Arkwright Town, usually referred to as Arkwright, is a village in

Sutton cum Duckmanton Sutton cum Duckmanton is a civil parish in Derbyshire, England, between Bolsover and Chesterfield, Derbyshire, Chesterfield in the district of North East Derbyshire. The village has a Church of England, parish church, a public house, pub, The A ...

North East Derbyshire North East Derbyshire is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in Derbyshire, England. The council is based in the large village of Wingerworth. The district also includes the towns of Dronfield and Clay Cross as well as numerou ...

, England that is notable for being moved to a nearby location in the early 1990s.Metropolitan Housing Trust stakeholders' newsletter, October 2005 The village is between Chesterfield and

Bolsover Bolsover is a market town and the administrative centre of the Bolsover District, Derbyshire, England. It is from Sheffield, from Nottingham and from Derby. It is the main town in the Bolsover district. The civil parish for the town is c ...

on the

A632 road The A632 is a major road in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, England. It starts in Matlock and joins the town with Chesterfield. From there, it goes through Bolsover and then onto the A616 at the village of Cuckney St Mary’s Church Nort ...

, and was formerly a

coal mining Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

village.

History

When Arkwright Colliery closed in 1988 the community was affected by emissions of

methane Methane ( , ) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula (one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms). It is a group-14 hydride, the simplest alkane, and the main constituent of natural gas. The abundance of methane on Earth makes ...

gas that caused some of its houses to be evacuated. The village was owned by

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 ...

and a decision was made in cooperation with Derbyshire County Council to transfer ownership of the 52 properties to a

housing trust In Ireland and the United Kingdom, housing associations are private, non-profit organisations that provide low-cost "social housing" for people in need of a home. Any budget surplus is used to maintain existing housing and to help finance new ...

, construct a new village of 56 properties to the north of the site affected by methane, and move all the residents. Construction was completed by 1995 when the old Arkwright Town was demolished. The old village was south of the A632 road, and the new village is north of it. Part of the deal with British Coal included an agreement to open cast a 100-acre site. Work started in November 1993 and continued until about 2005. A nature walk was established in 2010 following routes once used by railway lines.

History

See also

References

Further reading