Rutland Colliery

Overview

S. and P. Potter's colliery at Ilkeston, worked on a lease from the Duke of Rutland from 1828, when Engine Pit No. 1 was sunk off Heanor Road. Its principal proprietors went on to form the Manners Colliery Company in the 1870s.

History

Rutland Colliery took its name from the Duke of Rutland, lord of the manor of Ilkeston, from whom Samuel and Philip Potter leased the coal. Engine Pit No. 1 was sunk in 1828 in a field on the east side of Heanor Road, behind the later Granby Schools, and is given as either 151 or 184 yards deep to the Bottom Hard seam. No. 2 Pit lay on the west side of Heanor Road, behind the later site of Ilkeston's first hospital, and No. 3 was sunk in 1837 farther west, on ground later taken by Manners Colliery. The Bath Pit was sunk before September 1841, when J. T. Woodhouse completed a plan of the colliery, and Rutland No. 4 Pit followed near the Manor House. The Deep Soft workings were planned down to 1846.

Working under the same Rutland lease, the Potter family opened a pit close to the Nutbrook Canal with a railway to its own wharf, where there were lime kilns; in 1838 Potter sought leave to build a second towing path there. Samuel Potter died, and his widow Ann carried on the firm with Philip Potter until the partnership was dissolved by mutual consent on 9 May 1867. In the mid-1870s the principal proprietors of the Rutland Colliery and others formed the Manners Colliery Company to sink to the deeper Kilburn coal. Plans of Rutland's Deep Hard and Deep Soft workings are dated from 1875 to 1881, and Rutland No. 4's Deep Soft workings were abandoned in April 1887.

Geology

Derbyshire Coal Measures: the Deep Soft, Deep Hard and Roof Soft, with the Bottom Hard at Engine Pit No. 1.

Workings

Engine Pit No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 Pits either side of Heanor Road, the Bath Pit and Rutland No. 4 near the Manor House, and a pit by the Nutbrook Canal with a railway to the Potters' wharf.

Closure

Plans of the Deep Hard and Deep Soft workings are dated 1875 to 1881; Rutland No. 4's Deep Soft workings were abandoned in April 1887.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

No. 3 Pit's ground became Manners Colliery, now the Manners Industrial Estate.

Related mines

• Manners Colliery — Rutland's No. 3 Pit lay on the later Manners site, and Rutland's proprietors formed the Manners Colliery Company.

Recorded claims

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

• Engine Pit No. 1 was sunk in 1828 on the east side of Heanor Road, 151 or 184 yards deep to the Bottom Hard. ¹
• Samuel and Philip Potter worked the colliery on a lease from the Duke of Rutland. ^1,2
• The S. and P. Potter partnership at the Rutland Colliery was dissolved on 9 May 1867. ²
• The Potters opened a pit by the Nutbrook Canal with a railway to their wharf and lime kilns. ³
• Its principal proprietors formed the Manners Colliery Company to sink to the Kilburn coal. ¹
• Rutland No. 4's Deep Soft workings were abandoned in April 1887. ⁴

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) The Local Mining Industry - Ilkeston and District Local History Society — Ilkeston and District Local History Society
2. (primary) London Gazette, 14 May 1867, p. 2782 (S. and P. Potter partnership notice) — The London Gazette
3. (secondary) MDR15166 - Potter's Coal Wharf and lime kilns (site of), Ilkeston — Derbyshire Historic Environment Record
4. (primary) Mine plan: Rutland No. 4, Deep Soft — British Geological Survey

Record created: 1 October 2026 · Last researched: 2 October 2026