John Curr (c. 1756 – 27 January 1823) was the manager or viewer of the Duke of Norfolk's collieries in Sheffield, England from 1781 to 1801. During this time he made a number of innovations that contributed significantly to the development of the coal mining industry and railways.^[1]

Curr was born in County Durham, England in around 1756.^[2] He was raised and remained a Catholic throughout his life. He moved to Sheffield some time before 1776. In 1780 he was appointed superintendent of the Duke of Norfolk's Sheffield collieries.^[2] He married Hannah Wilson (18 May 1759 – 10 June 1851^[3]) in about 1785, and they had eight children, including Joseph Curr, a Catholic priest, and Edward Curr, who was Secretary of the Van Diemen's Land Company from 1824 to 1841. He died in Sheffield on 27 January 1823.^[4]

The career of John Curr has been subject to significant dispute, due to inaccurate statements by early authors about him and misinterpretation.^[5] Older works (such as (or those quoting them) often give the date of his colliery inventions as 1776.^[6] Curr probably came to Sheffield in 1778. That August, shortly before the expiry of the lease of Sheffield colliery (in Sheffield Park), he wrote a report on it for the Duke of Norfolk.^[7] Contrary to statements by his son, he was probably not there in 1774, when there were riots against the colliery lessees, who insisted on selling coal only at a yard in Sheffield.^[8] From Michaelmas 1779, he became superintendent of the Duke's Coal Works.^[9]

In 1787, John Buddle, senior reported on the transport system introduced by Curr. He reported Curr's method using L-shaped cast iron plates cost 6¼d per waggon, whereas the old method cost 10½d per waggon, a saving of 3¾d. He also referred to Mr Curr's method of 'drawing 2 corves abreast up a shaft 8½ to 9-foot diameter by means of steadying conductors'.^[10] Curr substituted small four-wheeled carriages for the sledges that had previously been used to transport coal underground,^[11] but this meant that underground haulage by boys, rather than ponies.^[12] The corf wheels and 'roadplates' came from Binks, Booth, and Hartop's nearby Park Ironworks.^[13]

The use of these rails was subsequently promoted by Benjamin Outram and adopted at many other English mines,^[2] quarries and ironworks. In south Wales, railways using his system were known as tramroads (or dramroads). Today, the term plateway is sometimes applied to them.

• Curr, John (1797). The Coal Viewer, and Engine Builder's Practical Companion. Sheffield: John Northall. OCLC 637327681.

• Edward Micklethwaite Curr, John Curr's grandson