Blidworth Colliery

Overview

A Nottinghamshire Dukeries-coalfield colliery sunk in the mid-1920s and worked until 1989, expanded after the war into a major producer from the Top Hard seam, and struck by a fatal cage collision in 1943.

History

Blidworth Colliery was sunk between 1924 and 1926 by the Newstead Colliery Co. Ltd, part of the wave of new sinkings that developed Nottinghamshire's Dukeries coalfield after the First World War; its shaft reached 742 yards deep. Ownership passed to the National Coal Board on nationalisation in 1947, which carried out a £2 million reorganisation of the pit; by then it employed some 1,700 people and, working the Top Hard seam, produced 734,090 tons of coal that year -- a substantial rise from the 270 employed and more modest output recorded in 1933. On the night of Sunday 6 June 1943, three men were engaged in cleaning water garlands in one of the shafts, working from a scaffold mounted on top of a descending cage; while they were being moved between garlands, the two cages in the shaft collided for a reason that remained unexplained at the time, throwing the men off the scaffold and down the shaft to their deaths. The Minister of Fuel and Power told Parliament that the full circumstances were under investigation by HM Inspectors of Mines. The colliery finally closed on 1 March 1989.

Workings

Worked the Top Hard seam from a 742-yard shaft, its post-war output reaching some 734,090 tons a year following a £2 million National Coal Board reorganisation.

Closure

Closed on 1 March 1989.

What remains

The colliery site has been redeveloped as an industrial estate on Burma Road, with a leisure centre and the Miners Social Welfare Centre also built on former colliery land; a 2011 Geograph photograph shows a bare concreted area on part of the site.

No colliery structures survive above ground; the site is now occupied by industrial units and community buildings.

Abandoned workings can be dangerous — unstable ground, uncapped shafts, flooding and bad air are common even where a site looks safe from the surface. This entry describes history and general location only; it is not an access guide.

Disasters & major incidents

• Blidworth Colliery Cage Collision (1943)
  Sunday night, 6 June 1943 · Winding / Shaft Accident · 3 fatalities
  Three men cleaning water garlands from a scaffold mounted on a descending cage were killed when the shaft's two cages collided for an unexplained reason.

Recorded claims

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

• Sunk between 1924 and 1926 by the Newstead Colliery Co. Ltd, Blidworth's shaft reached 742 yards; after nationalisation in 1947 a £2 million reorganisation raised its workforce to 1,700 and its output of Top Hard coal to 734,090 tons that year, up from 270 employed in 1933. ¹
• On the night of 6 June 1943, three men cleaning water garlands from a scaffold on a descending cage were killed when the two cages in the shaft collided for an unexplained reason, throwing them down the shaft; the Minister of Fuel and Power told Parliament the circumstances were under investigation. ²
• By the late 1960s the colliery employed around 1,200 men producing nearly 650,000 tons a year from the Top Hard seam, following a £2 million reorganisation. ¹

Photographs & further reading

This page doesn't try to reproduce everything — these are the best original sources found for this mine.

Sources

1. (secondary) Blidworth Colliery (Durham Mining Museum) — Durham Mining Museum
2. (primary) BLIDWORTH COLLIERY ACCIDENT, NOTTINGHAMSHIRE (Hansard, 9 June 1943) — Hansard, House of Commons

Record created: 31 August 2026 · Last researched: 31 August 2026