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Calendar
The Decline Of The Industry Continued
After Nationalisation 1947

Chimneys
1949
1951
1953
1951   1    2 

1951- Page 1


Miners Entombed

On 25th January 1951, after rescuers had been digging for more than 22 hours, the first of 3 men was extricated from his 27 hours entombment at Thoresby colliery (Nottinghamshire).  A fall had occurred at the face burying the men and S Brown (39) of Mansfield Woodhouse was found lying between the conveyor and the coal cutter. Edwin W Lane No3 Area Production Manager was at the scene with the Rescue men for 13 hours. Among the rescuers was Assistant Undermanager Forester Staley. W Furness from Warsop, another of the trapped men, was stated to be very weak.


Rationing Continued

The Labour Government sliced 2d (¾p) from the weekly meat ration.  Rump steak was 2s 8d (13⅓p) per lb. The Food Minister Maurice Webb (Lab) created an almost universal outcry. Effectively British people were down to one meat meal a week. Why after all the shortages of the War time was there another cut in rations?  The War had ended in 1945 and we were worse off! Miners and other heavy duty workers were allowed a larger ration … but!


Further Pay Increase

Pay rates were further increased in January 1951.  Minimum underground rates for men were raised by 1s 2d (5¾p), giving £6 7s 0d (£6.35) per week, and by 10d (4p) a shift for surface workers, giving £5 10s 0d (£5.50) a week.


Collieries Closed in 1951

South Normanton Closed After 58 Years

South Normanton colliery (Derbyshire) sunk in 1893-1894 to 122 yards (111m) by the South Normanton Colliery Co, UC 90 yards (82m) winding pit Top Hard level E46188, N356941and DC 74 yards (68m) E446156, N356933, was closed on 2nd March 1951, after 58 years, but kept open as a pumping pit to protect workings at other pits close by.

At the time it was a steam pump underground that kept the water under control the steam being sent down the shaft in a pipe range. Access drifts from this seam down to Dunsil and Waterloo seams.

Several ponies were still used underground on salvage operations in 1952.

Shafts abandoned 4th Oct 1968. The sinking was close to the Nottinghamshire / Derbyshire border being only a few yards into Derbyshire, to the East of South Normanton town, but was administered by the Nottinghamshire union. Although the pit was and remained so to be called Winterbank this colliery was sunk as South Normanton.

The old Winterbank pit was situated near to Winterbank farm ¼ mile to the North. Note also that there are 2 Winterbanks on the O.S. plan only about 200 yds (180m) apart, one in Derbyshire and the other in Nottinghamshire.

Old Pit

Plan Winterbank Colliery

Seams worked

  • Top Hard 1894-1942
  • Dunsil 1900-1904 and 1914-1932, 1940-1951
  • Waterloo 1899-1951.
  • Adjacent old workings from Hill Top 1925/26.
  • No1 and No2 shafts 368ft (112m) abandoned 1951.  Uneconomical.

Manpower:

