Coalville

Coalville is an industrial town in the district of North West Leicestershire, Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England, with a population at the 2011 census of 34,575. It lies on the A511 trunk road between Leicester and Burton upon Trent, close to junction 22 of the M1 motorway where the A511 meets the A50 between Ashby-de-la-Zouch and Leicester. It borders the upland area of Charnwood Forest to the east of the town.

Coalville is twinned with Romans-sur-Isère in southeastern France.

History

Coalville is a product of the Industrial Revolution. As its name indicates, it is a former coal mining town and was a centre of the coal-mining district of north Leicestershire. It has been suggested that the name may derive from the name of the house belonging to the founder of Whitwick Colliery: 'Coalville House'. However, conclusive evidence is a report in the ''Leicester Chronicle'' of 16 November 1833: 'Owing to the traffic which has been produced by the Railway and New Collieries on Whitwick Waste, land which 20 years ago would not have fetched , is now selling in lots at from , for building upon. The high chimneys, and numerous erections upon the spot, give the neighbourhood quite an improved appearance. We hear it is intended to call this new colony "COALVILLE" - an appropriate name.'

Pre-industrial period

In the early nineteenth century, the area now known as Coalville was little more than a track known as Long Lane, which ran approximately east–west, stretching between two turnpikes, Bardon and Hoo Ash. Long Lane divided the parishes of Swannington and Whitwick (both lying to the north of Long Lane) from the parishes of Snibston and Ibstock (both lying to the south). Hugglescote and Donington-le-Heath were part of Ibstock parish until 1878. A north-south track or lane stretching from Whitwick to Hugglescote crossed Long Lane, at the point where the clock tower war memorial now stands. This track or lane is now Mantle Lane and Belvoir Road. The Red House, an eighteenth-century building, close to this cross-roads, was one of very few buildings then standing.

Samuel Fisher, writing his memoirs at the end of the nineteenth century, described what the area looked like in 1832. Standing close to the position of the present-day clock tower, Fisher describes how, on looking down Long Lane towards Ashby, "we see a large tract of waste on both sides of the road, still traceable, covered with gorse-bushes, blackberry brambles, etc., with not a single house on either side of the way" until arriving at the Hoo Ash turnpike. Then, looking toward Hugglescote (down a track that is now Belvoir Road), "we see a magnificently timbered lane without a single house, with the exception of White Leys Farm and the Gate Inn on the Ashby Turnpike". In the direction of Bardon, there were no houses until arriving at a group of five or six cottages on the corner of what is now Whitwick Road and Hotel Street, and in the direction of Whitwick (the modern day Mantle Lane) there was nothing apart from a smithy and a carpenter's shop, and the houses of these tradesmen. These would have stood on the site of what is now The Springboard Centre (formerly Stablefords wagon works). From this wilderness emerged the modern town of Coalville, on a rapid scale, following the advent of deep coal mining.

Despite its emergence as one of the largest towns in Leicestershire, Coalville's history was not well documented until the establishment of historical societies in the 1980s, though some information had been put on record by a few independent local historians. In more recent years, a wealth of material charting the town's history has been published through the combined efforts of the Coalville 150 Group and the Coalville Historical Society and in 2006, these two groups amalgamated to form the Coalville Heritage Society.

Coal-mining

Coal has been mined in the area since the medieval period, a heritage also traceable in the place name Coleorton, and examples of mine workings from these times can be found on the Hough Mill site at Swannington near the Califat Colliery site. A life-sized horse gin has been built on the Hough Mill site and craters can be seen in the ground, where the medieval villagers dug out their allocation of coal.

The seam is at ground level in Swannington, but gradually gets deeper between Swannington and the deepest reserves at Bagworth; consequently, it was not until mining technology advanced that shafts were sunk in the district now known as Coalville, beginning with Whitwick in 1824 and at Snibston in 1831.

