Ibstock Colliery

Overview

Ibstock was sunk in 1825 by William Thirlby, a farmer, grazier and lace manufacturer who mortgaged his house and land to raise £2,800, reached the five-foot Upper Main seam at 210 feet, ran out of money before he could reach the Lower Main at 376, and died bankrupt. The colliery survived him. It was one of the early sinkings into the concealed eastern basin of the Leicestershire coalfield, and the shafts cut a workable seam of fireclay on the way down. That clay outlasted the coal by a century: brickmaking grew from the 1900s until Ibstock was making three million bricks a year, and the name is on brickwork nationally.

History

The first person to mount a large-scale attempt on the coal at Ibstock was William Thirlby of Ibstock Lodge, a farmer, grazier and lace manufacturer, who decided in 1825 to sink shafts on his own land. It cost him everything. He raised £2,800 — half by mortgage with Joseph Jephcott of Exhall, half by loans at four and a half per cent, all secured on his house and lands — and with it reached the Upper Main seam, five feet thick, at 210 feet, but not the Lower Main at 376. The money ran out. He increased the mortgage, borrowed £350 more from the Reverend Storer of Great Wigston, and in 1830 took his son and the Leicester ironfounders Benjamin and James Cort into partnership. Profitability still escaped him; his farm and his share of the business were seized and he died soon after. The Corts, the Reverend Storer and then Storer's sons fought over the agreement until it was settled out of court, the Corts withdrew their capital, and the Storer brothers formed a new partnership. By the early 1830s the colliery was working the Upper and Lower Main seams, and a branch was built to connect with the Leicester and Swannington Railway, opened in 1832. In the later nineteenth century it had three shafts: two seventeen yards apart, one for winding coal and one for pumping, both eight feet in diameter, with an upcast 130 yards away, also eight feet. The Lists of Mines return the No. 1 and No. 2 pits separately — 673 people at the No. 1 in 1894, 419 at the No. 2 in 1896 — under E. M. Green and Co. and then the Ibstock Colliery Company and Ibstock Collieries Ltd. The shafts had cut a workable seam of fireclay, with extensive clay deposits close to the surface nearby, and from 1915 the Lists return fireclay alongside the coal at both pits and an adit. Brickmaking began to matter more than coal at the start of the twentieth century; by the outbreak of the First World War Ibstock was producing some three million bricks a year, and the works long outlasted the colliery.

Geology

Ibstock was one of the early sinkings into the concealed part of the Leicestershire coalfield, the eastern basin, where the measures lie under later cover rather than cropping out. Thirlby's shafts reached the Upper Main seam, five feet thick, at 210 feet, with the Lower Main a further 166 feet down. They also cut a workable seam of fireclay, and extensive clay deposits lay close to the surface nearby — the reason the site became a brickworks.

Geological setting: Sedimentary Beds and Seams (well documented example)

Workings

Three shafts in the later nineteenth century: two seventeen yards apart, one winding coal and one pumping, both eight feet in diameter, and an upcast 130 yards away, also eight feet. An adit is returned alongside the Nos. 1 and 2 pits from 1915, raising coal and fireclay. A branch connected the colliery to the Leicester and Swannington Railway from 1832.

Closure

No closure date for the colliery has been found in the sources read. Brickmaking took over from coal as the site's business from the start of the twentieth century, and the brickworks long outlasted the pit; the Ibstock name survives as a national brick brand.

What remains

The colliery is gone; the brickworks that grew out of it made the name. The Ibstock brand is now on works elsewhere in the country, and photographs found under the name are mostly of those modern plants rather than this site.

Nearby mines

• Ellistown Colliery — 1.3 km E
• Snibston Colliery — 1.8 km NE
• South Leicester Colliery — 2.3 km NE
• Nailstone Colliery — 3.3 km S
• Whitwick Colliery — 3.5 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.

• William Thirlby of Ibstock Lodge, a farmer, grazier and lace manufacturer, decided in 1825 to sink shafts on his land, raising £2,800 half by mortgage and half by loans at four and a half per cent, all secured on his house and lands. ¹
• Thirlby reached the Upper Main seam, five feet thick, at 210 feet, but not the Lower Main at 376 feet; the money ran out, the business failed, his farm and share were seized and he died soon afterwards. ¹
• By the early 1830s the colliery was working the Upper and Lower Main seams, and a branch line was built to connect with the Leicester and Swannington Railway, opened in 1832. ¹
• In the later nineteenth century the colliery had three shafts: two seventeen yards apart, one winding coal and one pumping, both eight feet in diameter, with an upcast 130 yards away, also eight feet. ¹
• A workable seam of fireclay was intersected by the pit shafts, with extensive clay deposits close to the colliery; brickmaking assumed greater importance from the start of the twentieth century and by the First World War Ibstock was producing some three million bricks a year. ¹
• The Lists of Mines return the No. 1 and No. 2 pits separately, with 673 people at the No. 1 in 1894, and fireclay alongside the coal at both pits and an adit from 1915. ²

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Ibstock Colliery — Ibstock Lives, a local history project
2. (primary) Durham Mining Museum: Ibstock Colliery — Durham Mining Museum, from the Lists of Mines

Record created: 11 September 2026 · Last researched: 11 September 2026