Strelley Colliery

Overview

The colliery the Strelley family established west of Nottingham in the later sixteenth century, which with the Willoughbys' pits at Wollaton made the largest and most productive coal operation outside Tyneside by 1600. In 1603 Huntingdon Beaumont laid a wagonway from these pits, among the first railed wagonways in Britain, and their shaftmounds at Broad Oak Farm are now a scheduled monument, the best preserved remains of the whole Strelley and Wollaton field.

History

Coal was worked around Strelley and Wollaton from the late fifteenth century, and the Strelley family established their colliery in the latter half of the sixteenth, mining around their own manor from about 1540. They were rivals of the Willoughbys of Wollaton, and the litigation between the two families has left an unusually rich documentary record of how mines in the area were worked; by the late sixteenth century the Strelley and Wollaton pits were the largest and most productive outside Tyneside. The Strelleys were the less successful of the two houses, and by 1620 had mortgaged their mines to London merchants who subsequently foreclosed. The pits themselves passed through other hands first. They were acquired in 1597 by the Byrons of Newstead, and in 1603 the Beaumonts, who had leased the Willoughbys' Wollaton pits two years earlier, took a sub-lease of Strelley too. Huntingdon Beaumont's investment in technology is why the place matters beyond its own coal: in 1603 he laid a wagonway to carry coal from the Strelley pits to a storage area at Wollaton Lane End, among the first railed wagonways in Britain, and he took the idea north to Northumberland where wagonways became commonplace. Beaumont was imprisoned in Nottingham for debt by 1618 and died in 1624. The Strelley workings were productive at least into the later seventeenth century, though the wagonway's own account has the mines worked out by about 1620, and the Edge family's papers cover mining here through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. What survives is the ground itself. The Strelley shaftmounds lie on almost level ground south, west and east of Broad Oak Farm on the north-western outskirts of Bilborough: a series of low mounds up to five metres across, each the collar of spoil left where a vertical shaft was sunk to the coal and the seam worked out horizontally around its foot, giving the pit its bell-shaped profile. They were scheduled on 24 February 1998 as nationally important, both as rare undisturbed survivals and because the technological and organisational advances made at this colliery, the very early wagonway among them, influenced the coal industry nationally. Two further groups of bell pits are recorded elsewhere in the parish, one of thirty-three features thought worth preserving as a classic example, and old coal shafts are mapped south of Turkey Fields Farm. Much of the western part of the parish was taken by a huge opencast mine in the 1960s, and the M1 was built across it afterwards.

Geology

The pits worked the exposed coal of the Nottinghamshire field where it comes near enough to the surface to be reached by shallow shafts; the first coal found in the county is said to have outcropped in this district. The shape of the workings follows from the geology: a shaft sunk to a shallow seam and the coal taken out all round the bottom until the ground would hold no longer, which is what leaves the bell profile and the ring of spoil at the surface.

Geological setting: Sedimentary Beds and Seams (well documented example)

Workings

Bell pits: a vertical shaft sunk to the coal with the seam then worked out horizontally around its foot, leaving a low collar of spoil at the shaft mouth. The surface remains at Broad Oak Farm are low mounds up to five metres across, and buried remains are expected to carry evidence of winding gear and of the operations around the shaft head. From 1603 the coal went out along Huntingdon Beaumont's wooden wagonway to Wollaton Lane End.

Closure

The scheduling text has the colliery productive at least into the later seventeenth century, and the Edge family's papers cover mining at Strelley through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The account of the wagonway, by contrast, has the Strelley mines worked only until about 1620, by which time the readily recoverable coal had probably gone, and the wagonway abandoned with them. The two are not necessarily in conflict, since working could resume on a smaller scale after the seam that fed the wagonway was exhausted, but the record does not pretend to settle it.