Deep coal mining was pioneered by local engineer William Stenson who sank the Long Lane (Whitwick) Colliery on a relative's farm land in the 1820s. In doing so, Stenson ignored an old miner's dictum of the day, "No coal below stone", and sank his shaft through a layer of 'Greenstone' or 'Whinstone' to the coal below. This effectively opened up the 'concealed coalfield.'Coalville Conservation Area: Character Appraisal and Management Plan, May 2014, North West Leicestershire District Council This was followed by the mine at Snibston, by George Stephenson in the early 1830s, and Stephenson was also responsible for the creation of the Leicester and Swannington Railway at the same time.

Quarrying, textile and engineering industries, such as railway wagon production, also grew in the town during the 19th century. Stenson is sometimes described as 'the Father of Coalville'.

Coal-mining came to an end in Coalville during the 1980s. Six collieries – Snibston, Desford, Whitwick, Ellistown, South Leicester and Bagworth – closed in and around Coalville in an eight-year period from 1983 to 1991, resulting in about five thousand men being made redundant.

The disused colliery at Snibston was regenerated into Snibston Discovery Park but controversially closed in 2015 by Leicestershire County Council. The area formerly occupied by Whitwick Colliery has been redeveloped as the Whitwick Business Park and which incorporates a Morrison's supermarket. There is also a small memorial garden here, established in memory of 35 men who died in the Whitwick Colliery Disaster of 1898, which occurred as a result of an underground fire, though the etched metal plaque commemorating this terrible calamity has (of 2014) been removed from the large granite memorial boulder.

Leicester and Swannington Railway

The Leicester and Swannington Railway – Leicestershire's first railway – opened in 1832, reaching Coalville in 1833, and had a small station at Long Lane (now High Street) in Coalville. Snibston Colliery opened in 1833. The railway was extended to Burton upon Trent in 1845, placing Coalville on an important route between Burton and Leicester. Heavy coal traffic encouraged the construction of further railways linking Coalville to Nuneaton and, later, Loughborough, over the Charnwood Forest Railway.

In the 20th century the railways to Nuneaton and Loughborough were closed and dismantled. Passenger services were withdrawn from the Leicester to Burton line in September 1964, but it remains open for goods traffic.

After 1993 there was a plan to restore passenger trains on the Leicester-Burton line through Coalville as an extension of Leicestershire's Ivanhoe Line. In 2013 a passenger train made a very rare pass through because of a cut off elsewhere and in the same year, a group known as 'The Campaign for Better Transport' petitioned for the freight track to be upgraded to mark the 50th anniversary of the network cuts introduced by Dr Beeching. The Leicester to Burton track was one of ten lines that this group called to be re-opened, with a proposal for it to be renamed the National Forest line. However, a spokesman for the County Council said, "We have been unable to reintroduce Leicester to Burton passenger trains because the costs of about £50 million to upgrade the route and £4 million per year to operate services do not represent good value for money."

Assent to administrative town

The Coalville Urban District was formed in 1894, and which came to assimilate several outlying villages following local government changes in 1936. The Coalville Urban District was superseded in 1974 by the North West Leicestershire District, which was formed by a merger Ashby de la Zouch Urban District, Ashby Woulds Urban District, Coalville Urban District, Ashby de la Zouch Rural District, Castle Donington Rural District and Ibstock from the Market Bosworth Rural District.

