Netherseal Colliery

Overview

A two-shaft colliery sunk in 1867 in the southernmost village of Derbyshire — which was in Leicestershire when the shafts went down. It had the first compressed-air underground haulage in South Derbyshire.

History

Two shafts were sunk at Netherseal in 1867. By 1879 the pit was raising five hundred tons a day of house and manufacturing coal, and it employed around five to six hundred men through the end of the nineteenth century, working the Main, Stockings and Eureka seams and later the Kilburn, Woodfield and Linton. It was the first colliery in South Derbyshire to use an underground haulage system worked by compressed air.

The village itself changed counties while the pit was working: Netherseal was transferred from Leicestershire to Derbyshire in 1889, which is why a Derbyshire colliery sits nine and a half miles from Tamworth with Leicestershire, Staffordshire and Warwickshire all within a few miles. The Netherseal Colliery Company held it from the 1870s — Binns, Jackson and Company before them — until nationalisation, and employment peaked at 872 in 1923. At nationalisation in 1947 it had 440 on the books and produced 180,000 tons.

Geology

The South Derbyshire coalfield, worked here through the Main, Stockings and Eureka seams and later the Kilburn, Woodfield and Linton.

Workings

Two shafts, sunk in 1867. The colliery was the first in South Derbyshire to use compressed air for its underground haulage.

Closure

The closure date is not known. The returns end at nationalisation in 1947 with 440 employed; no closing date is recorded.

What remains

Netherseal is a picturesque village of listed buildings now, with nothing said of the colliery ground in the parish council's own history beyond the fact that the place was once a thriving mining community with a two-shaft colliery and several related industries. Sir Nigel Gresley is buried in the village.

None recorded.

What's uncertain

Points where sources disagree or the record could not be settled; both accounts are kept. All open questions in the archive.

• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Netherseal' (catalogue 14339, Stockings, dated 1947); the catalogue gives no location and the plan's details do not clearly tie it to this working, so it may belong to another of the same name. (uncertain) ³

Recorded claims

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

• Netherseal was transferred from Leicestershire to Derbyshire in 1889, twenty-two years after the colliery's shafts were sunk. Bartholomew's Gazetteer of 1887 still lists it as a village of Seal parish in Leicestershire, five and a half miles south-west of Ashby de la Zouch. ¹
• Two shafts were sunk in 1867 and by 1879 the pit was producing five hundred tons of coal a day for domestic and manufacturing use, employing around five hundred men, and it was the first colliery in South Derbyshire to use an underground haulage system worked by compressed air. ¹
• The Durham Mining Museum's transcription of the Lists of Mines returns house and manufacturing coal from the Main, Stockings and Eureka seams, later the Kilburn, Woodfield and Linton, under the Netherseal Colliery Company and from 1947 the National Coal Board. Employment ran from 641 in 1894 to a peak of 872 in 1923 and 440 at nationalisation, when the pit made 180,000 tons. The museum also holds a catalogue of abandonment plans for the colliery. ²
• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Netherseal' (catalogue 14339, Stockings, dated 1947); the catalogue gives no location and the plan's details do not clearly tie it to this working, so it may belong to another of the same name. (uncertain) ³

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Village History — Netherseal Parish Council
2. (primary) Netherseal Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
3. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans: NETHERSEAL — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority

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