| Entry Type | Corporate |
| Corporate Name | Grassmoor Colliery |
| Parent Body | Grassmoor Colliery Company (1846-1947) |
| National Coal Board (1947-1967) |
| Place | Grassmoor, Chesterfield |
| Epithet | coal mine |
| Dates | 1846-1967 |
| History | 3 shallow and exploratory shafts at Grassmoor were first sunk by Alfred Barnes in 1846. The mineral rights for the coal seams were leased from the Duke of Devonshire. By 1861, these shafts had worked enough coal to fund further sinking to the Blackshale seam. The other seams worked were the Tupton, 1st Piper, 2nd Piper, Deep Hard, Deep Soft and Waterloo coal seams. It once had one of the highest rates of surface employment in the region, peaking in 1920 at 809 men. Onsite beehive coking ovens were used from the beginning of coal production, but improved ones were built in 1896 by the Hasland Coking Company. These proved to be wasteful and were only used until 1910. After that date until the closure of the pit, they were used for storage instead. The gas that was produced during the coking process was sent to Chesterfield, Shirebrook and Mansfield.
The colliery was transferred to the National Coal Board as a result of the nationalisation of the coal industry in 1947. The colliery was officially closed in August 1950. The remaining men working here were transferred over to Williamthorpe, as the workings became merged underground. This meant coal was still being produced from near Grassmoor until around 1960. Due to this, the site continued to be administered as a separate unit until 1967.
At the time of the original sinking in 1846, 2 sinkers were killed when the ground collapsed. Another accident occured on 19th November 1933, a gas explosion killed 14 miners and injured a further 8. Prince George came to visit the area to offer his condolences as he was staying at Chatsworth. The accident was blamed on an electric cap lamp igniting. The first pithead baths were opened here in 1929. It was also the first colliery in the area to offer full meals in a canteen during the Second World War.
Known managers: Benjamin Bamford, T. D. Atkinson, John W Lamondby, E. L. Ford, W. F. Tunnicliffe, R. H. Swallow, William H Southern, Peter I. Allsop. |
| Key Events | 1846: Exploratory shafts first sunk
1947: Nationalisation
1950: Colliery officially closed, merging with Williamthorpe Colliery
1967: Administation of site stopped |
| Source | ‘Grassmoor’, http://www.oldminer.co.uk/grassmoor.html
‘Grassmoor Colliery Merged With Williamthorpe’, http://www.healeyhero.co.uk/rescue/individual/Bob_Bradley/Bk-4/B4-1950-B.html and http://www.healeyhero.co.uk/rescue/individual/Bob_Bradley/Bk-5/B5-1967-D.html
‘Grassmoor Training Centre’, http://www.healeyhero.co.uk/rescue/individual/Bob_Bradley/Bk-4/B4-1952-4.html
Bell, D., Memories of the Derbyshire Coalfields (Newbury: Countryside Books, 2006)
Garlic, S. L., ‘Bygone Grassmoor’, Derbyshire Miscellany, 8.5 (1979)
Lomax, S. C., The Home Front: Derbyshire in the First World War (Barnsley: Pen & Sword, 2016)
Wain, K., The Coal Mining Industry of Sheffield and North Derbyshire (Amberley, 2014) |
| Authorised Form of Name | Grassmoor, Chesterfield; Grassmoor Colliery; 1846-1967; coal mine |
Show related Catalog records.