Ormonde Colliery

Overview

The last deep pit sunk in the Heanor district, put down by the Butterley Company through its own old workings in 1906. In 1963 it pioneered remotely operated longwall mining, and it wound its last coal in 1970.

History

Ormonde was sunk by the Butterley Company from 1906 and came into production in 1908, the last of the deep mines opened in the Heanor area. Its two shafts went down through the company's old workings in the Deep Soft and Deep Hard seams from Loscoe Pit to reach the Kilburn, which let it work the Piper, Low Main, Blackshale — the Silkstone, sold under its Yorkshire name — and Mickley as well. The Butterley Company concentrated its Loscoe-area working on Ormonde as its other pits went: Loscoe Colliery closed in 1933 and Bailey Brook in 1938. The Kilburn seam was finished in 1941 and the pit turned to the poorer Blackshale. It employed over a thousand men from the 1920s to nationalisation, 1,328 of them in 1947 when it produced 600,000 tons. In 1963 Ormonde pioneered ROLF, the remotely operated longwall face — one of the National Coal Board's serious attempts at taking men off the coalface altogether. The Board's own leaflet of 1967 has 1,200 men producing 850,000 tons a year from fully mechanised faces in the Piper, Low Main and Black Shale. The pit produced its last coal on 25 September 1970.

Geology

The Derbyshire coalfield. The shafts passed through the Deep Soft and Deep Hard seams, already worked out from Loscoe Pit, to reach the Kilburn, and the colliery also worked the Piper, Low Main, Mickley and the Blackshale — the seam sold as Silkstone coal.

Workings

Two shafts, 401 yards deep, sunk through old workings. Fully mechanised faces by the 1960s, and in 1963 the first trials of the remotely operated longwall face.

Closure

Ormonde produced its last coal on 25 September 1970.

What remains

No account of the site as it now stands has been found; the ground at Loscoe has been much altered since the pit went.

None recorded.

Nearby mines

• Brinsley Colliery — 4.0 km E, Nottinghamshire
• Underwood Colliery — 5.1 km NE, Nottinghamshire
• Moorgreen Colliery — 5.2 km E, Nottinghamshire
• Pye Hill Colliery — 5.2 km NE, Nottinghamshire
• New London Colliery — 6.1 km E, 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.

• Ormonde was the last of the deep mines to be opened in the Heanor area, sunk by the Butterley Company in 1906 with production beginning in 1908. Its two shafts went down through the old workings in the Deep Soft and Deep Hard seams from Loscoe Pit to reach the Kilburn, and so to the Piper, Low Main, Blackshale and Mickley as well. ¹
• The neighbouring Loscoe Colliery closed in 1933 and the Butterley Company closed Bailey Brook Colliery in 1938, concentrating its working in the Loscoe area entirely on Ormonde. The Kilburn seam was finished in 1941 and the pit turned to the inferior Blackshale, marketed under its Yorkshire name of Silkstone coal. ¹
• In 1963 Ormonde pioneered the ROLF system — the remotely operated longwall face. The National Coal Board's leaflet 'Coal in North Derbyshire' of April 1967 records the pit as sunk in 1908 and 401 yards deep, with 1,200 men producing 850,000 tons from fully mechanised faces in the Piper, Low Main and Black Shale. ^2,1
• The official Lists of Mines return 1,151 employed in 1923, 1,135 in 1933, 1,262 in 1940 and 1,328 at nationalisation in 1947, when the colliery produced 600,000 tons of coking, gas, household and industrial coal. ²

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Ormonde Colliery — Heanor and District Local History Society
2. (secondary) Ormonde Colliery — Durham Mining Museum

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