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Entry TypeCorporate
Corporate NameSouth Normanton Colliery Company Limited
PlaceSouth Normanton
Epithetcolliery company
Dates1891-1947
HistoryThe company was established by Mr A. Mein of Bishop Auckland of Durham, with the help of a syndicate of fellow Durham shareholders. It was firmly in the control of the Mein family, whose members held all the principal posts. It was officially incorporated in 1891. A lease was made with Hugh Browne to work coal under Pinxton Range, Berristowe and Winterbank Farms. The first shaft was sunk in June 1892, which reached the Top Hard Seam in April 1893. After delays caused by the 1893 Miners Strike and flooding, regular coal production started in Oct 1893. The company experienced boom years at the end of the 19th and beginning of 20th centuries, but profits were not ploughed back into the business so that investment could be made to improve future production. The company were well known for caring more for their profits than their workers, although the company is said never to have experienced a stirke by its workforce. It first provided safety lamps for miners in 1934. There was an explosion at South Normanton Colliery in 1937, which was blamed by the company on workers smoking underground. The company was blamed for not being tighter on people smoking on site. By the start of World War II the colliery was running at a loss, though still employing over 350 men. Its output was always small and its equipment very antiquated by 1947.

South Normanton Colliery was transferred to the control of the National Coal Board following the nationalisation of the coal industry in 1947. The colliery was closed in 1952.
Source"A Village of Considerable Extent" by Pamela Sharpe, 1982, reprinted 1993
‘South Normanton Closed After 58 Years’, http://www.healeyhero.co.uk/rescue/individual/Bob_Bradley/Bk-4/B4-1951.html
‘South Normanton Colliery Explosion Relief Fund Committee’, D2087
Griffin, A. R., ‘A Boom Colliery in the Boer War Period’, Derbyshire Miscellany, 5.4 (1970)
Northern Mine Research Society, South Normanton Colliery Explosion, https://www.nmrs.org.uk/mines-map/accidents-disasters/derbyshire/south-normanton-colliery-explosion-alfreton-1937/
Authorised Form of NameSouth Normanton; South Normanton Colliery Company Limited; 1891-1947; colliery company

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