| Entry Type | Corporate |
| Corporate Name | Williamthorpe Colliery |
| Parent Body | Hardwick Colliery Company (1901-1947) |
| National Coal Board (1947-1970) |
| Place | Heath |
| Epithet | coal mine |
| Dates | 1901-1970 |
| History | The land used for Williamthorpe Colliery was leased from a Mrs Hunloke. The first sinking by the Hardwick Colliery Company was in 1901 and carried on until coal was eventually found in 1905. The early coal production was hampered by the flooding of abandoned workings at nearby Avenue Colliery. It worked the Tupton, Blackshale, Deep Hard, Threequarters, Deep Soft and Waterloo coal seams. The colliery was transferred to the control of the National Coal Board as a result of the nationalisation of the coal industry in 1947.
The highest recorded manpower was 2767 in 1958, with the highest recorded output of 1,006,079 tons in the year 1968-1969. This was the second time the colliery had reached 1 million tons of output. Onsite facilities included a washing plant and brickworks. The brickworks once made around 5 million bricks a year. Newer facilities were later added, including a new electric winder in 1940 and pithead baths were in 1958. The last of the pit ponies in use at the site were retired in 1954.
Williamthorpe was eventually merged with Holmewood in 1967, which closed in 1970. However, the pumping systems were still kept running after closure, to help pump water out of nearby Silverhill Colliery.
Known managers: Fred Chambers, T Nelson Limb, J Searston, GE Collis, EB Flint, J Houghton, JS Raynor, A McNeish, IP Findlay, P Julian Griffiths, G Clayton, Peter I Allsop, Albert Wheeler (eventually became Deputy Chairman of British Coal), B George Stepney. |
| Key Events | 1901: First sunk
1947: Nationalisation
1967: Merged with Holmewood |
| Source | ‘Holmewood’, http://www.oldminer.co.uk/heath,-holmewood.html
‘Holmewood Colliery (North Derbyshire) Was Closed After 95 Years’, http://www.healeyhero.co.uk/rescue/individual/Bob_Bradley/Bk-5/B5-1968-K.html
‘Williamthorpe Colliery (North Derbyshire) 1970 - Closed After 65 Years’, http://www.healeyhero.co.uk/rescue/individual/Bob_Bradley/Bk-5/B5-1970-B.html
Bell, D., Memories of the Derbyshire Coalfields (Newbury: Countryside Books, 2006)
Bridgewater, A. N., North Derbyshire Collieries (2009) https://www.aditnow.co.uk/documents/Doe-Lea-Coal-Mine/North20Derbyshire20Collieries20Small20Update.pdf
Wain, K., The Coal Mining Industry of Sheffield and North Derbyshire (Amberley, 2014) |
| Authorised Form of Name | Heath; Williamthorpe Colliery; 1901-1970; coal mine |
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