| Entry Type | Corporate |
| Corporate Name | Bretby Colliery |
| Parent Body | Halls Collieries Ltd (1920-1947) |
| National Coal Board (1947-1962) |
| Also Known As | Stanhope Colliery |
| Place | Bretby |
| Place | Newhall |
| Epithet | coal mine |
| Dates | 1878-1962 |
| History | In 1872, the site was opened for coal mining deveolopment by the Dowager Countess of Chesterfield, who owned the Bretby Hall estate the colliery was sunk on. The coal seam was finally found in 1876. The colliery was opened by the Dowager Countess of Chesterfield in 1878. It was originally known as Bretby No. 3, because two other collieries had been sunk nearby earlier in the century. Bretby No. 1 was closed in 1874 and Bretby No. 2 in 1886. Bretby Colliery (ex No. 3) passed in 1890 to the Earl of Carnarvon, who had inherited it as part of the Chesterfield estate of which his mother had been heir. As he only used Bretby estate for shooting, the site was sold on to Hall's Collieries in 1920. The money received from the sale went towards funding the Tutankhamun expeditions in Egypt.
The seams worked were the Eureka, Stanhope, Woodfield, Nether, Stockings, Main and Kilburn coal seams. The highest recorded manpower was 536 in 1924. It was seen as a difficult colliery to run and was briefly closed in 1928. The colliery was transferred to the control of the National Coal Board as a result of the nationalisation of the coal industry in 1947. It closed for the final time in 1962.
Known managers: William Johnson, William Belfitt, R. R. Lishman, Andrew Mein, Frank M Joyce, CR Dickinson, William Wallace (twice manager), Eric P Lawrence, William Tatham, Derek Smith, Ralph Rawlinson, Alec Hindmarsh |
| Key Events | 1878: colliery opened
1920: bought by Hall's Collieries Limited
1947: nationalised
1962: closed |
| Source of Authority | 'Bretby Colliery Closed After 86 Years’, http://www.healeyhero.co.uk/rescue/individual/Bob_Bradley/Bk-4/B4-1962-B.html
Amos, D. and Braber, N., Bradwell’s Images of Coal Mining in the East Midlands (Sheffield: Bradwell Books, 2017)
Bell, D., Memories of the Derbyshire Coalfields (Newbury: Countryside Books, 2006)
'The Leicestershire and South Derbyshire Coalfield, 1200-1900' by Colin Owen, 1984 |
| Authorised Form of Name | Newhall; Bretby Colliery; 1878-1962; coal mine |
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