Oakwell Colliery

Overview

The Ilkeston Colliery Company's pit off Derby Road, Ilkeston, also recorded as Ilkeston Colliery: shown on the map by about 1880, it worked the Kilburn seam with more than 700 men in 1910 and was out of use by the 1920s.

History

Oakwell Colliery, recorded also as Ilkeston Colliery, stood off Derby Road on the west side of Ilkeston. In 1872 Harry Bostock and William Sudbury leased the land from the first Baron Belper and formed the Oakwell Colliery Company to work the Furnace seam; a brickworks south-west of the colliery is shown on the map of 1879. The colliery appears on the first edition 25-inch Ordnance Survey map of about 1880 and had grown by the second edition of about 1900. It was owned by the Ilkeston Colliery Company and later by W. Horsley, and worked the Kilburn seam for household coal and later for manufacturing coal. The workforce rose from 525 in 1894 (421 underground) to 662 in 1905 and 717 in 1910.

Abandonment plans of the Kilburn workings are dated December 1909 and December 1912; one account gives 1910 for the closure of Ilkeston Colliery, shown as disused on the map of 1913, and by 1923 only five men were employed. The colliery had fallen out of use by the third edition map of the early twentieth century, and many of its buildings were gone by 1937-38. A two-storey brick building of the former Oakwell Colliery survived, much altered, at least until the 1980s but has since been demolished. Among the men killed here were a pony driver of 16 who fell into the sump in 1879 after its fencing had been removed for cleaning, and a dataller crushed in 1912 while drawing girders from an old level.

Geology

The Furnace and Kilburn seams of the Derbyshire coalfield.

Workings

A colliery working the Kilburn seam; a sump at the shaft is recorded.

Closure

Kilburn workings abandoned in 1909 and 1912; five men employed in 1923; out of use by the early twentieth-century map.

What remains

The buildings have gone; the last, a two-storey brick building, has been demolished.

None; the last colliery building has been demolished.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

What's uncertain

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

• Ilkeston Colliery closed in 1910 and is marked as disused on the map of 1913. (disputed) ³

Recorded claims

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

• Ilkeston Colliery appears on the 25-inch OS map of about 1880, had expanded by about 1900, and was out of use by the early twentieth-century edition; a building of the former Oakwell Colliery stood at the site. ¹
• Owned by the Ilkeston Colliery Company and W. Horsley. ²
• In 1872 Harry Bostock and William Sudbury leased the land from the first Baron Belper and formed the Oakwell Colliery Company to work the Furnace seam. ³
• Ilkeston Colliery closed in 1910 and is marked as disused on the map of 1913. (disputed) ³
• Employed 525 in 1894, 717 in 1910 and 5 in 1923, working the Kilburn seam. ²
• Kilburn seam abandonment plans are dated 31 December 1909 and 23 December 1912. ^4,5

Sources

1. (secondary) MDR5821 - Ilkeston Colliery (site of), Derby Road, Ilkeston — Derbyshire Historic Environment Record
2. (primary) Oakwell Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
3. (observational) Report - Oakwell Brickworks - Ilkeston - Jan 20 — 28DaysLater
4. (primary) BGS mine plan: Oakwell, Kilburn seam (abandoned 23 December 1912) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
5. (primary) BGS mine plan: Oakwell, Kilburn seam (abandoned 31 December 1909) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority

Record created: 17 October 2026 · Last researched: 17 October 2026