| Administrative History | In April 1952 the National Coal Board acquired the responsibility for opencast mining from the Ministry of Fuel and Power. Opencast mining had started as an emergency measure under Defence Regulations during the early stages of World War II. The Government set up the Directorate of Opencast Coal Production in 1940 to help quickly increase coal production for war effort. Opencast mining utilised coal resources at or very near the surface which did not involve the heavy capital outlay necessary for deep mining, generally being smaller scale and lees labour intensive. At the end of the war the directorate was transferred to the Ministry of Fuel and Power. The Opencast Executive was set up by the National Coal Board in 1952, It was run by an executive board, with its own department and regional organisation, with regional opencast directors. Each region was subdivided into areas covering a number of working sites, which were run by private contractors.
The Opencast Executive for the East Midlands was based in Berry Hill, Nottinghamshire. In addition to the HQ structure there were regional opencast directors, who oversaw a regional operations manager (dealing with operations, works and geotechnical sections), a regional development manager, regional lands manager, regional estimating and contracts manager, regional planning manager and regional administrative manager, who oversaw marketing and coal preparation, survey, finance, services and industrial relations, purchasing and contraxt. There were also area opencast managers who oversaw operations and site engineers, geologists, surveyors, lands management and coal preparation and marketing.
Sources: Appraisal report from DECC relating to records of the former NCB, latterly BCC, August 2013, and The National Archives' online catalogue. |