Clay Cross Colliery

Overview

The pits George Stephenson opened after his railway tunnel cut through coal at Clay Cross in 1837, and which built the town around them. Water broke into the workings from abandoned ground in 1861 and drowned twenty-three men.

History

In 1837 George Stephenson was driving the North Midland Railway's tunnel through Clay Cross Hill, on the line from Derby to Leeds, and found coal and iron in it. He moved to Tapton House near Chesterfield and founded George Stephenson and Company that same year; the colliery and coke ovens opened in 1840, backed by Lord Wolverton, George Hudson, Sir Joshua Walmsley, Sir Morton Peto and Sir William Jackson among others. Clay Cross had been a small village. The company built nearly four hundred houses for the tunnel navvies and then the miners, made its own bricks for them, and by 1846 the population approached fifteen hundred; by 1850 there were three chapels, a church, an institute and a school. Stephenson's cottages had four rooms where two was normal. George Stephenson died in 1848 and his son Robert took charge. The four pits were struggling with the falling coal price, and Robert fell out with the other large shareholders over a contract to supply London with coal through the London and North Western Railway — at one point a tenth of all the coal reaching London came from Clay Cross. He sold his shares in 1852 and the business became the Clay Cross Company. Sir William Jackson took it on, and the Jackson family ran it for a hundred and twenty years. On 11 June 1861 the workings of one pit were holed into old abandoned ground and the water behind it came through, killing twenty-three men; eight more died in another accident on 3 May 1865 (see Disasters, below). The pits went on: Nos. 2, 3 and 4 are returned through the official lists working the Tupton, Silkstone and Deep Hard seams, with 449 employed at No. 2 as late as 1933. The National Coal Board took the collieries at nationalisation in 1947, while the company itself carried on with iron and pipes until Biwater sold it to a rival in 1998 and the site was shut within six months.

Geology

The Derbyshire Coal Measures: the Tupton seam in every pit, with the Silkstone below it at No. 2 and No. 3 and the Deep Hard worked at both in the 1900s. Ironstone and limestone in the same ground were what made the company an ironworks as well as a colliery.

Workings

The Durham Mining Museum returns Nos. 2, 3 and 4 pits through the official Lists of Mines from 1894 to 1933. They were worked separately, No. 3 dropping to 170 employed by 1900 and disappearing from the returns after that, while No. 2 carried on with 449 on the books in 1933. Coke ovens stood at the colliery from 1840; by the twentieth century the company had simplex by-product ovens.

Closure

No closure date has been established here. The Durham Mining Museum's returns stop in 1933 with No. 2 still at work, the National Coal Board took the collieries in 1947, and a visitor guide states that Clay Cross Colliery closed in 2000, which no source read for this record confirms.

What remains

The company's pipe factory site is now a business park of industrial units. A pair of old colliery winding wheels stands as a memorial in the town centre, and the Clay Cross Tunnel still carries the main line.

The winding wheels set up as a memorial in the town, and the streets of company houses; nothing of the pits themselves.

Redevelopment

A business park on the old works site.

Related mines

• Avenue Colliery — The Clay Cross Company sank the Avenue Colliery at Wingerworth in 1857 and worked it as part of the same undertaking; the two records share an owner rather than a boundary.

Nearby mines

• Lings Colliery — 3.4 km E
• Avenue Colliery — 4.7 km N
• Grassmoor Colliery — 4.8 km NE
• Holmewood Colliery — 4.9 km NE
• Williamthorpe Colliery — 4.9 km NE

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.

• In 1837, driving the North Midland Railway's tunnel through Clay Cross Hill on the line between Derby and Leeds, George Stephenson found both coal and iron. He moved into Tapton House near Chesterfield and set up George Stephenson and Company the same year; the colliery and its coke ovens opened in 1840. ^1,2
• Nearly four hundred houses went up for the navvies and then the miners, built of the company's own brick, and the population around Clay Cross approached fifteen hundred by 1846. The cottages had four rooms where two was the norm, and a school was provided; by 1850 there were three chapels, a church and an institute, and — as Grace's Guide notes — no constable. ^1,2
• By the early 1850s one tenth of all the coal reaching London came from Clay Cross, under a contract with the London and North Western Railway. Robert Stephenson's disagreement with the other large shareholders over that contract is why he sold his shares in 1852, after which the business took the name Clay Cross Company. ¹
• The Durham Mining Museum's transcription of the Lists of Mines returns Nos. 2, 3 and 4 pits under the Clay Cross Iron and Coal Company and then Clay Cross Co. Ltd, working the Tupton seam throughout with the Silkstone and later the Deep Hard at Nos. 2 and 3. Employment at No. 2 ran from 239 in 1894 to 449 in 1933. ³

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Clay Cross Company — Wikipedia
2. (secondary) Clay Cross Co — Grace's Guide to British Industrial History
3. (secondary) Clay Cross Colliery — Durham Mining Museum

Record created: 10 September 2026 · Last researched: 10 September 2026