Alfreton Colliery

Overview

A Blackwell Colliery Company pit sunk in 1886, which pioneered the conveyor-mounted double-ended trepanner and was power-loading three quarters of its output by the 1960s. Its reserves were nearly gone when the National Coal Board closed it in February 1968.

History

Alfreton was sunk in 1886 to 262 yards, under the Blackwell Colliery Company, and worked the Deep Soft and Deep Hard seams through the official returns to 1915. Employment ran from 639 in 1894 to 902 by 1923, a figure the returns then repeat unchanged for 1933, 1937 and 1940. The pit passed to N. H. and B. Collieries and then, in 1947, to the National Coal Board, with 887 employed and 300,000 tons of gas coal.

By the 1960s it was working the Threequarter, Yard and Black Shale seams with six hundred men and around 370,000 tons a year, and about three quarters of that output was power-loaded. The pit had pioneered the development of the conveyor-mounted double-ended trepanner — a cutting machine carried on the face conveyor — which is the sort of thing the National Coal Board's own publicity noticed. By the time it did, in 1967, the Board was also recording that the reserves were nearing exhaustion. The colliery closed in February 1968.

Geology

The Derbyshire coalfield: the Deep Soft and Deep Hard seams in the pit's earlier life, and the Threequarter, Yard and Black Shale by the 1960s.

Workings

Sunk in 1886 to 262 yards. The colliery pioneered the conveyor-mounted double-ended trepanner and had about three quarters of its output power-loaded by the mid-1960s.

Closure

The National Coal Board's own account of 1967 recorded the reserves as nearing exhaustion, and the colliery closed in February 1968.

What remains

Nothing is recorded of the colliery site as it now stands. Colliery Row at Alfreton still carries the name.

None recorded.

Related mines

• Blackwell Colliery — Both Blackwell Colliery Company pits.
• Shirland Colliery — Blackwell Colliery Company pits.

What's uncertain

Points where sources disagree or the record could not be settled; both accounts are kept. All open questions in the archive.

• The Buddlepit mine database gives Alfreton as sunk in 1886 and worked from 1895 to 1968, which sits a little oddly against the museum's returns showing 639 people employed in 1894. The likeliest reading is that the two are counting different things — a sinking that began in 1886 and full production from 1895. (uncertain) ^1,2

Recorded claims

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

• The National Coal Board's leaflet 'Coal in North Derbyshire' of April 1967 records Alfreton as sunk in 1886 and 262 yards deep, with six hundred men producing 370,000 tons annually from the Threequarter, Yard and Black Shale, about seventy-five per cent of the output power-loaded, and the reserves at this pit — which pioneered the development of the conveyor-mounted double-ended trepanner — now nearing exhaustion. ¹
• The official Lists of Mines return the colliery under the Blackwell Colliery Company, then N. H. and B. Collieries Ltd and from 1947 the National Coal Board, working the Deep Soft and Deep Hard seams and producing household and manufacturing coal. Employment was 639 in 1894, 902 by 1923 and 887 at nationalisation, when the pit made 300,000 tons of gas coal. ¹
• The Buddlepit mine database gives Alfreton as sunk in 1886 and worked from 1895 to 1968, which sits a little oddly against the museum's returns showing 639 people employed in 1894. The likeliest reading is that the two are counting different things — a sinking that began in 1886 and full production from 1895. (uncertain) ^1,2
• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Alfreton' (catalogue EM999, Yard, dated 1968). ³

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Alfreton Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) Alfreton — Buddlepit Mine Database
3. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans: ALFRETON — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority

Record created: 11 September 2026 · Last researched: 11 September 2026