Timeline

* 1824: Long Lane (Whitwick) colliery sunk by William Stenson
* 1831: George Stephenson's Snibston Colliery sunk
* 1833: George Stephenson's railway reached Coalville
* 1836: Coalville's first permanent place of worship opened (became the London Road General Baptist Church; now re-located as the Greenhill Community Church)
* 1836 – 1838: Coalville Church of England church (Christ Church) built/opened
* 1845: Burton-on-Trent and Leicester connected by rail, with Coalville "en route"
* 1858: The Bardon Hill granite quarrying company formed
* 1894: Coalville Urban District Council formed
* 1898: Whitwick Colliery Disaster
* 1909: Coalville Grammar School opened (Forest Road)
* 1919: Alfred Edward Pallett formed manufacturing company Cascelloid in Leicester (became 'Palitoy')
* 1920: Pallett's company produced its first toy
* 1925: Pallett's company produced its first doll
* 1925: Clock Tower (War Memorial) opened
* 1927: Leicestershire Miners' Association building in Bakewell Street opened
* 1930: Cscelloid bought by British Xylonite Limited (BXL)
* 1963: New Broadway Shopping Centre opened
* 1964: Passenger line closed on the railway
* 1968: Palitoy bought by US food company General Mills Inc
* 1974: Coalville Urban District dissolved and replaced by North West Leicestershire District
* 1975: Transferral of open-air market to newly constructed market hall
* 1980s: Demise of coal-mining industry
* 1985: Palitoy becomes Kenner Parker
* 1990: Morrison's supermarket built on the site of Whitwick Colliery
* 1992: Snibston Discovery Park opens
* 1994: Palitoy factory closed by new owners Hasbro
* 2005: Stephenson College new building opened
* 2005: Castle Rock High School new building opened
* 2009: Hermitage FM community radio station begins broadcasting on 99.2FM and online
* 2013: Tesco pulled out of the main town regeneration
* 2014: Broom Leys suburb was officially named
* 2015: Closure of Snibston Discovery Museum
* 2015: Ford Motors, Coalville, start work on the regeneration of the town
*2017: Whitwick retail park goes under refurbishment improving the outside of existing shops by upgrading the facades across the site. Also adding Peacocks, Sports Direct and Pets at Home
*2018: Plans are drawn up by North west Leicestershire district council to redesign Marlborough Square.

Civic heraldry

Coalville is the administrative headquarters of North West Leicestershire District. The district's coat of arms was granted on 30 October 1974, and bears the motto, 'EX TERRA OPES', which means, "From the earth, wealth" – a reference primarily relating to Coalville's prosperity as a result of extractive industry, coal-mining, quarrying and brick-making.

Economy

Within thirty years of the town's birth as a result of the collieries, many additional industries became established within the town, such as flour milling, brick making, engineering and the manufacture of elastic web.

During the twentieth century, Coalville was home to Palitoy, a toy manufacturer that made Action Man, Action Force, Tiny Tears, Pippa, Tressy, Merlin, Star Wars figures and the Care Bears. The company was founded by Alfred Edward Pallett in 1909 to produce celluloid and fancy goods. Their first toy was in 1920 and the first doll in 1925. The Palitoy site was closed in 1994.

Aggregate Industries has its headquarters at Bardon Hill Quarry and is one of the five largest construction material suppliers in the UK. The company was originally established in 1858, though an early reference to a granite quarry at Bardon Hill appeared in 1622, in William Burton's "Description of Leicestershire".

TEREX Pegson Limited is a UK manufacturer of mobile crushing machines, and is part of the Terex Corporation. Pegson is headquartered in Coalville, with a distribution centre for North America in Louisville, Kentucky. The manufacturing plant has been located for many years on Mammoth Street, off the Whitwick Road and the company is able to trace its origins to the company of Samuel Pegg and Son, which was originally set up on Alexander Street, Leicester in 1830, when its main concern was connected with hosiery machinery.

Tulip Foods (formerly Belvoir Bacon) on Mantle Lane was incorporated as a limited company on 1 July 1954, having started about twenty years previously, as a slaughterhouse supplying pork products to a local shop in Coalville owned by the Bloor family. By the 1960s the factory had begun to distribute its products nationally. The factory became known locally as "Piggy Bloor's". The Belvoir name was replaced by Tulip in 2003.

