Report - Clipstone Colliery - Notts - February 2013

[Derphouse]

Popped back over to Clipstone, having previously not managing to get round the spiky spiky fence, after the nice walk through the little nature reserve, job was a goodun, and had a good couple of hours of undisturbed freezing cold mooching......

Visited with a non-member whose first derp it was.... and not a bad one to start with i'd say. Although the place is trashed, its got lots left of interest, namely the winding house, and headstocks, but also los of nice coloured/discoloured brickwork, which i find always lends itself well to photographs....
wasn't brave enough to climb the headstocks, got up to the roof and through the first bit of ire, but it was cold and blustery, not the best conditions for tackling a fear of heights, they are god damn impressive though....

Borrowed a bit of history from a previous report (sorry Shatners ).... and then on with the pictures. I have been really neglecting my primes alot of late, since i bought a Wangle ive photographed so much wiiiiide, so i vowed to give them a good run, hence a fair few details shots, so i hope they are enjoyable

History

Clipstone Colliery is a coal mine situated near the village of the same name on the edge of an area of Nottinghamshire known as “The Dukeriesâ€￾ because of the number of stately homes in the area. The colliery was owned by the Bolsover Colliery Company and passed to the National Coal Board in 1947.

The colliery was sunk to exploit the Barnsley seam or “Tophardâ€￾, as it known locally. In the 1950s the shafts were deepened to over 1000 yards (920 m) to exploit other seams.

The colliery was closed by British Coal, as the National Coal Board had become, in 1993 and reopened by RJB Mining (now UK Coal) in April 1994, the licence to dig for coal being limited to the Yard seam which is located at a depth of 957 yards (870 m). The colliery was finally closed in April 2003.

The headstocks of the colliery are regarded as the tallest in Europe and the third tallest in the world. They are Grade 2 Listed structures and can be seen all over the district. They are expensive to keep in good repair and there have been a number of appeals, as yet to no avail, to demolish them.

Pictures

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