Ramcroft Colliery

Overview

A Derbyshire colliery at Heath, near Palterton, sunk for the First World War to the Top Hard seam at 152 yards by a company formed under the Staveley company's Charles Paxton Markham. Mothballed from 1929 to 1939, it was reopened by the Hardwick Colliery Company for the Second World War and closed in October 1966.

History

In October 1914, in the search for coal reserves for the war effort, the Staveley company proposed to work further into the Palterton and Heath area, ground worked in the nineteenth century by small shallow mines on the Sutton estates; the coal lay in the 5,000 acres the company's directors had leased from William Arkwright in 1882. The Ramcroft Colliery Company was formed under the guidance of Charles Paxton Markham of Staveley, and its shafts, 152 yards deep, worked the Top Hard seam from 1916. A branch line and sidings followed after the war, on land leased in March 1919, and in 1923 the colliery employed 686 people.

In January 1929 the company announced that the pit, after about twelve years' work, would close; its 660 men and boys, who came from as far as Clowne, Bolsover and Glapwell, were given notice. For ten years three men kept the mothballed colliery. It reopened in 1939 under the Hardwick Colliery Company to supply the Second World War, about 500 colliers raising up to a quarter of a million tons a year from the Top Hard, High Hazel and First and Second Waterloo seams, and the first hydraulic pit props were tried here in the 1940s. From 1935 a six-inch pipeline carried Ramcroft's waste water to quench the coke ovens at Holmewood.

The colliery passed to the National Coal Board in 1947, when it raised 134,000 tons with 343 people. A drift driven in 1952 linked the First Waterloo to the Top Hard to raise output. In 1957, 500 men struck after a canteen worker, Frances Hancock, was dismissed in a quarrel with the canteen secretary over how the tea should be made. The colliery closed in October 1966 and its First Waterloo workings were abandoned in April 1967; the area was then opencast for its remaining Clowne, Sough and High Main coal and returned to farmland. The colliery cottages became the Twin Oaks motel.

Geology

Derbyshire coalfield: the Top Hard, High Hazel and First and Second Waterloo seams, with the shallower Clowne, Sough and High Main left for opencast working.

Workings

Shafts 152 yards deep to the Top Hard (from 1916); a drift of 1952 linking the First Waterloo to the Top Hard.

Closure

Closed in October 1966; the First Waterloo plans are dated 15 April 1967. The pit had earlier stood idle from January 1929 to 1939. NMRS dates its start to 1915.

What remains

The colliery cottages survive as the Twin Oaks motel, and an old colliery street lamp was still in place in 2019.

Redevelopment

The area was opencast after closure and returned to agricultural use.

Related mines

• Holmewood Colliery — Hardwick Colliery Company pits.
• Lings Colliery — Hardwick Colliery Company pits.
• Williamthorpe Colliery — Hardwick Colliery Company pits.

Recorded claims

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

• The Ramcroft Colliery Company, formed under the guidance of Charles Paxton Markham of the Staveley company, worked the Top Hard seam from shafts 152 yards deep. ¹
• Ramcroft belonged to the Ramcroft Colliery Co. Ltd, then the Hardwick Colliery Co. Ltd, before passing to the NCB in 1947. ^2,1
• The colliery closed in January 1929, giving notice to 660 men and boys, and reopened in 1939. ¹
• Ramcroft employed 686 in 1923, 251 in 1940 and 343 in 1947, when it raised 134,000 tons. ²
• Ramcroft, at Heath, is listed from 1915 to October 1966. ³
• In 1957, 500 Ramcroft miners struck after a canteen worker was dismissed in a dispute over how the tea was made. ¹
• Ramcroft's First Waterloo workings were abandoned on 15 April 1967. ⁴

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Ramcroft - oldminer.co.uk — oldminer.co.uk
2. (primary) Ramcroft Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
3. (secondary) NCB Collieries - England (Northern Mine Research Society) — Northern Mine Research Society
4. (primary) BGS mine plan: Ramcroft, First Waterloo, abandoned 15 April 1967 — BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans

Record created: 4 October 2026 · Last researched: 4 October 2026