Dennis Skinner at Parkhouse and Glapwell Collieries

Category	Labour
Dates	1932: born at Clay Cross. 1949: starts at Parkhouse Colliery. 1962: Parkhouse closes; moves to Glapwell. 1964 or 1966: president of the Derbyshire NUM. 1970: elected MP for Bolsover. 2019: loses the seat.

Dennis Skinner, Labour MP for Bolsover from 1970 to 2019, worked underground for twenty years first: at Parkhouse Colliery, Clay Cross, from 1949 until it closed in 1962, and then at Glapwell Colliery near Bolsover. He became president of the Derbyshire miners and never let the Commons forget the pits.

Head-and-shoulders portrait of a white-haired man in a check jacket and red tie outside a stone building. — Dennis Skinner outside Parliament in 2016 Robin Hood, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The mining history in this record

Skinner was born at Clay Cross in 1932, the son of a miner who had been sacked after the 1926 General Strike. He won a grammar-school scholarship but in 1949 went to work as a miner at Parkhouse Colliery, where, he later said, about twenty pit ponies were stabled underground. He has refused to romanticise it: "I never, ever romanticise life in the pit."

When Parkhouse closed in 1962 he moved to Glapwell Colliery near Bolsover. He was elected an NUM delegate to the Derbyshire council and became the youngest president of the Derbyshire Area, in 1964 by one account and 1966 by another, then a county and Clay Cross councillor and, in 1970, MP for Bolsover.

People

Dennis Skinner, miner and MP. Edward Skinner, his father, a miner.

Legacy today

In Parliament he became known as the Beast of Bolsover, refused to take a salary above a miner's wage, and gave his pay to the NUM during the 1984-85 strike. He held Bolsover until 2019.

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each tagged with how solidly it's grounded and attached to the source(s) that support it. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

Dennis Skinner worked as a miner at Parkhouse Colliery, Clay Cross, from 1949 until it closed in 1962, and then at Glapwell Colliery. (documented fact) ^1,2
He became the youngest president of the Derbyshire Area of the National Union of Mineworkers, in 1966. (documented fact, disputed) ¹
He became president of the Derbyshire NUM in 1964, at the age of 32. (documented fact, disputed) ³
Skinner recalled about twenty pit ponies stabled underground at Parkhouse. (later recollection) ³
He was MP for Bolsover from 1970 to 2019, refused a parliamentary salary above miners' wages and gave his wages to the NUM during the 1984-85 strike. (documented fact) ^1,3
His father Edward, a miner, was sacked after the 1926 General Strike. (documented fact) ^1,3

Mines

Glapwell Colliery — Derbyshire
Dennis Skinner worked at Glapwell Colliery near Bolsover from 1962, after Parkhouse closed, until he entered Parliament in 1970.
Parkhouse Colliery — Derbyshire
Dennis Skinner began as a miner at Parkhouse Colliery, Clay Cross, in 1949 and worked there until it closed in 1962.

Sources

(secondary) Dennis Skinner — Wikipedia
(secondary) Dennis Skinner Biography — The Famous People
(secondary) Dennis Skinner — Madsmeds

Record created: 4 October 2026 · Last researched: 4 October 2026