Binley Colliery roof fall, 1947

In 1947 two miners at Binley Colliery, on the eastern edge of Coventry, Jack Clay and James Brookes, were killed when the roof of the mine collapsed. The nature reserve on the colliery's old railhead, Claybrookes Marsh, carries their names.

Date	1947
Mine	Binley Colliery
Region	Warwickshire
Type	Collapse / Roof Fall
Fatalities	2 (Jack Clay and James Brookes.)
Context	During active mining

Black metal gates shaped like a half pit wheel stand beneath an arched sign reading Claybrookes Marsh. — The gates to Claybrookes Marsh, Binley, shaped like a pit wheel A J Paxton, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Geograph

Cause

A collapse of the roof underground.

Memorials & commemoration

Claybrookes Marsh, a Warwickshire Wildlife Trust nature reserve and Site of Special Scientific Interest on part of the former colliery site, is named in memory of the two men.

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each attached to the source(s) that support it below. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

Jack Clay and James Brookes were killed at Binley Colliery in 1947. ^1,2
They died when the roof of the mine collapsed. ^1,2
Claybrookes Marsh, the nature reserve on part of the former colliery site, is named after them. ^1,2

Related terminology

Mining terms this disaster is structurally linked to, with the nature of the relationship.

Colliery (contextual relationship)
Named 3 times in this record, first in the summary: “In 1947 two miners at Binley Colliery, on the eastern edge of Coventry, Jack Clay and James Brookes, were…”

Sources

(secondary) Binley Coal Mine (Dunsmore Living Landscape) — Dunsmore Living Landscape
(secondary) Coal and community: an oral history of Binley Colliery (Pierre Botcherby, Oral History Society) — Oral History Society

Record created: 23 October 2026 · Last researched: 25 October 2026