What remains

Scheduled and undisturbed. The shaftmounds south, west and east of Broad Oak Farm were scheduled on 24 February 1998 as the best preserved remains of the Strelley and Wollaton coal mining area. Elsewhere in the parish the record is patchier: a group of thirty-three bell-pit mounds with visible annuli is recorded from aerial photographs as worth preserving, old coal shafts are mapped south of Turkey Fields Farm, and much of the west of the parish was opencast in the 1960s before the M1 was built across it.

Low shaftmounds up to 5 m across with their spoil collars, scheduled as a monument, together with the earthworks and buried remains of related mining features and a tramway.

Redevelopment

None on the scheduled ground; the west of the parish was opencast in the 1960s and carries the M1.

Related mines

• Wollaton Colliery — The two ends of the same story: the Strelleys' and Willoughbys' pits were the largest and most productive outside Tyneside by 1600, their rivalry generating the litigation that documents both, and Huntingdon Beaumont's wagonway of 1603-04 ran from these pits to Wollaton Lane End.

Nearby mines

• Babbington Colliery — 2.8 km NE
• Trowell Moor Colliery — 3.3 km SW
• Cossall Colliery — 3.6 km W
• Digby Colliery — 4.3 km NW
• New London Colliery — 5.1 km NW

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.

• Strelley colliery was named after the family which established it in the latter half of the sixteenth century; the Strelleys were rivals of the Willoughbys, who had earlier established collieries at Wollaton, and the litigation between them has left a rich documentary source for the technology and development of mines in the area. ¹
• By the late sixteenth century the Strelley and Wollaton pits were the largest and most productive outside Tyneside, and they continued to be successful in the seventeenth century, helped by investment in technology by the prospector Huntingdon Beaumont. ¹
• One of Beaumont's innovations was the installation in 1603 of a wagonway to carry coal from the Strelley pits to a storage area, among the first railed wagonways in Britain; he took the idea to the north east, where wagonways later became commonplace. ¹
• The Strelley pits were acquired in 1597 by the Byrons of Newstead and leased two years later to the Beaumonts, who had taken the Willoughbys' Wollaton pits on a twenty-one-year lease in 1601. ²
• The Strelleys were less successful than the Willoughbys and by 1620 had mortgaged their mines to London merchants, who subsequently foreclosed on them. ²
• The scheduling text records the colliery as productive at least into the later seventeenth century. (disputed) ¹
• The account of the wagonway has the Strelley mines worked only until about 1620, by which time all readily recoverable coal had probably been mined, the wagonway being abandoned with them. (disputed) ³
• The Strelley shaftmounds lie on almost level ground south, west and east of Broad Oak Farm on the north-western outskirts of Bilborough, a series of low mounds up to 5 m wide left where a vertical shaft was sunk to the coal and the seam worked out horizontally, giving the pit a bell-shaped profile; they were scheduled on 24 February 1998 as rare undisturbed survivals. ¹
• Elsewhere in the parish a group of thirty-three bell-pit mounds, some with visible annuli, is recorded from aerial photographs as worth preservation as an example of classic bell pits, and old coal shafts are mapped south of Turkey Fields Farm. ^4,5
• Much of the western part of Strelley parish was dominated by a huge opencast coal mine during the 1960s, and after it closed the M1 motorway was built over the west of the parish. ⁶

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Scheduled monument: coal mining remains at Broad Oak Farm, national number 30959 (Nottinghamshire HER) — Historic England / Nottinghamshire Historic Environment Record
2. (secondary) The coal industry in Nottinghamshire: overview (Nottinghamshire Heritage Gateway) — Nottinghamshire Heritage Gateway
3. (secondary) Wollaton Wagonway (Wikipedia) — Wikipedia
4. (primary) Nottinghamshire HER monument L7128: bell pits, Strelley — Nottinghamshire Historic Environment Record
5. (primary) Nottinghamshire HER monument M6077: coal mine south of Turkey Fields Farm, Strelley — Nottinghamshire Historic Environment Record
6. (secondary) Strelley Village (Wikipedia) — Wikipedia

Record created: 9 September 2026 · Last researched: 9 September 2026