Monument record MDR11015 - Bolsover Colliery, Colliery Co. HQ and Brickworks (site of), Chesterfield Road, Old Bolsover

Bolsover Colliery Brickworks were probably built in the early 20th century, mainly to provide a shale brick for colliery use underground. They also made bricks for the colliery housing estate. Their principal raw materials were colliery waste, and shale quarried from the area behind the Recreation Ground and transported to the works by tramway. The brickworks were situated in the colliery yard approximately on the site now [in 1981] occupied by the pithead baths. They were closed and the buildings demolished probably in the early 1920s, most probably because they were uneconomic. (1). Late 19th century colliery retaining a relatively high proportion of 1890s buildings [in the early 1990s]. Both the winders are modern although the heapsteads, generator house, lamproom and workshops probably date from the 1890s. The colliery is a multi-period site; some buildings may contain important stratigraphic/technological information. The colliery is a good example of a small multi-period mine retaining good group value. The washery may include parts of an inter-war screen and the brick workshops have the company name displayed around their doors and windows. Demolition of the site is due to begin in early 1994 and a Level 3 record of the more important structures is recommended. (2) Bolsover Colliery was the first of six mines which were developed by the Bolsover Colliery Company between 1890 and the late 1920s. The pit originally had two shafts, sunk between 1890 and 1891, which originally were sunk to the top Hard seam at a depth of 356 yards. The shafts were deepened to the Waterloo and Blackshale seams in the 1920s and a third shaft was sunk between 1924 and 1937. The colliery was nationalised on January 1 1947, although the Bolsover Colliery Company was not dissolved until 1950. The colliery ceased production in October 1992 and at the time of recording by RCHME, in December 1993, the shafts were being prepared for filling. Buildings recorded include the colliery office (early 20th century), the pithead baths and canteen (1934-35), the weighbridge house (1890s), workshops (1890s), a lamp cabin (early 20th century), No 2 winder house (1961), No 2 heapstead and headgear (1890s), No 3 winder house (1967), No 3 headgear and heapstead (1930s), and the power house (1890s). (3). Bolsover Colliery Buildings. Extensive, largely 20th century buildings of the former Bolsover Colliery now incorporated into Bolsover Business Park. (4) The Bolsover Colliery Co. Ltd's capital was fully subscribed by the beginning of 1890 and sinking began at Bolsover in June that year. The Top Hard coal was struck in September 1891 at a depth of 365 yards. Bolsover colliery stood to the north of Chesterfield Road immediately east of the river Doe Lea, although spoil tips and an associated brickworks lay to the south of the main road. By 1895 output at Bolsover colliery had reached 1,800 tons a day and the pit was employing about 850 men. By 1923 the Bolsover Company was producing 11,000 tons of coal a day and extended workings to the Waterloo and Deep Hard seams in the late 1920s. Hand getting and haulage by ponies had given way to mechanised cutting and the use of electrically powered rope haulages by the early 1930s. On the surface, pithead baths were opened in 1935. An aerial ropeway to carry spoil from the pithead to tips south of Chesterfield Road was installed in 1943. In the late 1970s the colliery still employed between 900 and 1,000 men; however, decline set in during the 1980s and the colliery finally closed on April 23 1993. Following this, some of the surface buildings were adapted to create an industrial estate for small businesses. In 1947 the former headquarters of the Bolsover Colliery Company, built on higher ground to the east of the pit, became the NCB area office for north Derbyshire. They remained in use for this purpose until the contraction of British Coal in the late 1980s, when the former North Derbyshire Area was absorbed into a Midland Area with headquarters at Leicester. After the offices closed this site was also converted into units for small businesses. (5)