Numerous business parks and industrial estates have been established in and around Coalville following the decline of coal-mining and allied industries. Calder Colours, based on the Coalville Business Park, are manufacturers of art and craft materials. In 2014 this company produced the hundreds of litres of red top coat and terracotta base coat paint for the commemorative art installation at the Tower of London entitled ''Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red'', marking the centenary of the outbreak of World War I.

In October 2016, Amazon opened in Coalville its biggest fulfilment Centre in the United Kingdom (named BHX2). Reportedly occupying an area equivalent to 19 football fields, the centre employs hundreds of citizens in the Leicestershire region and is operational twenty four hours a day.

Transport

Arriva Midlands are the main operator for services from Coalville with buses operating to Leicester, Loughborough, Swadlincote, Roberts Travel Group also operate service 159 to Hinckley and 125 to Leicester and Castle Donington, Trent Barton also operate the Skylink bus service to East Midlands Airport and Nottingham.

The nearest passenger railway station is Loughborough, about northeast of Coalville. There have been calls to reinstate passenger services through the town on the Leicester to Burton upon Trent Line – however, following Leicestershire County Council's 2009 report citing construction costs of £50 million and a large operational subsidy, the scheme was dropped despite outcry from proponents.

Religion

In the 2011 census, the electoral ward of Coalville had 5988 inhabitants with religious affiliation as follows: 60.1% Christian, 32.4% No religion, 0.6% Hindu, 0.3% Buddhist, 0.2% Muslim, 0.1% Agnostic, 0.1% Sikh. The town has a rich and diverse history of Christian places of worship. During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, numerous non-conformist chapels were established, some of which gave rise to break-away factions. Following the decline in the membership of traditional non-conformist societies, the town has seen the establishment of numerous evangelical free churches in more recent years. An official town guide, produced by the Coalville Urban District Council, circa 1968, has proved to be a useful source in chronicling the development and histories of early religious groups.Town Guide, Coalville Urban District Council, c. 1968 The Anglican, Evangelical, Roman Catholic and 'non-conformist' churches in the district co-operate in an ecumenical alliance known as Coalville Christian Church Unity. The Jehovah's Witnesses and Spiritualist Church in the town are unconnected with this movement.

Church of England

Coalville was in earlier times divided between the parishes of Snibston and Whitwick. The parish of Christ Church, Coalville, was established in the mid-19th century. Since 1926 Coalville has been in the Diocese of Leicester; from 1539 to 1926 it was in the Diocese of Peterborough.

Parish church

Coalville's parish church, Christ Church on London Road, was built between 1836 and 1838.Pevsner, Nikolaus (1960) ''The Buildings of England: Leicestershire and Rutland'', Penguin Books, p. 88 The architect was H. I. Stevens of Derby. In 1853, a chancel was added, making the building cruciform, and the church was restored between 1894 and 1895.A. E. Hawthorn, ''A Church, a People and a Story'', 1953 Vestries for the clergy and choir were erected on the north side of the chancel in 1936.

The building is a plain and routine example of Early English style revival, comprising nave, transepts, chancel and western tower. The nave is fairly unusual in that its north and south aisles are not separated from the nave by arcades. The tower contains four bells, played on a clavier and has embattled parapets; access to the church is via the main west door, located in the ground floor stage of the tower. The local historian, Edgar Hawthorn, claims that construction of the church was funded by George Stephenson, though this assertion has been called into question by more recent historians.Baker, 'Coalville: The First Seventy Five Years', Leicestershire Libraries and Information Services, 1983.

The tower contained a single bell until 1936, when a further three bells were presented by Dr Francis E. Knowles of America. Dr Knowles had ordered these bells from the foundry of John Taylor at Loughborough, but in the meantime, the church in America was destroyed by a tornado. Through the influence of the then vicar, the Reverend W. A. J. Martyr, Dr Knowles (originally of Melbourne in Derbyshire) was persuaded to present them to Christ Church, Coalville.

