Bestwood Colliery

Overview

One of the largest collieries in the Nottinghamshire coalfield, developed by the Lancaster family on land at Bestwood Park belonging to the tenth Duke of St Albans. Production finished at the end of June 1967, but the winding engine was kept operable until 1971 and the colliery’s 1873 winding house and headstocks survive — listed Grade II*, built in an Italian Gothic style unusually ornate for a pithead, notable as an early use of structural concrete, and containing two single-cylinder vertical winding engines said to be the only in-situ example in Great Britain.

History

Bestwood Colliery was developed by the Lancaster family on land at Bestwood Park owned by the tenth Duke of St Albans, lord of the manor. Sources differ on the sinking: one dates the first shaft to 1875, while the archival record for the colliery period begins in 1872, and the listed winding house is dated 1873. It grew into one of the largest collieries in the Nottinghamshire coalfield, with a model village built alongside it. The winding house that survives was built in 1873 with late nineteenth-century additions: concrete and brick with stucco quoins and moulded brick and ashlar dressings, in an Italian Gothic style, with rusticated basement and pilasters, keystoned recesses and multi-keystoned double lancets. Inside are cast-iron stages with classical ornament, an ashlar winder stair with a square newel, latticed iron minor stairs and a matchboarded queen-post truss roof on corbels with ornate iron reinforcement, and in situ two single-cylinder vertical winding engines with overhead drum and brake gear. Outside stand trabeated concrete-clad headstocks with iron lattice stays, with their pulleys and cage guides still in place. Production finished at the end of June 1967. The winding engine was kept operable until 1971, and the winding engine house and Dynamo House survived to become part of Bestwood Country Park, developed from the mid-1980s; the winding engine house was restored and opened as an attraction in 1995.

Geology

The exposed Nottinghamshire coalfield on the western side of the county, where the Coal Measures come to the surface before dipping east beneath younger rocks — the older, shallower half of the field that was worked long before the great concealed-coalfield sinkings further east. No account of the individual seams worked at Bestwood has been found in the sources reached.

Workings

The surviving winding house of 1873 is square on plan, two storeys over a basement, and holds two single-cylinder vertical winding engines with overhead drum and brake gear — an arrangement unusual in Great Britain, and said to be the sole surviving in-situ example. The headstocks outside are trabeated and concrete-clad with iron lattice stays, their pulleys and cage guides still in place. The building is notable for its early use of structural concrete.

Closure

Production finished at the end of June 1967. The winding engine was nevertheless kept operable until 1971, which is why it survives; the winding house and Dynamo House were taken into Bestwood Country Park from the mid-1980s and the winding house was restored and opened to visitors in 1995.

What remains

The winding engine house and headstocks stand in Bestwood Country Park, listed Grade II* since 1985, restored and opened as an attraction in 1995, with the winding engine preserved in situ and able to be turned slowly by an electrohydraulic winch. The Dynamo House survives with it.

The 1873 winding engine house and its concrete-clad headstocks, with the vertical winding engines, pulleys and cage guides in situ; the Dynamo House.

Redevelopment

Bestwood Country Park, developed from the mid-1980s over the colliery ground, with the winding house restored as a visitor attraction from 1995.

Nearby mines

• Linby Colliery — 2.4 km N
• Babbington Colliery — 4.6 km S
• Annesley Colliery — 5.9 km NW
• Gedling Colliery — 8.0 km SE
• Brinsley Colliery — 8.1 km W

Straight-line distance, within 15 km. Show on the map.

Recorded claims

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

• The winding house and headstocks are listed Grade II*, dated 1873 with late nineteenth-century additions: concrete and brick with stucco quoins and moulded brick and ashlar dressings, in an Italian Gothic style, square on plan and of two storeys over a rusticated basement. ¹
• Two single-cylinder vertical winding engines with overhead drum and brake gear survive in situ, with trabeated concrete-clad headstocks outside carrying their pulleys and cage guides; vertical winding engines are unusual in Great Britain and these are said to be the sole in-situ example. ¹
• The building is notable for the early use of structural concrete. ¹
• The colliery was developed by the Lancaster family on land at Bestwood Park owned by the tenth Duke of St Albans, and became one of the largest in the Nottinghamshire coalfield; production finished at the end of June 1967, though the winding engine was kept operable until 1971. ²

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Winding house and headstocks at Bestwood Colliery — list entry 1235186 — Historic England, via British Listed Buildings
2. (secondary) Notts villages: Bestwood — Nottinghamshire History

Record created: 7 September 2026 · Last researched: 7 September 2026