The Prince of Wales Colliery was a coal mine that operated for over 130 years in Pontefract, West Yorkshire, England. It was permanently closed in 2002 after geological problems were found to make accessing remaining coal reserves unprofitable, and most of the site was later converted for housing. History The colliery was developed from 1860, but coaling operations did not begin until 1869, with full production underway by 1872, when over was being brought to the surface per week. It was sometimes referred to as PoW or as the Ponty Prince, Ponty being short for Pontefract, the town that it was in. In 1885, the underground viewer, general manager and the owner of the mine (Alderman Rhodes, the Mayor of Pontefract) were prosecuted for not ensuring that the pit was adequately ventilated. A regulation stipulated that the air sections should be a minimum of wide, but those at the PoW were only , and . The underground viewer and general manager were fined, with the mayor being told to ensure the safe working of his mine. In 1896, the mine was acquired by Lord Masham, who owned other collieries at Featherstone. Throughout the 1890s, the mine was subject to strike action on two counts; firstly, the amount that miners were paid for producing coal from the Silkstone Seam, which they believed, should be on a par with other collieries producing coal from the same seam. Secondly, Rhodes had introduced a type of fork for moving the coal from the face into the tubs known as riddles, which meant that smaller pieces of coal slipped through the tines and was less efficient as a shovel. As miners were paid by the amount they mined per shift, this led to another set of strike action. In the 1950s, the colliery was providing employment for over 2,000 men. In 1986, a year after the miners strike, the pit was producing over per week, which was above the average of per person on one shift. Despite the breaking of production records, overtime was not available and 400 miners at PoW were threatening to go on strike. In March 1979, Radio One DJs Simon Bates and John Peel, broadcast a programme live from the colliery, with the first song requested being, appropriately enough, Shaft. By 1981, the colliery working had been transformed from a deep mine, into a drift mine operation, and despite being in