  • 1893: sinking
  • 1894: 114 Top Hard, 43 s/f
  • 1895: 139 Top Hard, 41 s/f
  • 1896:173 Top Hard, 47 s/f
  • 1897: 176 Top Hard, 50 s/f
  • 1898: 167 Top Hard, 46 s/f
  • 1899: 119 Top Hard, 74 Waterloo, 45 s/f
  • 1900: 75 Top Hard, 117 W, 38 Dunsil, 60 s/f
  • 1901:39 Top Hard, 135 W, 77 D, 62 s/f
  • 1902: 18 Top Hard, 136 W, 94 D, 67 s/f
  • 1903: 296 Top Hard, W, D, 68 s/f
  • 1904: 354 Top Hard, W, D, 79 s/f
  • 1905: 407 Top Hard, W, 88 s/f
  • 1906: 175 Top Hard, 250 W, 96 s/f
  • 1907: 180 Top Hard, 225 W, 109 s/f
  • 1908: 196 Top Hard, 264 W. 118 s/f
  • 1909: 196 Top Hard, 280 W, 122 s/f
  • 1910:198 Top Hard, 260 W, 121 s/f
  • 1911: 199 Top Hard, 244 W, 121 s/f
  • 1912: 190 Top Hard, 284 W, 123 s/f
  • 1913: 201 Top Hard, 302 W, 124 s/f
  • 1914: 495 Top Hard, W and Dunsil 134 s/f
  • 1915: 490 Top Hard, W, D, 135 s/f
  • 1916: 466 Top Hard, W, D, 136 s/f
  • 1917: 443 Top Hard, W, D, 132 s/f
  • 1918: 432 Top Hard, W, D, 136 s/f
  • 1919: 476 Top Hard, W, D, 140 s/f
  • 1920: 463 Top Hard, W, D, 144 s/f
  • 1921: 478 Top Hard, W, D, 143 s/f
  • 1922: 502 Top Hard, W, D, 139 s/f
  • 1923: 472 Top Hard, W, D, 146 s/f
  • 1924: 472 Top Hard, W, D, 147 s/f
  • 1925: 504 Top Hard, W, D, 155 s/f
  • 1926: 488 Top Hard, W, D, 152 s/f
  • 1927: 463 Top Hard, W, D, 150 s/f
  • 1928: 471 Top Hard, W, D, 156 s/f (highest)
  • 1929: 507 (highest) Top Hard, W, D, 150 s/f
  • 1930: 483 Top Hard, W, D, 131 s/f
  • 1931: 485 Top Hard, W, D, 128 s/f
  • 1932: 360 Top Hard, W, Dunsil, 104 s/f
  • 1933: 338 Top Hard, W, 111 s/f
  • 1934: 362 Top Hard, W, 104 s/f
  • 1935: 340 Top Hard, W, 104 s/f
  • 1936: 361 Top Hard, W, 107 s/f
  • 1937: 371 Top Hard, W, 113 s/f
  • 1938: 406 Top Hard, W, 115 s/f
  • 1940: 380 Top Hard, W and Dunsil 109 s/f
  • 1941: 351 Top Hard, W, D, 106 s/f
  • 1942: 350 Waterloo and Dunsil 111 s/f
  • 1943: 359 W, D, 106 s/f
  • 1944: 356 W, D, 108 s/f
  • 1945: 340 W, D, 99 s/f
  • 1946: 294 W, D, 104 s/f

Tonnage and Manpower NCB: No4 Area EMD:

  • 1947: 127,414 tons, 407 men
  • 1948: 410 men, 114,062 tons, 294/104, total 398 men
  • 1949: 98,381 tons, 330 men
  • 1950: 59,441 tons, 165 men
  • 1951: Waterloo & Dunsil 8,557 tons, 63 men.  

Manpower: South Normanton Colliery Co

  • 1894: Top Hard 114, s/f 43, total 157
  • 1895: 180 men
  • 1900: Top Hard 75, Dunsil 38, Waterloo 117, s/f 60, total 290 men
  • 1903: 364 men
  • 1905: 495 men
  • 1911: 365 men
  • 1913: 426 men
  • 1915: 625 men
  • 1920: 607 men
  • 1923: 618 men
  • 1925: 659 men (max)
  • 1926: 640 men
  • 1927: 613 men
  • 1928: 627 men
  • 1929: 657 men
  • 1930: 614 men
  • 1933: 449 men
  • 1935: 444 men
  • 1940: 489 men
  • 1945: Dunsil, Waterloo 340, s/f 99, total 439 men. 
    Highest manpower 657 in 1929.

The Manager at Brookhill was responsible for the pumping activities.  It was locally known as Winterbank, and had been sunk by the South Normanton Colliery Co.  The old pit was flooded in January 1884 when a dip working tapped an old heading, which had been flooded some 25 years previously.  Many miners were thrown out of work at the time and a ram pump was obtained from Stanley Common but it took quite some time to pump the pit dry.  The new pit was sunk in 1893.  Maximum output in 1947 was 127,414 tons and 407 men; and in 1948 with a manpower of 410, only 114,062 tons was produced.

Agents:

  • James Mein Agent 1921-1925
  • F Donald Severn (977) Agent 1947-1951.

Managers for South Normanton

  • James Mein (2316) 1893-1912
  • J Mein (2616) 1912-1921
  • J Gordon Mein (4086) 1921-1942
  • Peter L Harley (2649) 1942-1948 (for Cotes Park also 1947 on, promoted to Kirkby, later No4 Area Mechanization Engineer)
  • Jimmy A Wright (3926) (promoted from Pye Hill and Manager for Cotes Park also until 1950 when he transferred to Cotes Park only, (he told me he had a choice of either pit but at Cotes Park a house was available with the job, albeit he had increased the output from 500 tons to over 1,000 tons a day at South Normanton), Manager Teversal, Kirkby, Group Manager, Chief Mining Engineer, finally Deputy Director South Nottinghamshire Area -1975)
  • Horace O Gubbins (2928) 1950-1951 (promoted from Undermanager Kirkby, transferred to Manager Sutton, later Teversal)
  • Alex L Middleton (3342) 1951 (for Brookhill also, promoted to No3 Sub-Area Manager No4 Area)
  • Tommy R Jameson (2621) 1951-1952 (transferred to Blackwell).   

