGS

I arrived at Silverwood from Frickly South Elmsall colliery. at the time 2 faces were being worked in the Swallow Wood seams 51& s28 along with the development of s54 unit. There were also two major developments in progress, this was to be the long term future of the pit, the developments consisted of two drifts driven to the Parkgate seam which were then to be driven and linked to Maltby colliery.

The plan then was for us to mine the Parkgate seam and the coal to be surfaced at Maltby, thus getting rid of our washer and saving the cost of running it. However the entire plan was scrapped even though we were halfway through the development, the last two faces were then worked to the very ends of their boundaries, to be honest this was typical of the coal board and the government i.e., loads of investment followed by the closure of the pit, not even given the chance to produce coal. While the pit was being run down and the last two faces being worked the pit was making thousands of pounds every week and was above a million pound in the black!
The last two production faces were s21&s54,both faces were equipped with gullick 4 legged heavy duty shield supports and used BJD ace shearers to cut the coal, the manpower on each face was 8 faceworkers,2 deputies, 1fitter&1electrician.

If you can imagine being stood in front of the shafts, looking in the direction of Conisborough, this is the area we were working in.

The s21 face started production near the cemetery at the top of Conisborough and retreated back about 1000m towards the pit. When it reached the end of its life the face was still about 3000m from the pit bottom, we were mining at a depth of approx 8-900meters in the Swallow Wood seam.

The s54s face was approx 1000m nearer the pit bottom, this went off the main roadways at a right angle towards Kilnhurst. The equipment on 21s face was salvaged to be used at another pit, the equipment on 54s face was left in the pit!...........