| Entry Type | Corporate |
| Corporate Name | Granville Colliery Company |
| Alternative Form of Name | Granville Coal Company |
| Place | Swadlincote |
| Epithet | Colliery company |
| Dates | 1872-1947 |
| History | Court Dewes in 1823 had sunk new shafts (called Common and Church Pits) on the east of Swadlincote to reach the Main Coal Seam, which eventually formed Granville No. 1 Colliery. In 1872, the trustees of the late Court Granville offered up for auction the entire estate, including underlying minerals and the colliery, and all or most was bought by a syndicate of 23 merchants, manufacturers and gentlemen, most from Birmingham, for £75,000. The new company was incorporated on 12 July 1872. The Granville Colliery Company continued to develop the colliery site by expanded the workings. In 1887 a new pit was begun to the east of the old colliery, with a shaft being sunk to work the Kilburn Seam: the new pit became known as Granville No. 2 Colliery. Several additional mineral leases were obtained in the late 19th century, which ensured that production continued at the collieries for many years in spite of the rising costs caused by ever deeper mine workings. By 1888 the company's two collieries employed 91 surface and 335 underground workers, which rose in the 1890s to around 600 men and boys. In 1891 the company produced its largest coal output of 225,000 tons. The collieries worked the Main Coal, Little Coal, Woodfield, Stockings, Eureka and Stanhope Seams.
In 1947 Granville Colliery No. 1 was transferred to the National Coal Board following the nationalisation of the coal industry. |
| Key Events | 1872; formation of a new Granville Colliery Company |
| Source | ‘Granville (South Derbyshire/Leicestershire Coalfield) Closed After 142 Years’, http://www.healeyhero.co.uk/rescue/individual/Bob_Bradley/Bk-5/B5-1967-H.html
Kelly, Directory of the Counties of Derby, Notts, Leicester and Rutland (London: 1891) https://www.andrewsgen.com/dby/kelly/swadlincote.htm
Swadlincote Tourist Information Centre, Mills, Mines And Murder: A Bretby Estate Walk
The Leicestershire and South Derbyshire Coalfield, 1200-1900, by Colin Owen, 1984 |
| Authorised Form of Name | Swadlincote; Granville Colliery Company; 1872-1947; Colliery company |
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