Overton: what to know before moving day
The museum occupies Caphouse Colliery, worked from at least 1789 until the coal ran out in 1985. It opened as the Yorkshire Mining Museum in 1988, gained national status in 1995 and covers a 45-acre site that is signposted from the M1, which is a handy marker for finding the village on the way in.
The village itself is set back from the main road around Old Road, where St Luke's church, a mobile post office stop and the Overton Stores are marked. The 1881 census recorded two pubs, The Reindeer and The Black Swan, and both names are still on the map. Houses spread from Old Road along Ridge Road, Ridge Avenue, Nell Gap Lane, Ramsey Road, Thornhill Road and Green Lane, with New Hall Drive and Carr Lane heading out towards the fields and Emroyd Common, where ironstone was once dug. Overton was Over Shitlington until the parish was renamed Sitlington in 1929.
How the van gets to Overton
The A642 Wakefield to Huddersfield road passes the village as New Road and Wakefield Road. From Bradford, the M606 meets the M62 at junction 26, the M62 meets the M1 at Lofthouse, and from the M1's Wakefield exits the A642 heads west through Horbury, over the river at Horbury Bridge and up through Middlestown. From the Huddersfield side the same road arrives through Grange Moor. Old Road leaves the A642 for the village centre.
The drive from Bradford is roughly 35 to 45 minutes. That is an estimate from route data, not a timed run, and traffic changes it.
Services for Overton
Each service below links to its Ossett page, which covers how the job works in and around Ossett.
Overton: questions before you book
Is this the Overton in North Yorkshire?
No. Wikipedia lists an Overton in North Yorkshire and many more across Britain. This Overton is the West Yorkshire one, in the Wakefield district between Wakefield and Huddersfield, with WF4 postcodes.
Nearby areas
Where the local details on this page come from
Checked on 28 September 2026 against:
- Postcode lookup (postcodes.io, ONS data): WF4 4RB is in Wakefield Rural ward, Wakefield district, parish of Sitlington
- Overton, West Yorkshire (Wikipedia): 5.5 miles south-west of Wakefield, conjoined with Middlestown at its north-east; Over Shitlington; the 1881 census with The Reindeer and The Black Swan; St Luke's; the National Coal Mining Museum on the A642, Caphouse Colliery worked from 1789 to 1985
- National Coal Mining Museum for England (Wikipedia): Caphouse Colliery site in Overton, opened 1988 as the Yorkshire Mining Museum, national status 1995, 45-acre site on the A642, signposted from the M1
- Sitlington (Wikipedia): renamed from Shitlington in 1929; ironstone outcropping in Overton and Emroyd Common
- A642 road (Wikipedia): from Huddersfield via Grange Moor, Middlestown and Horbury towards Wakefield
- Overton disambiguation (Wikipedia): Overton, North Yorkshire and Overton, West Yorkshire among others
- M62 motorway (Wikipedia): the M606 joins at junction 26 (Chain Bar); the M1 interchange is Lofthouse, junction 29; junction 30 serves Wakefield
- OpenStreetMap map view (checked 2026-09-28): New Road and Wakefield Road (A642), Old Road, Ridge Road, Ridge Avenue, Nell Gap Lane, Ramsey Road, Thornhill Road, Green Lane, New Hall Drive, Carr Lane, St Luke, Overton Stores, The Reindeer, Black Swan, Emroyd Common, National Coal Mining Museum