Shirebrook Colliery

Overview

A Derbyshire pit sunk from 1896 whose population exploded from 600 to 11,000 within fifteen years, survived a fatal 1907 cage accident, and closed in 1993 after a 1976 drift investment had briefly pushed it to its highest-ever output.

History

Shirebrook Colliery was sunk from 1896 by the Shirebrook Coal and Iron Company, under engineer Arnold Lupton, with two 18-foot-diameter shafts; No. 2 shaft reached the Top Hards seam at 1,630 feet. The new colliery transformed the surrounding area almost overnight — in the fifteen years after sinking began, the village's population grew from around 600 to 11,000 as newcomers arrived in search of a home and a job. On 26 March 1907, three men — William Edward Limb, 45, William Phillips, 27, and Arthur Burton, 36 — were killed when the bottom conductor of a cage carrying men down for their shift broke around 150 yards down the shaft at about 5:40am; this incident does not meet this archive's five-death threshold for a standalone Disaster record. The colliery was vested into the National Coal Board at nationalisation on 1 January 1947. In 1976, the Jubilee Drift was driven to link the surface directly to the Main Hard seam, speeding up coal transport, and the investment paid off: Shirebrook produced over 1.7 million tons in 1986-87, its best output on record. The colliery nonetheless closed in April 1993, one of the last six Derbyshire collieries still working after the 1984-85 strike; the site has since been redeveloped as a large business park.

Workings

Two 18-foot-diameter shafts sunk from 1896, No. 2 reaching the Top Hards seam at 1,630 feet; the Jubilee Drift, added 1976, gave direct surface access to the Main Hard seam.

Closure

Closed April 1993, one of the last six Derbyshire collieries still working after the 1984-85 strike; the site has since been redeveloped as a business park.

What remains

The former colliery site has been redeveloped as a large business park.

No specific surviving colliery structures were established from the sources checked for this pass.

Abandoned workings can be dangerous — unstable ground, uncapped shafts, flooding and bad air are common even where a site looks safe from the surface. This entry describes history and general location only; it is not an access guide.

Recorded claims

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

• Shirebrook Colliery was sunk from 1896 by the Shirebrook Coal and Iron Company under engineer Arnold Lupton, with two 18-foot-diameter shafts, No. 2 reaching the Top Hards seam at 1,630 feet. ¹
• In the fifteen years after sinking began, the surrounding village's population grew from around 600 to 11,000. ¹
• On 26 March 1907, the bottom conductor of a cage carrying men down for their shift broke around 150 yards down the shaft at about 5:40am, killing William Edward Limb (45), William Phillips (27) and Arthur Burton (36). ²
• The Jubilee Drift, driven in 1976, gave direct surface access to the Main Hard seam; the colliery produced over 1.7 million tons in 1986-87, its best output on record. ¹
• The colliery closed in April 1993, one of the last six Derbyshire collieries still working after the 1984-85 strike. ¹

Sources

1. (secondary) Shirebrook — oldminer.co.uk
2. (secondary) The Shirebrook Cage Disaster, March 26th 1907 — Durham Mining Museum

Record created: 27 August 2026 · Last researched: 27 August 2026