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. The mine was nationalised into the National Coal Board in 1947, employing 384 underground and 159 surface workers at that point. 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.

Workings

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

What remains

The former No. 1 Colliery site is now a dry ski slope and toboggan run; 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.

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
• The Northern Mine Research Society's own directory entry for Granville Colliery cites Parliamentary Papers (1852-53, 1874), the Colliery Guardian Guide to the Coalfields (1950) and National Archives series (BT31, COAL36, COAL37, POWE, LAB3) as primary documentary sources for the mine. ²

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Granville Colliery — Wikipedia
2. (secondary) Granville Colliery — Northern Mine Research Society

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