Coventry Colliery

Overview

A major twentieth-century Warwickshire colliery at Keresley, producing over a million tons of coal a year by 1939 and supporting a purpose-built pit village, before a troubled final decade saw it close, reopen under private post-privatisation ownership, and close for good in 1996.

History

The Warwickshire Coal Company Ltd, formed in 1911 to take over the earlier Wyken Collieries business, sank two shafts to 720 yards at Keresley, though construction was delayed by the First World War and the colliery was not completed until 1919. Coal was first moved out by a branch of the Coventry Canal, later supplemented by rail as production grew after the war's end. The company built a village for its workforce in 1932 — 350 homes housing around 30% of the colliery's workers — and a further 494 houses followed after the 1947 nationalisation. Output reached over a million long tons a year by 1939. In the early 1960s the National Coal Board built the Coventry Homefire smokeless-fuel plant on the colliery site, developing a process first prototyped at Birch Coppice Colliery; Homefire began production in 1967 and continued until 2000. Coventry Colliery's output fell through the 1980s amid underground heatings and a geological washout on one coalface, and by 1983 it was limited to a single working face that could not cover its costs. Support for the 1984-85 miners' strike was divided at the colliery — unusually for the Midlands coalfield, a significant number of miners came out, though others continued working throughout. In 1991 the colliery failed to meet its production target and closed under British Coal; its new private owners, Coal Investments, reopened it after the industry's privatisation and invested a further £20 million, but it still failed to meet target and Coventry Colliery finally closed for good in 1996.

Workings

Two shafts sunk to 720 yards, completed in 1919 after wartime delays; a purpose-built pit village at Keresley Newlands and Keresley End housed a substantial share of the workforce.

Closure

Closed by British Coal in 1991 after missing its production target, then reopened by its new private owners, Coal Investments, following the coal industry's privatisation; a further £20 million of investment could not make the colliery meet target, and it closed permanently in 1996.

What remains

The site was redeveloped as Prologis Park, a rail-connected distribution centre, after the local authority took it over in 1996.

No colliery structures survive and the mine shafts were filled and covered, but a monument built from one of the four pit wheels in use at the colliery's 1991 closure — part of its cage-winding gear — was erected in 2008 at the entrance to Prologis Park, commemorating workers at both Coventry Colliery and its Homefire smokeless-fuel plant. The former colliery social club has since been demolished, and its branch railway line is disused.

Recorded claims

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

• The Warwickshire Coal Company Ltd, formed in 1911, sank two shafts to 720 yards at Keresley, delayed by the First World War and not completed until 1919. ¹
• By 1939 the colliery was producing over a million long tons of coal a year. ²
• The company built a village of 350 homes for its workforce in 1932, housing around 30% of the colliery's workers, with a further 494 houses added after 1947 nationalisation. ¹
• The National Coal Board built the Coventry Homefire smokeless-fuel plant on the colliery site in the early 1960s, based on a process first prototyped at Birch Coppice Colliery; it produced smokeless fuel from 1967 to 2000. ¹
• The colliery closed under British Coal in 1991 after missing its production target, was reopened by its new private owners, Coal Investments, after the industry's privatisation, and closed permanently in 1996 despite a further £20 million of investment. ¹
• A monument built from one of the four pit wheels in use at the colliery's closure in 1991 — part of the winding gear that raised and lowered the mine's cages — was erected in 2008 at the entrance to Prologis Park, commemorating workers at both Coventry Colliery and its Homefire smokeless-fuel plant. ³

Photographs & further reading

Images

Sources

1. (secondary) Coventry Colliery — Our Warwickshire — Warwickshire County Record Office
2. (secondary) Coventry Colliery — Wikipedia — Wikipedia
3. (observational) Giant pit wheel a tribute to miners — Coventry Telegraph

Record created: 2 September 2026 · Last researched: 2 September 2026