Monument record MDR9615 - Lower Birchwood Colliery (site of), Somercotes

Site of Seeleys Birchwood Colliery, now used as a scrapyard, adjacent to the main Sheffield-Nottingham railway line at Birchwood Lane. Some of the former colliery buildings remain in use [in 1972]. (1) The 1st ed. 25" Ordnance Survey map of c. 1880 names the site 'Lower Birchwood Colliery, with three engine houses marked, as well as several 'old shafts'. The colliery was linked by a short tramway to the Midland Railway to the east and by a longer stretch of tramway that ran north-west to another engine house and shafts immediately south of Cotespark Farm. The 2nd edition OS map indicates that the latter tramway had been dismantled by the end of the 19th century, with the workings south of Cotespark Farm having gone out of use. (2, 3) Coillery spoil heaps of the Butterley Company's Birchwood Coillery is clearly visible to the west of Birchwood Lane. The coillery was linked to the Pinxton arm of the Cromford Canal at Pye Bridge by a tramway. (4)