Bottom Boat
Bottom Boat is a village in the Wakefield district of West Yorkshire. In the 2011 United Kingdom census, its population was 1,169, but it was counted as part of the West Yorkshire Built-up Area, which had a total population of 1,777,934.
Before the enactment of the 1972 Local Government Act, it was part of the Stanley Urban District. Although the remainder of this district is now counted as part of Wakefield by the 2011 Census, Bottom Boat is still counted as a separate place.
Most of the current houses in Bottom Boat were built for workers at the Newmarket Silkstone Colliery. The colliery closed on 29th September 1983, which was only a few months before the start of a year-long strike in the British mining industry. This closure was not opposed by the NUM as it had been agreed under the previous Labour Government's "Plan for Coal" on the condition that the workforce could transfer to the new Selby Coalfield.