Undermanagers for South Normanton

  • George Hardy 1896-1897 (2nd)
  • George Bainbridge (2nd) 1897-1930
  • James B Mein (2nd) 1930-1940
  • B Sinfield (2nd) 1941-1946
  • Joe H Cosford (2nd) 1947-1950 and 1951-1952 (transferred to Langton, then back again, later Manager Sutton).

Surveyors included: …

  • William M Erskine (1518)
  • Chas Makower (BA Hons Cantab), a South African, transferred to HQ to do a major intersection of all collieries in the Area)
  • W Ray Fern (1602) transferred to Swanwick
  • Les H Watson (578) No4 Area Surveyor.

Fatal Accidents At South Normanton Winterbank Old Pit (1840-1889)

  • Noah Straw (?) suffocated by blackdamp 1/5/1854
  • Henry Travis (38) fall of roof 23/10/1856
  • Thomas Cashwin (74) ?/5/1862
  • James Leatherland (42) fall of roof 16/12/1862
  • Elijah Ball (15) 20/10/1867 probably haulage accident
  • Isaac Gascoyne (..?) probably fall of roof 15/3/1880.

Other Serious Accidents At The Old Winterbank Mine Included

My Great Grandfather Robert White b 1859 (photo on front page of introduction) was buried in a fall of coal in 1879 or 1880 at this pit and taken home supposedly dead. As mentioned he recovered somewhat from his injuries to work in the pits again but his ribs had been badly twisted and forever afterwards he walked with a stoop. However he died aged 90 in 1949, after loading a heap of coal into the coal house. Coal killed him in the end.

Fatal Accidents South Normanton, New Colliery

  • Walter Edge (45) crushed by a wagon on the surface 4/8/1905
  • Hiram Bond (48) 23/7/1907
  • George Edward Polkey (19) fall in a roadway 30/6/1908
  • A Kibble (13) and Shepherd Reynolds (43) 25/11/1911
  • Leonard Hill (15) run over by tubs 9/10/1912
  • Ernest McCormack (36) 20/5/1913
  • Arthur John Simmons (45) 20/12/1916
  • George William Bacon (16) fall in a roadway 1/8/1917
  • Thomas Wall (47) 23/11/1917
  • Leonard Kirk (27) fall of roof 4/9/1924
  • George Key (42) crushed by tubs 17/3/1925
  • William Henry Simms (56) 4/2/1926
  • Frank Maud (15) crushed by tubs 19/11/1926
  • Alfred Chaukley (56) fall of roof 1/7/1927
  • Arthur Hill (46) fall of roof 1/12/1927
  • John Nuttall (72) 3/9/1928
  • Wilfred Coleman (30) run over by tubs 8/3/1930
  • John Protheroe (36) 25/1/1931
  • Harold Elijah Devonport (47) 29/1/1931
  • Samuel Marriott (64) 4/7/1935, jumped down shaft
  • George William Clay (26) crushed by a hoist on the surface 6/9/1936
  • There was an explosion on 15/3/1937 Sam Hill (19), Willis Lambert (45), John Marriott (38), Frederick Pride (31), Everett Reeves (55), John Vardy (25) and Henry Willis (59) all 8 died, with Percy Ancell (21) dying on 22/3/1937. The explosion was probably caused by someone smoking in a gaseous atmosphere. Cigarettes and matches were found in coat pockets of the deceased
  • Bernard Stock (38) killed 2/3/1948
  • And although the pit had closed 2 other fatals, Wilfred Owen Parkin (51) 10/5/1953
  • Arthur Chadbourne (55) -/11/1957, cause unknown.

After the pit had closed the site was then used as an outstation for offices for No4 Area HQ (Huthwaite). Subsequently the site was a coal lorry depot, and latterly in 1998 as an out-of-town retail-shopping outlet (Macarthur Glenn, later renamed Designer Outlook Village), part of which was burnt down in late 2004 due to faulty electrical wiring, but re-opened again in May 2005).


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Pit Terminology - Glossary
1950
Page 2