| Entry Type | Corporate |
| Corporate Name | Ramcroft Colliery |
| Parent Body | Ramcroft Colliery Company |
| Hardwick Colliery Company |
| National Coal Board |
| Place | Heath |
| Epithet | coal mine |
| Dates | 1916-1966 |
| History | The Ramcroft Colliery Company first sunk a shaft in 1916. During its lifetime it worked the Top Hard and Waterloo coal seams. Following the colliery's success during the First World War, a railway branch line and sidings were added to move the coal more easily. This success was short lived as in 1929, it became mothballed due to a build up of water. During this time it was still being pumped by the Hardwick Company, so it didn’t flood their nearby mines. The pipeline and pumping station for this was built in 1935 to help water batteries at nearby Holmewood Colliery. Only 3 men worked onsite during this time of abandonment. The Hardwick Company finally took over in 1930, following the liquidation of the Ramcroft Colliery Company.
Due to the continuing problems of the build-up of water, the colliery was not reopened until 1940. At its reopening 500 men were initially employed. The colliery was transferre to the control of the National Coal Board as a result of the nationalisation of the coal industry on 1947. A drift mine was added in 1952 to connect the onsite workings of the Waterloo and Top Hard coal seams. The maximum recorded output was 236,177 tons in 1954, with the maximum recorded workforce being 577 men. The site officially closed in 1966, but some opencast mining still continued here after that date.
Known management: JW Woodbridge, Dominic Lavin, EB Flint, J Houghton, JS Raynor, John N Booth, F Ford, George Bunting, George Bishop, Peter I Allsop, A Russell Dove, Joe Rodgers, George S Payton. |
| Key Events | 1916: First sunk
1929: Mothballed
1930: Sold to Hardwick Colliery Company
1935: Water pipeline and pumping station built
1940: Reopened
1947: Nationalisation
1952: Drift mine added
1966: Closed |
| Source | ‘Holmewood’, http://www.oldminer.co.uk/heath,-holmewood.html
‘Holmewood Colliery (North Derbyshire) Was Closed After 95 Years’, http://www.healeyhero.co.uk/rescue/individual/Bob_Bradley/Bk-5/B5-1968-K.html
‘Ramcroft Colliery’, http://www.oldminer.co.uk/ramcroft.html
‘Ramcroft Colliery (North Derbyshire) Closed After 50 Years’, http://www.healeyhero.co.uk/rescue/individual/Bob_Bradley/Bk-4/B4-1966-P4.html
Bagshaw, S., History, Gazetteer and Directory of Derbyshire, with the Town of Burton-upon-Trent (Sheffield: William Saxton, 1846)
Bell, D., Memories of the Derbyshire Coalfields (Newbury: Countryside Books, 2006)
Bridgewater, A. N., North Derbyshire Collieries (2009) https://www.aditnow.co.uk/documents/Doe-Lea-Coal-Mine/North20Derbyshire20Collieries20Small20Update.pdf
Deeds relating to the acquisition of the Ramcroft Colliery by the Hardwick Company following the liquidation of the Ramcroft Company (1930), N36/8/5
Fowkes, D. V., ‘Notes on the History of North Wingfield’, Derbyshire Miscellany, 8.6 (1979)
Richard’s Bygone Times, Ramcroft Colliery: A Brief History http://www.richardsbygonetimes.co.uk/rammy.htm
Wain, K., The Coal Mining Industry of Sheffield and North Derbyshire (Amberley, 2014) |
| Authorised Form of Name | Heath; Ramcroft Colliery; 1916-1966; coal mine |