| Entry Type | Corporate |
| Corporate Name | Thoresby Colliery |
| Parent Body | Bolsover Colliery Company (1925-1947) |
| National Coal Board, later British Coal (1947-1990s) |
| RJB Mining (1990s-2015) |
| Place | Thoresby, Nottinghamshire |
| Epithet | coal mine |
| Dates | 1925-2015 |
| History | Interest in coal in the area was first established during an unsuccessful joint bid by the Stanton Ironworks Company Ltd, Butterley Company and New Hucknall Colliery Company in 1918-1919. The site remained unworked until the Bolsover Colliery Company aquired the mineral royalties for 7,000 acres on Earl Manvers estate in Thoresby. The colliery was then first sunk in 1925, with coal being reached in 1928. The pit originally worked the Deep Soft and High Hazel seams. The Parkgate seam was worked following the closure of nearby Ollerton Colliery in 1977.
The site also had its own railway sidings and brickworks. However, its location near to Sherwood Forest always meant there were environmental issues to contend with. This meant that the idea of generating the colliery's own electricity was developed. It was a successful scheme and was rolled out to all the company's collieries.
Edwinstowe was the nearest village to the pit. Bolsover Colliery Company acquired Edwinstowe Hall in 1923 and transformed it into a large welfare centre to cover all of their collieries. It officially opened in August 1923 for competitions and social events targetted at the employees and their families. It was demolished in 2014. The colliery band was established in 1948 and is still in existence.
The colliery was taken over by the National Coal Board in 1947 during the nationalisation of the coal industry. In 2015 the site closed as the last working colliery in Nottinghamshire. |
| Key Events | 1925: First sunk by the Bolsover Colliery Company
1928: Coal first reached
1947: Nationalisation
1990s: Taken over by RJB Mining
2015: Closed |
| Source | Bolsover Colliery Company Limited, Bolsover: Jubilee Souvenir, 1889-1939 (1939)
Bolsover Colliery Company Limited, Bolsover: The Company and its Coal (1940)
Bolsover Colliery Company Limited, The Monthly News: A Social Magazine for the Employees of the Bolsover Colliery Company Limited, no 5 (May 1923)
Northern Mines Research Society, Thoresby Colliery, https://www.nmrs.org.uk/mines-map/coal-mining-in-the-british-isles/derbynotts/mansfield/thoresby/
Thoresby Colliery Band, https://www.thoresbyband.co.uk/
Weiss, M., Coal Mines Remembered 2 (2011) |
| Authorised Form of Name | Thoresby, Nottinghamshire; Thoresby Colliery; 1925-2015; coal mine |
Show related Catalog records.