Manners Colliery

Overview

A three-pit Ilkeston colliery formed by the Rutland Colliery proprietors in the 1870s to work the deeper Kilburn coal, at its height in the 1920s and closed in 1949.

History

Manners Colliery lay off what is now Manners Avenue in Ilkeston, on ground where the Rutland Colliery had sunk its No. 3 Pit in 1837. In the mid-1870s, with coal prices rising, the principal proprietors of the Rutland Colliery and others formed the Manners Colliery Company to sink to the Kilburn coal, 'a lower bed than any hitherto worked in Ilkeston'. The manor of Ilkeston had passed in 1608 to Sir John Manners, ancestor of the Dukes of Rutland.

The colliery grew to three pits. In 1894 it employed 667, working the Kilburn; by 1910 the No. 2 Pit alone had 917, and the Tupton, Piper, Deep Hard and Deep Soft were all in work. The company became a limited company in 1898 and did well until 1926: output rose from 209,000 tons in 1900 to 458,000 in 1923, when the three pits employed about 1,700.

The 1926 strike was the turning point. Output fell to 226,000 tons, and the company lost money every year after, £148,000 in all, under the output quotas and fixed prices of the 1930 Act. The Kilburn Pit was closed in December 1931, leaving the Low Main, Piper and a little Deep Hard and Deep Soft. In 1934 Shipley Collieries Ltd bought the undertaking and renamed it Ilkeston Collieries Ltd. In 1947 469 men raised 160,000 tons; the last seam, the Low Main Tupton, was abandoned in October 1949, when the company's operations in Ilkeston appear to have ended.

Geology

Derbyshire Coal Measures near the southern end of the coalfield. The colliery was sunk for the Kilburn seam, deeper than anything worked in Ilkeston before, and later worked the Tupton (Low Main), Piper, Deep Hard, Deep Soft and Roof Soft.

Workings

Three pits: No. 1 and No. 2, worked from the 1890s, and a small No. 3 Pit in the Deep Soft by 1915. The colliery had its own power house, and an upcast shaft with headstocks stood until the site was cleared. Seams were given up in turn: the Roof Soft in 1919, the Deep Hard and Deep Soft in 1933, after the Kilburn Pit closed in December 1931.

Closure

Losses after the 1926 strike led to the Kilburn Pit closing in December 1931. Under Ilkeston Collieries Ltd the colliery worked on until 1949; the Low Main Tupton was abandoned on 28 October 1949.

What remains

The site is the Manners Industrial Estate, given over to light industry; in 2006 the old colliery yard was a refuse tip.

Redevelopment

The colliery site was cleared and redeveloped as the Manners Industrial Estate.

Recorded claims

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

• The principal proprietors of the Rutland Colliery and others formed the Manners Colliery Company to sink to the Kilburn coal, a lower bed than any hitherto worked in Ilkeston. ¹
• Rutland Colliery's No. 3 Pit was sunk in 1837 on the site later occupied by Manners Colliery. ¹
• Incorporated in 1898, the company's output rose from 209,000 tons in 1900 to 458,000 tons in 1923, and fell to 226,000 tons in the 1926 strike. ¹
• In 1923 the No. 1 Pit employed 770, the No. 2 Pit 696 and the No. 3 Pit 240. ²
• After 1926 the company lost money every year, £148,000 in all, and closed the Kilburn Pit in December 1931. ¹
• In 1934 Shipley Collieries Ltd bought the undertaking and renamed it Ilkeston Collieries Ltd. ¹
• Plans of the Low Main Tupton at Manners record its abandonment on 28 October 1949. ³
• The company's operations in Ilkeston appear to have ceased in 1949. ¹
• The Deep Hard seam at Manners was abandoned on 24 April 1933. ⁴
• The area formerly dominated by the colliery is now light industry (2005 photograph). ⁵

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) The Local Mining Industry - Ilkeston and District Local History Society — Ilkeston and District Local History Society
2. (primary) Durham Mining Museum - Manners Colliery (UK) — Durham Mining Museum
3. (primary) BGS mine plans: Manners (Low Main Tupton, abandoned 28 Oct 1949) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
4. (primary) BGS mine plans: Manners (Deep Hard, abandoned 24 Apr 1933) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
5. (observational) Manners Industrial Estate, Ilkeston (Geograph, Garth Newton, 2005) — Geograph

Record created: 1 October 2026 · Last researched: 1 October 2026