Teversal Colliery

Overview

Teversal was the first colliery the Stanton Ironworks Company sank, begun in 1868 at Sutton-in-Ashfield and known locally as Butcherwood after the ground it stood on. It fed Stanton's furnaces with manufacturing and steam coal and grew into a large pit: 722 people in 1894, 750 in 1910 and 974 in 1923. In 1947 it passed to the National Coal Board and raised 280,000 tons of gas, household, manufacturing and steam coal. Pleasley followed in 1873 and Silverhill in 1878, making a group of Stanton collieries along the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire border.

History

The Stanton Ironworks Company was established in 1855 with three small furnaces, a foundry, iron fields at Stanton and Dale Abbey and ironstone bell pits at Babbington. Coal for the furnaces came next: the company sank its first colliery at Teversal, the shaft begun in the Butcherwood ground in 1868 — some accounts give 1867 — and the pit was known locally by that name. Pleasley followed in 1873 and Silverhill in 1878. The Lists of Mines return 722 people in 1894 and, for a period around the turn of the century, two separate pits: the Nos. 1 and 2 in 1896 with 698 between them, and separate No. 1 and No. 2 returns in 1900. Employment held at about 700 through 1905, 1910 and 1915 and reached 974 in 1923, falling to 770 in 1933. The Stanton Iron Co. and later the Stanton Ironworks Co. Ltd held the colliery until nationalisation in 1947, when it employed a workforce raising 280,000 tons a year — by then gas and household coal as well as the manufacturing and steam coal it had always made.

Geology

Teversal worked the concealed coalfield along the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire border, the same measures its neighbours Pleasley and Silverhill took. The Stanton company's interest was in coal for furnaces, and the pit's returns are manufacturing and steam coal throughout, with gas and household coal added by 1947.

Geological setting: Sedimentary Beds and Seams (historical documentary reference)

Workings

Two shafts, returned as the Nos. 1 and 2 pits together in 1896 and separately in 1900, on the Butcherwood ground at Sutton-in-Ashfield. The colliery was served by its own railway connections, whose trackbeds are now the Teversal and Silverhill trails.

Closure

No closure date has been found in the sources read. The Lists of Mines still return 770 people in 1933 and the colliery raised 280,000 tons under the National Coal Board in 1947. Its ground is now walked as the Teversal Trails, laid along the old colliery railways, with Silverhill Wood Country Park on the neighbouring pit's spoil.

What remains

The colliery has been cleared. Its access road survives as a walking route, and the ground around it is now the Teversal Trails and Silverhill Wood Country Park, laid out along the old colliery railways with ponds in the reclaimed workings.

Nearby mines

• Silverhill Colliery — 1.8 km SE
• Tibshelf Colliery — 2.7 km SW, Derbyshire
• Pleasley Colliery — 3.1 km NE, Derbyshire
• Glapwell Colliery — 4.7 km N, Derbyshire
• Holmewood Colliery — 5.5 km NW, Derbyshire

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.

• Teversal was the first colliery sunk by the Stanton Ironworks Company, the shaft begun in the Butcherwood ground; the Durham Mining Museum gives the sinking as started in 1868 and Discover Ashfield gives 1867. (disputed) ^1,2
• The colliery was known locally as Butcherwood, after the ground the first shaft was sunk in. ^1,2
• Pleasley Colliery followed in 1873 and Silverhill in 1878, making a group of Stanton collieries along the county border. ²
• The Lists of Mines record 722 people in 1894, 750 in 1910, 974 in 1923 and 770 in 1933. ¹
• In 1947 the colliery raised 280,000 tons of gas, household, manufacturing and steam coal for the National Coal Board. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Durham Mining Museum: Teversal Colliery — Durham Mining Museum, from the Mines Inspectors Reports and the Lists of Mines
2. (secondary) Coal mining history — Discover Ashfield
3. (observational) Access road to Teversal Colliery (photographed 2018) — Geograph Britain and Ireland, Alan Walker
4. (secondary) Stanton Ironworks — Grace's Guide to British Industrial History

Record created: 11 September 2026 · Last researched: 11 September 2026