Oxcroft Colliery

Overview

A Staveley-group colliery at Shuttlewood and Stanfree, near Clowne, sunk from 1901 and worked by the Oxcroft Colliery Company. Rebuilt as a drift mine from 1949, it worked the Clowne seam until it closed in 1974; a coal disposal point later occupied part of the site.

History

A. B. Markham obtained a lease of the coal from the Duke of Devonshire, and in June 1900 asked for tenders to sink two shafts to the Top Hard at Oxcroft. A railway link from Staveley was begun in April 1901, and in May 1901 the Oxcroft Colliery Company was formed with A. B. and C. P. Markham as directors, part of the Staveley Coal and Iron Company's interests. The company built West Lea Cottages and rows of houses at Stanfree, Shuttlewood and off Woodthorpe Road, with schools, shops and miners' welfare clubs. The pits worked the High Hazel and Top Hard, and employment rose from about 520 in 1905 to 786 in 1923; on 6 April 1919 an explosion of gas killed six.

Drifts from the surface, begun in 1938 and suspended during the war, were finished by 1944, and from 1949 Oxcroft was a drift mine, with a third drift in 1960. In the 1960s about 700 men produced 430,000 tons a year from the Clowne seam, and a dense-medium washery was completed in 1964. The colliery closed in 1974 and its men moved to Markham and other pits. The National Coal Board built the Oxcroft coal disposal point in 1980 to screen opencast coal; it closed for good in 2007.

Geology

Derbyshire Coal Measures: the Top Hard and High Hazel seams in the early years, the Clowne seam in the drift-mine period.

Workings

Two shafts from 1901; surface drifts begun in 1938 and completed by 1944, drift working from 1949 and a third drift in 1960; a dense-medium washery completed in 1964.

Closure

Closed in 1974; the men were transferred to Markham and other local collieries.

What remains

The Oxcroft Miners' Welfare at Stanfree, rebuilt after a fire in the late 1980s, remains; the later coal disposal point closed in 2007.

The conveyors and buildings of the coal disposal point were still standing in 2010 beside an overgrown railway.

Redevelopment

The National Coal Board's Oxcroft coal disposal point, built in 1980, screened opencast coal until 2006 and briefly again in 2007.

Related mines

• Markham Colliery — Both Staveley Coal and Iron Company group pits; Oxcroft's men transferred to Markham when it closed in 1974.

Disasters & major incidents

• Oxcroft Colliery explosion, 1919
  6 April 1919 · Explosion · 6 fatalities
  On Sunday 6 April 1919, while auxiliary fans were being moved, gas exploded in the Creswell Level district of Oxcroft Colliery, near Bolsover, killing six men. The jury found it was fired by an electric spark, probably in a switch box.

Recorded claims

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

• A. B. Markham sought tenders in June 1900 for sinking two shafts to the Top Hard at Oxcroft; the Oxcroft Colliery Company was formed in May 1901. ¹
• Oxcroft became a drift mine in 1949, with a third drift in 1960; about 700 men produced 430,000 tons from the Clowne seam. ^2,1
• It employed 786 in 1923. ²
• An explosion of gas on 6 April 1919 killed six. ^3,2
• The colliery, latterly a drift mine, closed in 1974. ^1,4
• The NCB built the Oxcroft coal disposal point in 1980; it closed in 2007. ⁵

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Oxcroft — oldminer.co.uk
2. (primary) Oxcroft Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
3. (secondary) Oxcroft Colliery Explosion - Creswell - 1919 — Northern Mine Research Society
4. (secondary) Stanfree — Wikipedia
5. (observational) Oxcroft Coal Disposal Point, Derbyshire - June 2010 — 28DaysLater

Record created: 3 October 2026 · Last researched: 3 October 2026