Califat Coal Mine

Overview

Califat was one of three collieries sunk in the Leicestershire coalfield by the Coleorton Colliery Company, and it took its name from current affairs: it was sunk in 1854, the year the Imperial Russian Army came down the Danube to besiege the town of Calafat, and the spelling drifted in the naming. It worked for less than twenty years and closed in the early 1870s. It has had a far longer second life as an archaeological site, excavated and consolidated by the Leicestershire Industrial History Society over some fifty years, and the boiler of a Newcomen atmospheric engine that the mine reused as a water tank has been round three museums and come home.

History

The mine began in 1852, when William Worswick signed a lease with Wyggeston Hospital of Leicester, and the Coleorton No. 2 Colliery was sunk in 1854. It was one of three. The Coleorton Colliery Company, owned by William Walker and William Worswick, sank Coleorton No. 1 opposite what is now the New Inn at Peggs Green in 1849 — the year of the Californian gold rush, from which it took the name California — then Coleorton No. 2, known as Califat, and Coleorton No. 3, known as the Bug and Wink, in Pitt Lane at Coleorton, whose site is now Coleorton Wood. California and Califat lay only about seven hundred yards apart, with a finger of Thringstone land between them, and although both belonged to the Coleorton company the California pit was in Coleorton and Califat was in Swannington. The name came from the Crimean War. The mine was sunk in 1854, as the Imperial Russian Army advanced along the Danube to lay siege to Calafat, in what is now Romania and was then within the Ottoman Empire. The mine was named for the town, with the spelling changed from Calafat to Califat. In October 1863 water from the old workings of the Limby Hall Colliery burst into Califat and three men were killed. The mine worked on until the early 1870s and then closed, and the machinery was taken away. One thing was left behind: the boiler of a Newcomen atmospheric engine, which the mine had been using as a water reservoir. It stayed on the site after closure, and during the Second World War a member of the Home Guard threw a hand grenade into it and damaged it. It was rediscovered in 1969 and excavated by the Leicestershire Industrial History Society, and with Wyggeston Hospital's permission was transferred to the Leicestershire Museums Service at Abbey Pumping Station; during the 1990s it moved to the Snibston Discovery Museum, and in 2012 it came back to Califat Spinney on loan to the Swannington Heritage Trust. The site has been dug over ever since. There are two engine house complexes at Califat, of which the easterly is called Alabama — believed to be named after the CSS Alabama, the Confederate raider that sank or captured sixty-four United States merchantmen during the American Civil War. The Leicestershire Industrial History Society excavated that engine house between 1993 and 1999, backfilling with bricks from the dig, and the western engine house complex from 2006 to 2019, after which the Swannington Heritage Trust arranged the consolidation of the engine house and boiler house structures with financial help from the Leicestershire National Union of Mineworkers, trusts and an anonymous donor. From 2016 to 2019 the society excavated the miners' cottages, which would have been built when the mine was sunk in 1854 and were demolished in about 1958 after an environmental health report on their condition.

Geology

Califat worked the Leicestershire coalfield, where the Coal Measures lie in near-horizontal beds and seams within the Carboniferous sequence. The hazard that killed three men here is one the coalfield's own history created rather than its geology: water standing in the abandoned workings of a neighbouring colliery, held back only by the ground between, until the Califat workings came close enough for it to break through. No source read for this record names the seam Califat was working or gives its thickness.

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

Workings

A shaft colliery with two engine house complexes, the easterly one known as Alabama, each with its associated boiler house — the structures the Leicestershire Industrial History Society spent from 1993 to 2019 excavating. The mine reused the boiler of a Newcomen atmospheric engine as a water reservoir, which is a good indication of how much older plant was still lying about the coalfield in the 1850s. Miners' cottages stood on the site from the sinking in 1854.

Closure

The mine was open from 1854 to the early 1870s and closed with the mining machinery removed. Its sister pit California, sunk in 1849, closed in the early 1870s as well, so the Coleorton company appears to have wound down both together; no source read here gives a reason for either.

What remains

An excavated and consolidated archaeological site in Califat Spinney. The western engine house and boiler house structures have been consolidated by the Swannington Heritage Trust; the Alabama engine house to the east was excavated in the 1990s and backfilled with bricks from the dig. The Newcomen boiler returned to the site in 2012 on loan from the Snibston collection. Nearby is a memorial to the three miners killed in the flooding of October 1863.

Two engine house complexes with their boiler houses, the western pair consolidated and the eastern (Alabama) excavated and backfilled; the excavated footprint of the miners' cottages, demolished about 1958; the Newcomen atmospheric engine boiler, returned to the spinney in 2012; and the memorial to the men who died in 1863.

Nearby mines

• Whitwick Colliery — 3.8 km SE
• Snibston Colliery — 4.8 km S
• Cliffe Hill Quarry — 8.2 km SE
• Longcliffe Quarry — 11.2 km E
• Granville Colliery — 11.7 km W, Derbyshire

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

Disasters & major incidents

• Califat Colliery Inundation, 1863
  October 1863 · Flooding / Inundation · 3 fatalities
  In October 1863 water from the old workings of the Limby Hall Colliery burst into the Califat mine in Swannington, Leicestershire, and three men were killed: Thomas Bird, a pit deputy, Henry Clements and Jeremiah Rose. A memorial to them stands near the Alabama engine house complex on the mine site.

Recorded claims

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

• The Califat Coal Mine began in 1852, when William Worswick signed a lease with Wyggeston Hospital, Leicester, and the Coleorton No. 2 Colliery was then sunk; the mine was sunk in 1854 and was open from 1854 to the early 1870s. ¹
• The mine was named after the town of Calafat, now in Romania and then in the Ottoman Empire, which the Imperial Russian Army advanced along the River Danube to besiege in 1854; the spelling was changed from Calafat to Califat. ¹
• The Coleorton Colliery Company, owned by William Walker and William Worswick, sank Coleorton No. 1 (California, 1849, named for the Californian gold rush), Coleorton No. 2 (Califat) and Coleorton No. 3 (the Bug and Wink). ¹
• The Califat mine used the boiler of a Newcomen atmospheric engine as a water reservoir; it was left behind when the mine closed, damaged during the Second World War when a member of the Home Guard threw a hand grenade into it, rediscovered in 1969, and after spells at Abbey Pumping Station and Snibston Discovery Museum returned to Califat Spinney in 2012 on loan to the Swannington Heritage Trust. ¹
• There are two engine house complexes at the Califat mine, the easterly one named Alabama, believed to be named after the CSS Alabama which sank or captured sixty-four United States merchantmen during the American Civil War. (uncertain) ¹
• The Leicestershire Industrial History Society excavated the Alabama engine house between 1993 and 1999, the western engine house complex from 2006 to 2019, and the miners' cottages from 2016 to 2019; the cottages were built when the mine was sunk in 1854 and demolished in about 1958 after an environmental health report on their condition. ¹
• In 1863 three men were killed when water from the old workings of the Limby Hall Colliery burst into the Califat Mine: Thomas Bird, a pit deputy, Henry Clements and Jeremiah Rose. ^1,2

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Califat Coal Mine — Wikipedia
2. (secondary) Mining accidents, as recorded in the book 'Memories of Coleorton' — Coleorton Heritage Group

Record created: 4 September 2026 · Last researched: 5 September 2026