Mapperley Colliery

Overview

Simon Fields Pit: the Glendon Iron Company's colliery of 1872 between Mapperley and West Hallam, north-west of Ilkeston, worked by the Mapperley Colliery Company from 1884 and the National Coal Board from 1947 until 27 March 1965. Two pits on the Deep Hard, Deep Soft and Kilburn, over 900 people in 1933, a Midland Railway branch of its own, and the unsolved disappearance of its under-manager in 1918.

History

The trough between Mapperley and High Lane had been worked for coal and ironstone for centuries when the Glendon Iron Company sank a new colliery in 1872 in the Simon Fields west of Park Hall Farm, towards Smalley, the fields named after a thirteenth-century lord of a moated manor there. The Midland Railway opened its Mapperley branch from Mapperley Junction to the colliery the same year. The Mapperley Colliery Company took over in 1884, and the Lists return two pits: No. 1 on the Deep Hard and Deep Soft and No. 2 on the Kilburn, with 336 and 174 employed in 1894, 322 and 304 in 1905, 210 and 532 in 1910 and 338 and 606 in 1915, household, manufacturing and steam coal. The Piper was standing in No. 1 in 1910. The company also sank Stanley Colliery in 1895, whose offices carry its monogram. Together the pits employed 914 in 1933, 726 in 1940 and 715 at nationalisation in 1947, when the output was 275,000 tons. On 5 June 1918 Thomas Severn, the under-manager, passed his son and a group of workers on an underground inspection and was never seen again. Forty or fifty miners searched, the Mansfield and Ilkeston rescue teams went into old workings full of blackdamp, bloodhounds and a clairvoyant were tried, and the inspector's report allowed only suicide, murder or a planned disguise. A folk song about him was sung at Ilkeston Town Hall in 1966, a deputy's deathbed story of a hurriedly built stopping reopened the police file in 1988, and a 2007 book concluded he had walked into old workings and been entombed. Twenty-two deaths are named at the colliery between 1872 and 1919, a banksman who fell 400 yards down the shaft with an empty tub in 1890 among them. In the NCB's East Midlands No. 5 Area the pit was bordered by West Hallam, Stanley, Shipley and Cossall, all of which closed between 1931 and 1966. Mapperley finished production on 27 March 1965 after ninety-three years, one of the closures that ended deep mining in that part of Derbyshire by 1970; the railway branch closed in June 1967. Mining close beneath Holy Trinity church so damaged it by subsidence that it had to be demolished, and the company's war memorial, rescued from the offices as they came down, now stands beside the village memorial at West Hallam.

Geology

Erewash valley Coal Measures: the Deep Hard, Deep Soft, Kilburn and Piper seams, in ground worked for coal and ironstone since the eighteenth century.

Geological setting: Sedimentary Beds and Seams (historical documentary reference)

Workings

Two shafts, No. 1 and No. 2, with engine-plane haulage and run-riders on the trains of tubs; stall working with holing and sprags in the nineteenth century. The old workings around the pit were extensive enough to swallow a man in 1918.

Closure

Finished production on 27 March 1965 after ninety-three years, in the NCB's mass closures of the 1960s; the Midland branch closed on 27 June 1967.

What remains

The branch line is a track across a field seen from Park Hall Bridge; the colliery offices have been demolished and the company's ceramic-tiled war memorial re-erected beside the village war memorial at West Hallam. Holy Trinity church was lost to subsidence.

The line of the railway branch; the war memorial at West Hallam.

Nearby mines

• Ormonde Colliery — 4.2 km N
• Cossall Colliery — 5.4 km E, Nottinghamshire
• Awsworth Colliery — 5.7 km E, Nottinghamshire
• Digby Colliery — 6.3 km E, Nottinghamshire
• Wollaton Colliery — 6.3 km SE, Nottinghamshire

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.

• Sunk in 1872 by the Glendon Iron Company as Simon Fields Pit; the Mapperley Colliery Company took over in 1884; the NCB from 1947; production finished on 27 March 1965. ^1,2
• No. 1 and No. 2 pits employed 510 in 1894, 626 in 1905, 742 in 1910 and 944 in 1915; 914 in 1933, 726 in 1940 and 715 in 1947 with 275,000 tons. ²
• The Midland Railway's Mapperley branch from Mapperley Junction to the colliery opened in 1872 and closed on 27 June 1967. ³
• Under-manager Thomas Severn vanished on the day shift of 5 June 1918; forty to fifty miners and the Mansfield and Ilkeston rescue teams searched old workings full of blackdamp; the inspector's report allowed suicide, murder or disguise, and a 2007 study concluded he was entombed in old workings. ¹
• Twenty-two named deaths 1872–1919, all single, including banksman Charles Harris who fell 400 yards down the shaft with a tub in 1890. ²
• The museum's page heads the colliery 'Duckmanton, nr Chesterfield' and carries a Markham description, but its grid reference SK423433 and every other source place it at Mapperley near Ilkeston. (disputed) ^1,2

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Mapperley Colliery and the Mystery of the Missing Colliery Undermanager — Mining Heritage — Mining Heritage (David Amos)
2. (secondary) Mapperley Colliery — Durham Mining Museum — Durham Mining Museum
3. (primary) MDR5784 Dismantled railway, Mapperley branch — Derbyshire Historic Environment Record — Derbyshire HER
4. (observational) Mapperley Collieries war memorial (Geograph photo 5475528, 2017) — Geograph
5. (observational) Mapperley Colliery Branch (Geograph photo 1050471, 2008) — Geograph
6. (secondary) Mapperley History — WSSM Churches Together — WSSM Churches Together
7. (secondary) Mapperley, Derbyshire — Wikipedia — Wikipedia

Record created: 12 September 2026 · Last researched: 12 September 2026