The Caphouse Colliery is a typical small 19th-century coal mine situated on the western edge of the Yorkshire coalfield, where mining has been carried out for centuries. A plan dated 1791 and showing workings from 1789 to 1795 includes a shaft on the Caphouse site. It is probably the oldest coal-mine shaft still in everyday use in Britain today. Before 1827 the colliery was owned by the Milnes family but then passed into the ownership of the Lister Kaye family, until 1917. After 1917 the colliery was run by a company, which included the ex-manager Percy Greaves, a colliery owner in his own right. Around 1941 Arthur Sykes of Lockwood and Elliottt bought the colliery and remained as owner until Nationalisation in 1947. By 1985 the coal at Caphouse was exhausted and its conversion to The National Coal Mining Museum for England began. Caphouse is generally regarded as a terrifying location with many strange stories, including tales of ghostly miners who seem reluctant to leave their former workplace. The whole colliery is said to be plagued by a plethora of paranormal phenomena.