The church houses a brass memorial plaque to the victims of the Whitwick Colliery Disaster (1898) and the gravestone of James Stephenson, who came here through the influence of his brother, George Stephenson, the engineer, to work as an official at the Snibston Colliery.
There is a memorial to the fallen of the parish of both World War I and II in the Lady Chapel. This is in the form of a reredos behind the chapel altar. In 1859, an Act of Parliament decreed that 'for the protection of the public health', no further burials should take place in the church yard, 'with the exception of the part of the ground on the south of the church, in which no burial shall take place, except in brick graves, in which each coffin shall be separately entombed in an air-tight manner'. The same legislation also ordered that 'burials be wholly discontinued in the General Baptist Chapel Burial-ground', which was located just a short distance away from the church, near the present day council offices.

The small churchyard contains the grave of Amos Clarke, who, although blind from the age of eight days, was organist at Christ Church for some fifty years. Following his death in 1930, he was buried on the south side of the church as near to the organ as possible – at his own request.

The longest serving vicar of Christ Church was the Reverend William Gardner, who held the living for thirty-three years. The east window was installed as a memorial to Gardner, his wife and daughter.

Vicars

All Saints' Mission Church

Due to the rapid growth of the town in the 19th century, a mission church known as "All Saints'" was erected on Ashby Road in 1895, on a site given by Messrs T. and J. Jones of Coalville. This was served by the clergy of the parish church.

St Mary's, Snibston

St Mary's, Snibston is an ancient parish church set in a rural location close to Coalville. The church building is notable for being very small, no longer than twenty-four feet, comprising a nave and chancel in one. The fabric is mainly medieval, though the current lancet windows were installed in 1847. The foundations of a tower were discovered in 1930. Until a Coalville parish (the Christ Church parish) was created, Snibston parish covered much of the south-westerly part of the area that is now Coalville.

St David's, Broom Leys

St David's (Church of England, founded in 1933) is in a northerly suburb of Coalville. The present building is nearly 30 years later.

Baptists

There were, at one time, three different Baptist churches within the town of Coalville – belonging to General Baptists, Strict Baptists and Particular Baptists.

The General Baptist chapel in Coalville was built on land provided by the Whitwick Colliery Company and occupied a site close to the present day council offices, at the junction of London Road and Whitwick Road. This church, which became known as the London Road Baptist Chapel, became the first permanent place of worship in Coalville when services began in 1836. Built at a cost of £560, the chapel had 600 sittings and a Sunday School attached. For many years after its demolition, the junction on which it had stood was still referred to as 'Chapel Corner'.

Following the chapel's closure, the congregation transferred to a new premises at Greenhill known as the Charnborough Road Baptist Church, which was registered for solemnising marriages on 15 March 1955. This church is still in use and is now known as the Greenhill Community Church, being affiliated to the Baptist Union.

In 1852, a society of Strict Baptists built a chapel known as "Cave Adullam" on the opposite side of the road to the General Baptist Chapel on London Road. According to local writer, Elizabeth Hewes,The Travels and Observations of Elizabeth Hewes, 2011" this was erected by William Stenson – the founder of Whitwick Colliery – who was a staunch baptist, as a more "select place of worship" for himself and his wife. Stenson lived just a very short distance away, also on the London Road, on a site which is today marked by a brass plaque. The local historian, Dennis Baker does not mention Stenson's involvement with this chapel, attributing its formation to a break-away movement from the General Baptist chapel as a result of doctrinal differences. Stenson was undoubtedly a pioneer of the Baptist mission in Coalville however, and his grave can be found in the old Baptist cemetery off Grange Road, Hugglescote.

This chapel was still flourishing in 1907, when it was redecorated, with "Strict Baptist" newly painted on the door. It was probably this chapel that was the one referred to as a "Calvinist chapel" in Kelly's Directory of 1881. Another source has it as a "Calvinistic" chapel.
The building still exists and is now occupied by the Balti Tower Indian restaurant and an oriental food store. For many years after its closure, part of the building was occupied by "Kemp's grocery store". The stone plaque, bearing the name, "Cave Adullam" can still be seen set above the frontage; this term has its origins in the Bible (I Samuel, 22:I).

