Oakthorpe Colliery

Overview

A colliery at Oakthorpe, near Measham, worked with steam engines from the 1730s: its Newcomen engine, bought from Griff in 1734, survives as the Newcomen Memorial Engine at Dartmouth. Deep shafts were sunk in 1787 and 1853, the colliery closed in 1885, and its shafts later served Donisthorpe Colliery until 1990.

History

Coal was being dug around Oakthorpe, on the Derbyshire-Leicestershire border near Measham, by 1600 if not before, in shallow workings. In 1734 one of the Newcomen pumping engines from Griff Colliery near Nuneaton was sold to John Wise, owner of the Oakthorpe Colliery; it worked at Oakthorpe until about 1821, was then re-erected by the Coventry Canal Company at Hawkesbury Junction, and survives as the Newcomen Memorial Engine at Dartmouth. The Oakthorpe pits later came to Joseph Wilkes of Measham Manor, who in 1787 sank the first deep shaft north of the village after boreholes had found the Main Coal at 120 yards. Wilkes bought an eight-horsepower Boulton and Watt winding engine for £500, with a premium of £40 a year for the separate condenser; its cylinder came from John Wilkinson of Bersham. This colliery closed about 1810.

In 1853 Benjamin Gibbons took a new lease and sank two shafts by the Ashby-de-la-Zouch canal near Willesley Basin, finding the Main Coal at about 112 yards and 14 feet 9 inches thick. Finding good coal where shallow pits had worked before may be why locals called it 'Who'd a' thowt it!'. Gob fires from spontaneous combustion and heavy water from old workings beat Gibbons; the colliery closed in 1856 and was sold the next year to the Moira Collieries, which, after legal and water troubles, restarted it in 1863. In 1870 it was described as worked by the Moira company. It proved quite successful, though the fires and water never wholly went away, and it closed in October 1885, when its owner, Lord Donington, sold it; the buyer worked it a little, found it run down, and sued him.

Oakthorpe then became part of Donisthorpe Colliery as a service shaft, with a steel headgear and electric winder by the 1950s; in the 1970s men working the old goaf of the Main seam near the shaft were bussed from Donisthorpe's baths, and a flight of steps joined the two collieries underground. Mining here ended in March 1990, and the shafts were capped in 1991. In 1985 a heating broke out in a shallow seam, about 13 feet thick, under the southern edge of the village; a probe two feet into one garden read 260 degrees Celsius, smoke came from a hole dug for a fence post, and some houses had to be demolished.

Geology

The Main Coal, 14 feet 9 inches thick at the 1853 shafts and about 13 feet in the shallow seam under the village, dipping north at about 1 in 7; liable to spontaneous combustion and heavy water from old workings. The Stockings and Woodfield seams were worked in 1952.

Workings

Shallow pits before 1787; a deep shaft of 1787 with a Boulton and Watt winding engine and an earlier Newcomen pumping engine; two shafts of 1853 near Willesley Basin, later a Donisthorpe service shaft with steel headgear and electric winder.

Closure

Closed about 1810, again in 1856, and as a colliery in its own right in October 1885; its shafts served Donisthorpe until mining ended in March 1990 and were capped in 1991.

What remains

The site is a picnic area beside Willesley Wood, where two concrete markers with plaques mark the capped No. 1 and No. 2 shafts.

Concrete shaft markers for Oakthorpe No. 1 and No. 2, built when the shafts were capped in 1991.

Redevelopment

Picnic area; later opencast working in the area.

Related mines

• Donisthorpe Colliery — Oakthorpe's shafts became a service shaft of Donisthorpe Colliery, joined underground by a flight of steps.
• Griff Colliery — The Newcomen engine that worked at Oakthorpe from 1734 was one of Griff Colliery's, sold when Griff closed.
• Moira Collieries — The Moira Collieries owned and worked Oakthorpe from 1857 to 1885.

Recorded claims

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

• A Newcomen engine from Griff Colliery, sold in 1734 to John Wise of Oakthorpe Colliery, survives as the Newcomen Memorial Engine. ^1,2
• Joseph Wilkes sank a deep shaft in 1787 and bought a Boulton and Watt winding engine. ¹
• Oakthorpe Colliery was worked by the Moira company in 1870. ^1,3
• The colliery closed in October 1885. ^1,4,5
• The No. 1 and No. 2 shafts were capped in 1991 and are marked by concrete markers. ⁴
• In 1985 a heating in a shallow seam under the village damaged property and some houses were demolished. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) NMRS: Oakthorpe Colliery — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (secondary) Wikipedia: Newcomen Memorial Engine — Wikipedia
3. (secondary) A Vision of Britain through Time: Oakthorpe (Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales, 1870-72) — A Vision of Britain through Time
4. (observational) Geograph: Oakthorpe Colliery shafts — Geograph Britain and Ireland
5. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan: OAKTHORPE (Main, abandoned 1 October 1885) — British Geological Survey
6. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan: OAKTHORPE (Main, abandoned 27 September 1986) — British Geological Survey

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