Shireoaks Colliery was a coal mine situated on the edge of the village of
Shireoaks
Shireoaks is a former pit village and civil parish in Nottinghamshire, located between Worksop and Thorpe Salvin on the border with South Yorkshire. The population of the civil parish was 1,432 at the 2011 census. Shireoaks colliery was opene ...
, near
Worksop
Worksop ( ) is a market town in the Bassetlaw District in Nottinghamshire, England. It is located east-south-east of Sheffield, close to Nottinghamshire's borders with South Yorkshire and Derbyshire, on the River Ryton and not far from ...
in North Nottinghamshire, close by the Yorkshire border.
History
The
Duke of Newcastle
Duke of Newcastle upon Tyne was a title that was created three times, once in the Peerage of England and twice in the Peerage of Great Britain. The first grant of the title was made in 1665 to William Cavendish, 1st Marquess of Newcastle ...
owned mineral rights in much of North Nottinghamshire. A shaft was begun at Shireoaks in March 1854, and by February 1859, had reached a coal seam.
Although the colliery was situated adjacent to the main line of the
Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway
The Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR) was formed in 1847 when the Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway joined with authorised but unbuilt railway companies, forming a proposed network from Manchester to Grimsb ...
, an agreement was reached with the railway company, as owners of the
Chesterfield Canal
The Chesterfield Canal is a narrow canal in the East Midlands of England and it is known locally as 'Cuckoo Dyke'. It was one of the last of the canals designed by James Brindley, who died while it was being constructed. It was opened in 1777 a ...
, for a short link to serve the colliery and to ship coal to the River Trent at West Stockwith. Shireoaks Basin opened soon afterwards, and coal was shipped to Stockwith until 1949.
The Shireoaks Colliery Company was formally registered in December 1864 and, in due course, had mining interests throughout the area, including those at Whitwell, Clowne and Steetley, where it began sinking a shaft in May 1873.
[ In 1896, the company employed 690 underground workers, with another 181 working on the surface.]
In 1917 the colliery company gained a lease from the Estates of the 10th Duke of Leeds
Duke of Leeds was a title in the Peerage of England. It was created in 1694 for the prominent statesman Thomas Osborne, 1st Marquess of Carmarthen, who had been one of the Immortal Seven in the Revolution of 1688. He had already succeeded as ...
to mine top hard coal from below the villages of North Anston
Anston is a civil parish in South Yorkshire, England, formally known as North and South Anston. The parish of Anston consists of the settlements of North Anston and South Anston, divided by the Anston Brook.
History
Anston, first recorded a ...
, South Anston and Thorpe Salvin
Thorpe Salvin is a village and a civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham in South Yorkshire, England, on the border with Nottinghamshire. It lies between Worksop and Harthill, and is located at an elevation of around 110 metres ...
. By 1923, the pit was producing some 1 million tons of manufacturing and steam coal per year, from the Top Hard or Barnsley Bed seams. There were 717 underground workers and 216 on the surface, but this was reduced from 1896, as the numbers reflected the workforce at both Shireoaks and Steetley. Ten years later, the numbers were 560 underground and 150 on the surface, with a further 460 and 70 working at Steetley. The returns for 1933 showed that the High Hazel seam was temporarily closed, but that the colliery was also producing household coal. By 1940, the Top Hard Barnsley and High Hazel seams were being worked.[
In 1945, the Shireoaks Colliery Company was sold to ]United Steel Companies
The United Steel Companies was a steelmaking, engineering, coal mining and coal by-product group based in South Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, England.
History
The company was registered in 1918 and the following year saw a joining together of ste ...
and on nationalisation came under the control of the National Coal Board
The National Coal Board (NCB) was the statutory corporation created to run the nationalised coal mining industry in the United Kingdom. Set up under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946, it took over the United Kingdom's collieries on "v ...
(NCB). At that point, there were 589 underground workers and 160 surface workers at Shireoaks, with another 403 and 88 at Steetley.[ Together with Steetley, Shireoaks Colliery became part of the North East Division Number One Area of the NCB. Both pits were transferred to the South Yorkshire Area in March 1967, and were amalgamated in March 1983. This resulted in the closure of the surface works at Steetley, and all coal was brought up through the Shireoaks shafts. Reorganisation resulted in it becoming part of the South Yorkshire Group in April 1990, but this was short-lived, as it closed in May.][
]
After closure
In 1997, British Coal
The British Coal Corporation was a nationalised corporation responsible for the mining of coal in the United Kingdom from 1987 until it was effectively dissolved in 1997. The corporation was created by renaming its predecessor, the National Co ...
sold the colliery site to Nottinghamshire County Council
Nottinghamshire County Council is the upper-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Nottinghamshire in England. It consists of 66 county councillors, elected from 56 electoral divisions every four years. The most recent election ...
. Aided by funding from English Partnerships
English Partnerships (EP) was the national regeneration agency for England, performing a similar role on a national level to that fulfilled by regional development agencies on a regional level. On 1 December 2008 its powers passed to a successo ...
, the council reclaimed the site, creating of green space and of development land. The colliery tip became woodland and grassland, and a network of public paths were created. Part of the site was designated as a Local Wildlife Site in 2012. In 2014, the council investigated selling the 12 acres of development land to the Friends of Woodlands & Coachwood Green Ltd, a community interest company
A community interest company (CIC, colloquially pronounced "kick") is a type of company introduced by the United Kingdom government in 2005 under the Companies (Audit, Investigations and Community Enterprise) Act 2004, designed for social ente ...
who want to develop the land as a Local nature reserve and community asset. Shireoaks Basin has become a marina on the restored Chesterfield Canal.
Bibliography
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References
{{Reflist
1990 disestablishments in England
Coal mines in Nottinghamshire
History of Nottinghamshire
Underground mines in England