A pit village, colliery village or mining village is a settlement built by colliery owners to house their workers. The villages were built on the coalfields of

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

during the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution, sometimes divided into the First Industrial Revolution and Second Industrial Revolution, was a transitional period of the global economy toward more widespread, efficient and stable manufacturing processes, succee ...

where new coal mines were developed in isolated or unpopulated areas. Such settlements were developed by companies for the incoming workers.

Examples

* New Sharlston Colliery Village, Yorkshire (1864) *

Howe Bridge Howe Bridge is a suburb of Atherton, Greater Manchester, Atherton, Greater Manchester, England. Historic counties of England, Historically within Lancashire, it is south west of Atherton town centre on the B5215, the old Turnpike trust, turnpike ...

, Atherton,

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Manchester. ...

(1873–79) * Gin Pit village, in Astley,

Tyldesley Tyldesley () is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan in Greater Manchester, England. Within the boundaries of the Historic counties of England, historic county of Lancashire, it is north of Chat Moss near the foothills of the Wes ...

(1874) * Creswell Model Village, Derbyshire (1895) * New Bolsover model village, Derbyshire (1896) * Newstead Colliery Village * Woodlands, Yorkshire (1905)

In popular culture

The 1939 film ''

The Stars Look Down ''The Stars Look Down'' is a 1935 novel by A. J. Cronin which chronicles various injustices in an English coal mining community. A film version was released in 1940, and television adaptations include both Italian (1971) and British (1975) v ...

'', based on the 1935 novel of the same name by

A. J. Cronin Archibald Joseph Cronin (Cronogue) (19 July 1896 – 6 January 1981) was a Scottish physician and novelist. His best-known novel is ''The Citadel (novel), The Citadel'' (1937), about a Scottish physician who serves in a Welsh coal mining, minin ...

, is set in the fictional pit village of Sleescale. The film was shot partly on location at St Helens Siddick Colliery in

Workington Workington is a coastal town and civil parish in the Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. The town is at the mouth of the River Derwent on the west coast, south-west of Carlisle and north-east of Whitehaven. At the 2021 census the ...

. The novel '' How Green Was My Valley'' and the subsequent film adaptation of the same name were based in a fictional pit village in the

South Wales Valleys The South Wales Valleys () are a group of industrialised peri-urban valleys in South Wales. Most of the valleys run northsouth, roughly parallel to each other. Commonly referred to as "The Valleys" (), they stretch from Carmarthenshire in the ...

. A fictional village in this region was the site of the film '' The Proud Valley'', starring

Paul Robeson Paul Leroy Robeson ( ; April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was an American bass-baritone concert artist, actor, professional American football, football player, and activist who became famous both for his cultural accomplishments and for h ...

. ''

Billy Elliot ''Billy Elliot'' is a 2000 British coming-of-age Comedy film, comedy-drama film directed by Stephen Daldry and written by Lee Hall (playwright), Lee Hall. Set in County Durham in North East England during the 1984–1985 miners' strike, the fi ...

'', set in a fictitious pit village during the miners' strike of 1984–85, was shot on location in Easington Colliery. '' Brassed Off'' was set in "Grimley", a thin veil for Grimethorpe. The depopulation of Fitzwilliam,

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a Metropolitan counties of England, metropolitan and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and east, South Yorkshire and De ...

was the theme of a song by Chumbawamba and David Peace's novel ''Nineteen Seventy Four''.

References

Citations Bibliography * Villages in the United Kingdom {{Geo-term-stub

Examples

In popular culture

See also

References