In 1879, further doctrinal differences led to 149 members of the General Baptist Chapel being erased from their communion.
Seventy three of these individuals then formed themselves into a Particular Baptist Chapel and went on to build the Ebeneezer Baptist Church on Ashby Road, which was completed in 1881. Whilst the church was being built, services were conducted in an old wagon repair shop. Structural alterations and additions were made to the building in 1908 and instead of two entrances to the church, one main entrance was made, as it is today. The church once played a prominent part in the musical life of the town, and it was here that the Snibston Colliery Miner's Welfare Silver Prize Band was formed.

Conregationalist (United Reformed Church)

Congregationalism would appear to have been the first Protestant non-conformist religion active in the Coalville district.

Following Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660, the re-establishment of the bishops, and Parliament's attempt in 1662 to impose a single form of religious observance throughout England (the Act of Uniformity 1662), the vicar of Ravenstone (John Shuttlewood or Sittlewood) was removed from office in 1660, the vicar of Whitwick (John Bennett) was removed from office in 1662 and William Sheffield (a former rector of Ibstock, but who had moved to Stoke Golding where he was a curate) was suspended on 13 October 1662. All three became Nonconformist or Dissenting preachers. Shuttlewood and Bennett were both later imprisoned for Nonconformity.

The moated old Bardon Hall at Bardon Park became a place of Dissenting worship, and was registered as such after persecution of Dissent had eased. After the events known as the Glorious Revolution (1688) and the Act of Toleration 1689, the owner of Bardon Hall and Park built the Bardon Park chapel or meetinghouse at the gate of his estate, as a place for non-conforming worship.

The Bardon Park Chapel, situated about from Coalville, is a Grade II Listed building, widely regarded as being the oldest non-conformist place of worship in Leicestershire. Built in about 1694, the chapel was affiliated to the Congregational Union from about 1830. In 1972, the Congregationalists united nationally with the Presbyterians to form the United Reformed Church. The "Bardon Chapel" thus serves as the modern day United Reformed Church for the communities of Coalville and North West Leicestershire.

Around 1800, the then minister at the Bardon Park Chapel opened a chapel at Donington-le-Heath. This building was relatively short-lived and was eventually demolished. Its exact location is unknown. From the 1840s until circa 1870, the Bardon Park Chapel operated a day-school at Bardon Park, in the hall to the rear of the chapel. This school was affiliated to the British and Foreign School Society. (BFSS schools were often known as "British Schools", distinguishing them from the " National Schools" affiliated to the Church of England). A painted alphabet board on the wall of the old schoolroom at Bardon Park Chapel dates from the 1840s.

Around 1900, the Bardon Park Congregational Chapel became concerned that it was not sufficiently influencing the spiritual life of the town of Coalville and opened a new chapel in the town. This was "an iron building which used to stand on what is now the flower plot at the corner of Broom Leys Road and London Road" and the building was also used as a place of worship by a society of United Methodists, before they built their own church on the London Road in 1910. A house called "Hazeldine Villa", adjacent to the iron building, was the residence of the Congregationalist minister. The mission proved to be a short lived venture however, as Hazeldine and the iron chapel were sold off in 1909.

Free churches

Coalville Evangelical Church, is an independent church affiliated with the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches, located on Belvoir Road, having taken over from a now defunct Open Brethren congregation on the site.

‘’’Living Rock Church’’’ is an evangelical church which meets on the first Sunday of each month at Rothley House (the former Palitoy factory off Jackson Street. Their website is www.livingrock.church

The New Life Church is an evangelical free church on Margaret Street, which occupies a premises which was formerly a working men's club.

A Pentecostal

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