Rufford Colliery was a

coal mine 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 ...

located near

Rainworth Rainworth is a village in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire in the East Midlands of England. It is split between the local government districts of Newark and Sherwood and Mansfield.OS Explorer Map 270: Sherwood Forest: (1:25 000): To th ...

, a village in

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated ''Notts.'') is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. The county is bordered by South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. Th ...

, England. Its first shafts were sunk in 1911. In February 1913, fourteen workers at the mine died when a water barrel "containing some tons of water was precipitated down the shaft on to some men who were working at the bottom" of one of shafts. The mine was operated by Bolsover Colliery Company from 1915 to 1946, 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 "ve ...

from 1947 to 1987, and the

British Coal Corporation 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 ...

from 1987 to 1993. The mine ceased operation in 1993.

After mining

A waste

incinerator Incineration is a list of solid waste treatment technologies, waste treatment process that involves the combustion of substances contained in waste materials. Industrial plants for waste incineration are commonly referred to as waste-to-ene ...

to be built on the site of the former colliery was proposed in 2006 by

Veolia Veolia Environnement S.A., branded as Veolia, is a French transnational company with activities in three main service and utility areas traditionally managed by public authorities – water management, waste management and energy services. In ...

Ltd., the preferred contractor for

Nottinghamshire County Council Nottinghamshire County Council is the upper-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Nottinghamshire in England. The non-metropolitan county is smaller than the ceremonial county; the non-metropolitan county excludes the city of ...

. Previously, the Forest Town area of

Mansfield Mansfield is a market town and the administrative centre of the Mansfield District in Nottinghamshire, England. It is the largest town in the wider Mansfield Urban Area and the second largest settlement in Nottinghamshire (following the city ...

was considered as a possible location. The Rufford proposal met with hostile views from many local residents, concerned with the

environmental impact Environmental issues are disruptions in the usual function of ecosystems. Further, these issues can be caused by humans ( human impact on the environment) or they can be natural. These issues are considered serious when the ecosystem cannot reco ...

and the increased traffic around the village. A

planning permission Planning permission or building permit refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. House building permits, for example, are subject to buil ...

application was made to Nottinghamshire County Council and to the

Environment Agency The Environment Agency (EA) is a non-departmental public body, established in 1996 and sponsored by the United Kingdom government's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with responsibilities relating to the protection and enha ...

, whose consultation ended in May 2008. Opposition was from several local environmental groups, led by People Against Incineration (PAIN), who obtained the support of botanist

David Bellamy David James Bellamy (18 January 1933 – 11 December 2019) was an English academic, botanist, television presenter, author and prominent environmental campaigner in the UK and globally. His distinctive, energetic style of presenting became wel ...

. The application was heard by Nottinghamshire County Council and they approved it despite heavy local opposition, but a public inquiry was put in place involving then-minister

Eric Pickles Eric Jack Pickles, Baron Pickles, (born 20 April 1952) is a British Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party politician who served as Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Brentwood and Ongar from 1992 United ...

. This inquiry sat in October 2009, only to be adjourned until April 2010 and yet again to September 2010, owing to the possibility of there being nationally important nesting sites for

nightjar Nightjars are medium-sized nocturnal or crepuscular birds in the family Caprimulgidae and order Caprimulgiformes, characterised by long wings, short legs, and very short bills. They are sometimes called bugeaters, their primary source of food ...

s and

woodlark The woodlark or wood lark (''Lullula arborea'') is the only extant species in the lark genus ''Lullula''. It is found across most of Europe, the Middle East, western Asia and the mountains of north Africa. It is mainly resident (non-bird migrati ...

s, among other disputed matters. On 27 May 2011 the Secretary of State formally turned down the planning application. Veolia then launched an appeal against the Secretary of State's decision but this was eventually withdrawn in October 2012. The incinerator had been expected to process a year, with the company claiming it had the potential to create electricity for heating, power and lighting for 15,000 homes and businesses. The

Harworth Group Harworth Group plc ("Harworth") is a property developer that specialises in regenerating brownfield sites in Yorkshire, the Midlands, and North West England. The company is headquartered in Rotherham in South Yorkshire. It is listed on the Londo ...

and the

Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust The Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust founded in 1963 is a wildlife conservation charity working to protect and enhance the wildlife and habitats of Nottinghamshire. They care for over 60 nature reserves covering more than of wildlife habitat rangi ...

have worked together on restoration of the site. In 2021,

commenced a project to reclaim the land and plant trees on the site of the former colliery.

Natural amenity

Rainworth Heath is an adjacent, wider area of natural

heathland A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and is characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a coole ...

overlying

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

strata, known as Bunter, under improvement. It is one of the last remaining areas of heathland in Nottinghamshire, and has areas of both dry and wet heath.

References

{{reflist Coal mines in Nottinghamshire Coal mining disasters in England 1911 establishments in England 1993 disestablishments in England