Hi,
Can you help in identifying the six large rectangular lakes (or lagoons) that are situated in the area between Heanor Road, Ilkeston and Head House Farm in the Mapperley Brook area?  I have been told that they are something to do with drainage of the old mines.

Any ideas? 

Thank you for your time.

David Cholerton

Hi Fionn,

The lagoons referred to are the settling ponds for minewaters abstracted from the Woodside Pumping Station in order to precipitate iron compounds from the water by oxygenation.  Prior to this the waters pumped were a major pollutant of the Nutbrook and downstream dependencies; the Nutbrook was entirely orange for many years after Woodside closed as a mine, and water treatment ceased. 

The water is pumped from the Woodside No.2 shaft (Piper) from a depth of 70 metres max. (if everything is working correctly) in order to prevent contaminated minewaters emerging elsewhere at lower ordnance levels.

This draw-down of the water table also prevents water from the surface (i.e. rainfall etc.) percolating via the shallow coal measures and old workings and creating damaging pollution via the man-made interconnections (mine workings) at higher levels.

The pumping operation is of critical importance and has to be monitored, and has been known to be affected by failures due to unauthorised (cheaper and easier) discharge of slurries etc. from opencast workings, i.e. instead of pumping waters to surface treatment areas, the operators have pumped effluent into old roadways that they have intercepted when excavating, and this has ended up at Woodside, which is more or less the base of the local geological syncline.

The pumping level in the shaft was 200m until c.2000 when the last of the operational deep-mines in the area, the Annesley Bentinck mine closed.  Subsequent trials by the Coal Authority demonstrated that the level cannot be allowed to rise above 70 metres depth, or contaminated water starts emerging everywhere - either from above or below.

What would happen if the 110 year-old shaft collapses is of concern.

I think that I already have covered this subject in my section of your website to some degree, + Menu 2

Rgds,

Joe. 

Hi, I came across your site by Googling Cotgreave Farm. I was searching for this as I believe that my father, George William Bailey was born there on 8th Oct 1905. I'm just trying to find out what I can about that time. The family subsequently moved to Stanley Grange and I have a photo of him at Breadsall School in 1914.

Incidentally, I see there was some confusion over the spelling of the name of the farm. The National Archive website refers to a lease of the farm by Drury-Lowe and calls it Coptgreave Farm. I would be grateful for any clues or hints that might help trace my father’s early days.

Yours, Roger Bailey

I am the old owner of Cotgreave farm and the name of the farm is Cotgreave not Copgreave it belonged to Harry Thompson and his wife Beryl who now are both deceased and his two daughters Diane and Susan who farmed from 1940-1977.

If any information is needed then please email us.

Sorted, thank you very much.

Hello
Reading about the open casting around Mapperley village, I saw that you had an E-mail about Cotgreave farm from a Rose Swain. My wife's great great grandfather, John Walker had that farm in the late 1800's and I would like more information about it if possible. Could you let me have her E-mail address?

Best wishes
Jonathan Nugent

Glenrothes
Scotland

I have passed your email onto Rose.

Thanks for your email for Cotgreave Farm. The farm had been part of the Shipley estate/Munday family. My great grand parents Charles and Mabel Thompson moved into Cotgreave in the early 1940's. The farm at that time was owned by Captain Drury-Lowe who then sold the farm in around the 1960's to George Pykett who owned and lived on Poplar farm Cotmanhay. Unsure of exact dates as my great grandparents and grandparents are now deceased. The farm was adjacent to Mapperley colliery.

Unfortunately due to a substantial amount of coal being found on the farm and particularly under the farm house, the farm land was desecrated and the farm and farm house were demolished removing a beautiful farm house in an idyllic location and depriving my grandparents of their livelihood. It is a great shame that my grand father was a tenant farmer or this farm would not have been raised to the ground.

I have walked this area with my mother and dogs and there is no evidence that this beautiful farm ever existed nor indeed the colliery, certainly my mother and my auntie, daughters of the deceased, feel that there should be some recognition possibly in the form of a plaque? Or some way that this historical area should be marked to commemorate it.

Thankfully we have two photographs one a distance photograph showing the farm with the colliery in the foreground the other is a photograph taken just outside the farm gate which shows what a beautiful farm this once was. This photo also shows my grand father standing in the farm yard, my mum and my auntie estimate that this picture was taken fairly close to the date of the farm sale in May 1975 as my grand father looked very unhappy, he was obviously contemplating what turned out to be a devastating wrench from a home and place of work for the last 40 years.

I hope this information will be of help, perhaps it will help in your search and if you discover any further information I would only be too pleased to receive further emails. We are certainly intrigued to learn that past generations of yours lived at Cotgreave farm and we are more than happy for you to email anything that you find out.

Kind regards, we'll look forward to hearing from you,

Rosie Swain

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