Roughcastle Mine was about 30m deep and was worked by the stoop and room method. Coal was worked in 25 cm seams. The mine was not pumped, as water drained naturally into an old shaft. Output per day in 1979 was 20 tons of coal and 95 tons of fireclay. The mine employed about 14 men.
The workings dated from the 1930s although fireclay had been mined for much longer in the area. The mine supplied Roughcastle and later Dyson Refractories. Usually the mine was owned by the brickworks. It closed in 1981.