Granville Colliery

Overview

Granville Colliery at Swadlincote worked coal for over a century and a half, from an 1823 sinking by Court Dewes Granville to underground connection with Rawdon Colliery in 1990, its two sites now a dry ski slope and a light-industrial estate.

History

Granville Colliery at Swadlincote, Derbyshire, began working in 1823 under Court Dewes Granville. The Granville Colliery Company was formed in 1872 to take over the mine and later opened a second working, Granville No. 2 Colliery, nearby; output peaked at 225,000 long tons of coal in 1891. The mine employed 91 surface and 335 underground workers in 1888, rising to 391 underground and 120 surface workers by 1933, when the two collieries had been combined into a single works. Around 1900 No. 1 raised gas and manufacturing coal and No. 2 household coal, and by 1910 No. 2 was the larger, with 526 men; a railway joined both sites to the Woodville branch. The mine was nationalised into the National Coal Board in 1947, employing 384 underground and 159 surface workers at that point and raising 247,000 tons that year. At least 38 men were killed in accidents at the colliery between 1852 and 1914, including a fatal 1911 gunpowder store explosion, though no single recorded incident in that period is confirmed to have killed more than one man at once. The colliery's surface works closed in 1967, when its underground workings were connected to the NCB's Rawdon Colliery in Leicestershire; combined underground working continued until 1990.

Geology

Coal of the Derbyshire field; the seams worked are not recorded.

Workings

Worked from 1823, expanded to a second site (Granville No. 2 Colliery) after 1872, and combined into one works by 1933; both sites were linked by rail to the Woodville branch, and underground workings were connected to the neighbouring NCB Rawdon Colliery in Leicestershire from 1967.

Closure

The surface works closed in 1967, the underground workings being connected to the National Coal Board's Rawdon Colliery in Leicestershire.

What remains

The former No. 1 Colliery site is now a dry ski slope and toboggan run, the ground landscaped so that nothing of the colliery is visible; the No. 2 Colliery site is occupied by light industrial units.

Redevelopment

No. 1 Colliery: dry ski slope and toboggan run. No. 2 Colliery: light industrial units.

Related mines

• Kemberton Colliery — Men from Kemberton saw out Shropshire coal mining at Granville, the county's last pit.

Recorded claims

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

• Output peaked at 225,000 long tons of coal in 1891; the workforce grew from 91 surface and 335 underground workers in 1888 to 391 underground and 120 surface by 1933, and 384 underground and 159 surface at nationalisation in 1947. ¹
• At least 38 men were killed in accidents at the colliery between 1852 and 1914, including a fatal 1911 explosion at the gunpowder store; no single recorded incident in that period is confirmed to have killed more than one man. ¹
• Granville Colliery appears in the Parliamentary accident returns for 1850-52 and the 1872-73 joint-stock company returns, and its records survive in National Archives coal and power series. ²
• Located at about 52.769 N, 1.549 W. ¹
• In 1910 No. 1 employed 302 and No. 2 526; in 1947 the colliery raised 247,000 tons. ³
• A railway connected the colliery with the Woodville Branch Railway. ^4,5
• The No. 1 site has been landscaped for the South Derbyshire Ski Centre and nothing of the colliery is visible. ⁴

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Granville Colliery — Wikipedia
2. (secondary) Granville Colliery — Northern Mine Research Society
3. (primary) Granville Colliery (UK), Swadlincote — Durham Mining Museum
4. (primary) Derbyshire HER MDR7950: Granville Colliery (No. 1), Swadlincote — Derbyshire Historic Environment Record
5. (primary) Derbyshire HER MDR7954: Granville Colliery (No. 2) (site of), Woodhouse Street — Derbyshire Historic Environment Record

Record created: 2 September 2026 · Last researched: 16 October 2026