Cotmanhay Colliery

Overview

A Barber, Walker and Company colliery at Cotmanhay, on the northern edge of Ilkeston, recorded from 1849 to 1881. It worked the deeper Deep Soft and Deep Hard seams that the Eastwood firm moved into after its first pits in the Top Hard, and by 1872 was one of the ten collieries in the company's network.

History

Cotmanhay lies north of Ilkeston, near the southern end of the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire coalfield. Coal had been worked around the town for centuries: an 1815 plan of the manor showed an engine pit sunk in 1808 on the ground later occupied by Cotmanhay Wood.

Cotmanhay Colliery is recorded as working from 1849 to 1881 under Barber, Walker and Company of Eastwood, the old Nottinghamshire coal partnership that had begun in the Top Hard seam and then moved into the deeper Deep Soft and Deep Hard seams, with collieries sunk at Eastwood and at Cotmanhay. Plans survive of Cotmanhay's workings in both seams, and by 1872 it was one of ten collieries in the company's network, with Eastwood, Hill Top, Watnall, New Watnall, Beggarlee, Underwood, High Park, Moorgreen and Brinsley. A Nottinghamshire list of the firm's pits gives a Cotmanhay Wood colliery two miles north of Ilkeston.

The inspectors' reports record eleven deaths between 1852 and 1874, almost all from falls of roof, coal or bind and from trams: two men killed together by a fall of roof in July 1852, two more in May 1859, a fourteen-year-old trammer run over on an incline in 1861, and in 1874 a holer working coal near a fault. In 1874 another company was being formed for a new colliery near Cotmanhay Wood.

Geology

The Deep Soft and Deep Hard seams of the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire coalfield.

Workings

Workings in the Deep Hard and Deep Soft seams, recorded on a series of abandonment plans.

Closure

Unknown.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Disasters & major incidents

• Cotmanhay Colliery roof fall, 1852
  17 July 1852 · Collapse / Roof Fall · 2 fatalities
  A boy, Abraham Bostock, and Abraham Cook were killed together by a fall of roof at Barber, Walker's Cotmanhay Colliery, Ilkeston, on 17 July 1852.

What's uncertain

Points where sources disagree or the record could not be settled; both accounts are kept. All open questions in the archive.

• A Cotmanhay Wood colliery two miles north of Ilkeston is listed among pits mostly owned by Barber, Walker. (uncertain) ⁵

Recorded claims

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

• The colliery is listed as working from 1849 to 1881, owned by Barber, Walker and Co. ¹
• Barber, Walker and Co. moved from the Top Hard into the deeper Deep Soft and Deep Hard seams, with collieries sunk at Eastwood and Cotmanhay. ²
• By 1872 Cotmanhay was one of ten collieries in the Barber, Walker network. ²
• Plans survive of Cotmanhay's workings in the Deep Hard and the Deep Soft. ^3,4
• A Cotmanhay Wood colliery two miles north of Ilkeston is listed among pits mostly owned by Barber, Walker. (uncertain) ⁵
• An 1815 plan of the manor showed an engine pit sunk in 1808 on the site later occupied by Cotmanhay Wood. ⁶
• Eleven deaths are recorded at the colliery between 1852 and 1874, two of them together in a fall of roof in July 1852 and two more in May 1859. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Cotmanhay Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) Barber, Walker and Co - Graces Guide — Grace's Guide
3. (primary) COTMANHAY, Deep Hard: abandonment plan catalogue entry — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
4. (primary) COTMANHAY, Deep Soft: abandonment plan catalogue entry — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
5. (secondary) Local collieries (list by Bob Collier) — Nottinghamshire Mining Museum
6. (secondary) The Local Mining Industry — Ilkeston and District Local History Society

Record created: 8 October 2026 · Last researched: 8 October 2026