Broxtowe Colliery

Overview

A Babbington Coal Company pit on the Broxtowe lands west of Basford, one of the cluster that Thomas North's Cinderhill colliery of 1841 sat at the centre of, worked from 1894 to 1929 on the Deep Soft, Top Hard and Deep Hard with up to 446 people, its shafts filled in 1946 and its ground now Broxtowe Country Park.

History

Thomas North sank Cinderhill in 1841, the first large deep colliery in Nottinghamshire, and in 1853 opened his Newcastle Colliery alongside the mineral railway at Whitemoor with Napoleon Square above Broxtowe Lane; when he died in debt in 1868 his collieries, Newcastle, Broxtowe, Strelley and Babbington among them, were grouped together as the Babbington estate. Two Broxtowe shafts of seven feet diameter were sunk in 1863 and 1865 and connected to the Broxtowe headings, and a pumping shaft at Nuthall Temple was intended to drain the ground and free the coal to the rise for Cinderhill, Newcastle and Broxtowe. The Durham Mining Museum dates Broxtowe Colliery from 1894 under the Babbington Coal Co.: household coal from the Deep Soft in 1894 and 1896, then the Top Hard from 1900 and the Deep Hard with it by 1910, with 261 employed in 1894, 377 in 1896, 196 in 1900, 173 in 1910 and 446 in 1923. The Clean Rivers Trust's summary of the Babbington workings gives the Top Hard worked 1893 to 1917, the Deep Soft 1890 to 1919 and the Deep Hard 1910 to 1929, after which the colliery was merged with Babbington and its shaft used for ventilation until abandoned and filled in 1948 or 1949; the trust also records the Broxtowe shaft filled in 1946 before being tipped over. The museum records closure in 1929. Five deaths are named between 1901 and 1915, all in the Top Hard: a loader struck by a steel prop knocked out by rolling coal, a stallman under a slab of coal while removing its timber, a dayman preparing a holing, a dayman under holed coal that reeled out three sprags, and a headman who died in 1906 of injuries received in 1904. The path into Broxtowe Country Park follows the line of the colliery railway, itself laid on some of the oldest colliery tramways in the district.

Geology

Nottinghamshire Coal Measures: the Top Hard, Deep Soft and Deep Hard seams of the Babbington and Cinderhill ground.

Geological setting: Sedimentary Beds and Seams (historical documentary reference)

Workings

Two seven-foot shafts of 1863–65 connected to the Broxtowe headings, sprags and holing at the face in the Top Hard, and a colliery railway to Cinderhill laid on old tramways.

Closure

Closed in 1929 when the Deep Hard was given up, then merged with Babbington and kept as a ventilation shaft until filled in 1946 or 1948–49; the pillar supporting the Nuthall Temple pumping shaft was robbed from 1929 to 1933.

What remains

The site is Broxtowe Country Park, its paths following the old colliery railway; a 2009 photograph shows the tree-lined path in. Nothing of the pit stands.

The line of the colliery railway as a path; the filled and tipped-over shaft site.

Nearby mines

• Babbington Colliery — 1.2 km NE
• Strelley Colliery — 1.6 km SW
• Digby Colliery — 4.5 km NW
• Awsworth Colliery — 4.6 km W
• Cossall Colliery — 4.6 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 museum dates the colliery 1894–1929 under the Babbington Coal Co.; the Clean Rivers Trust has two Broxtowe shafts sunk in 1863/65, seams worked 1890–1929, a merger with Babbington and the shaft filled in 1946 or 1948–49. ^1,2
• 261 employed in 1894, 377 in 1896, 196 in 1900, 151 in 1905, 173 in 1910 and 446 in 1923; Deep Soft, then Top Hard and Deep Hard. ¹
• Broxtowe was one of Thomas North's collieries grouped as the Babbington estate after his death in 1868, with Cinderhill at the centre of the network. ^3,4
• Five named deaths 1901–1915, all single, all in the Top Hard. ¹
• The site is Broxtowe Country Park, with the path following the line of the old colliery railway. ^4,5

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Broxtowe Colliery — Durham Mining Museum — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) There is a Plan! — Clean Rivers Trust — Clean Rivers Trust
3. (secondary) Thomas North (coal owner) — Wikipedia — Wikipedia
4. (secondary) Garden City: Aspley, Cinderhill & Broxtowe — Internet Curtains — Internet Curtains
5. (observational) The path into Broxtowe Country Park (Geograph photo 1556654, 2009) — Geograph
6. (secondary) Babbington Colliery — Wikipedia — Wikipedia

Record created: 12 September 2026 · Last researched: 12 September 2026