Monument record MDR11589 - Former Coalite Works (site of), Buttermilk Lane, Old Bolsover

Coalite smokeless fuel works. Two batteries of vertical retorts and a chemical works dominate this 20th century site. The coal is carbonised at low temperature to produce smokeless fuel (coalite) and various chemical by-products. The works, together with the nearby Markham and Bolsover collieries, forms a major landscape feature. Assessment as part of the Industrial Monuments Protection Programme in the mid-1990s assessed the importance of individual features on the site as follows: chimneys and storage bunkers of low importance, condensing plant, cooling plant, drying plant, exhausters, screening plant, tanks and tar works of moderate importance, and retorts of high importance. Smokeless fuel became an important aspect of the post-nationalisation coal industry, and growing competition throughout the 1960s/70s led to a dramatic decline in their number. The site is highly contaminated, and the MPP recommended a Level 1 survey of the works' operation with a Level 3 record of the more important components. (1)