| Entry Type | Corporate |
| Corporate Name | Donisthorpe Colliery |
| Parent Body | Messrs Checkland (1871-1873) |
| Checklands and Williams (1873-1886) |
| Donisthorpe Colliery Compamy Limited (1886-1947) |
| Moira Colliery Company Limited (1903-1947) |
| National Coal Board (1947-1990) |
| Place | Donisthorpe, Leicestershire |
| Epithet | coal mine |
| Dates | 1871-1950 |
| History | In March 1871 work began on the sinking of Donisthorpe Colliery by George Checkland and his son, George Edward Checkland, who had leased the minerals under 535 acres on the south side of Donisthorpe from the Mylles Cave Brown Cave. Other leases by other landowners soon followed, so that they controlled over 2000 aces of land by the summer of 1873, when they added Griffith Williams into the partnership. They also owned another colliery at Coleorton Colliery and the continuing expansion of Donisthorpe Colliery left them heavily dependant on the Leicester Banking Company. After a lawsuit the colliery company was reconstituted in 1886 as a limited company called the Donisthorpe Colliery Company Limited.
Although it was regarded as relatively successful, Donisthorpe Colliery's dependance on the Little and Main Seams, restricted area of expansion to its, excessive leases and over-generous royalties meant that it never gave the proprietors the anticpated returns. In March 1903 Checkland and Williams sold the colliery to the Moira Colliery Company, although it continued to be run by a subsidiary Donisthorpe Colliery Company Limited.
The colliery was transferred to the control of theNational Coal Board in 1947 as a result of the nationalisation of the coal industry. In 1986 Measham Colliery was mereged with it. Donisthorpe Colliery was closed in 1990. |
| Authorised Form of Name | Donisthorpe, Leicestershire; Donisthorpe Colliery; 1871-1950; coal mine |
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