Dear Sir
I worked at Arkwright for approximately 9 years up until its closure in 1988. I have an interest in the history of the colliery as well as other collieries in the North Derbyshire area. I am having difficulty finding photographs of Arkwright but I understand that there are photographs available of both the surface and underground and wondered if perhaps you could point me in the right direction. Although it is many years since I worked underground I miss it terribly as there is no industry quite like it and like yourself I have a passion for the industry and would be grateful for any help you could give me.

Other collieries that interest me are Glapwell, Renishaw Park, and Markham, all in North Derbyshire as family members were all miners.

Kind Regards,
Tim Elliott

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I am currently researching my family history and am trying to find out further information on my Grandfather (James Deakin) who was a miner at Manton Colliery probably sometime in the period between 1939 to 1960.

Do you have any records of individual miners who worked there or where I may find any?

Thank you for any help.

Debbie Pawson (nee Deakin)

Debbie
Unfortunately I do not have any information for James Deakin. There are very few pits that survived that had a list of workmens' names. The individuals we know about are those that were killed or sometimes those badly injured.

At Bilsthorpe though where we have a museum behind the village hall, we found a couple of years of wages print outs for all men for 1968 when the pit closed in 1997 and also recovered from a skip the work cards for 95% of the men who worked there from 1927-1997. Very useful indeed and invaluable for such information as you require. We have been able to help many people who are researching family history like yourself.

Only recently within the last month an old colleague clearing out a drawer at home supplied me with a computer printout of the list of all men, check numbers and their jobs etc. from 1989 for Ollerton Colliery where I worked for 15 years as Surveyor for the mine. That pit closed in 1994. There are people out there who may have such information for Manton. It is worth placing an advert in the local paper for Worksop area and in the library for example to see if anyone has such a list or knows of him. Sorry that I can't help further.

Hope this information may be of use.
Regards
Bob Bradley

My great-grandfather worked at the Wollaton colliery in the late 1800s, and he was a check weighman.

I haven't been able to find much out about what this really entailed. I know from an article in the Nottingham Evening Post that when there was a strike he presided over a meeting of miners, but whether this was because of his role as a check weighman or because he also held a union position I don't know.

Can you shed any light on the matter?

Thanks,
Martyn Beardsley

Check Weigher - Mottie or swipe card to register manpower underground and timekeeping. The weigher employed by the workmen. The Coal Mines Regulation Act of 1877 gave the miners for the first time, the freedom to appoint checkweighers. It was a job given to a man who was literate and good at reckoning, usually a union man.

He was a man chosen by the miners union to check the weight of each tub of coal raised out of the mine on behalf of the workforce as against the amount registered by the person appointed by the Company. This was to make sure that the amount of coal sent out the pit would be paid for at the rate agreed in the contract and was not 'weighed light' as some unscrupulous companies did. Some companies made the miners produce coal at up to 3,000 pounds to the ton! Whereas there was 2,240 pounds to a ton. The company would argue that should the coal be wet it would weigh lighter when it had dried out. The weight for the empty tub would be deducted from the weight of the full tub giving the amount of coal. Note it was imperative that only coal was paid for and any dirt sent out was not. Prior to the National Coal Board from 1st January 1947 occasionally a tub was tipped over and examined and even if a small amount of dirt was found, that tub was confiscated.

My experience of the job was at Teversal Colliery in Nottinghamshire even into the late 1950s where coal was still worked on a contract system at each coal face until that face finished. The coal was undercut by machine, bored and fired and loaded onto a face conveyor by a collier using a shovel. The coal then transferred onto the gate conveyor and each tub was loaded from that conveyor at a loading point in that gate and then transported by rope haulage to the pit bottom and loaded onto the cage and wound up the shaft. Each tub would be marked by chalk giving the name or number of the stall or panel and 2 men, one for the men and one for the NCB sat in a cabin near to the top of the shaft and as each tub out of the cage rested on the weighing machine before going to the tippler and onto the screens where dirt was sorted from the coal these 2 men would independently register the amount in their designated book for each panel number and would compare and agree on the total produced at the shift end. When the modern coal cutting loading machines were introduced in the 1950s, such as the trepanner and Anderson shearer, both coal and dirt was loaded out into tubs or mine cars or skips and the job of checkweigher dispensed with.

Trusting this will answer your query.
Regards Bob

My ancestry can be found back to 1744 in Derbyshire, my grandfather Albert Orwin had 15 siblings one of which was William Orwin.

Regards

O.B. Orwin.

References to the Orwin's in Bob's History of Mining

Collieries Closed in 1853
Orwin’s pit, Newbold

The first list of mines with their respective owners compiled by Robert Hunt of the Mines Records Office for 1853-1854 follow
Derbyshire Pits
Dunston (Owner W Orwin)

Derbyshire Pits Working in 1856
Newbold (Owner W Orwin)

1858 - Changed Hands
Dunston colliery just closed by Orwin was carried on by Thomas Lister the engineer but the enterprise failed and Thomas Cartledge took over but he offered the colliery and effects for sale in Sep 1858.

Collieries Closed in 1862
Newbold (Knowles and Orwin) Thin Piper

Collieries Sunk or Opened in 1870
Newbold (Plevin’s and Harrison) in estate of Rev'd AC Bromehead, (W Orwin owner after ?), Blackshale coal 1’ 2” (0.35m), dirt 1’ 6” (0.46m), middle coal 1’ 6” (0.46m), dirt 1’ 3” (0.38m), bottom coal 1’ 9” (0.53m), total 5’ 1” (1.55m), 108 yards (98.75m), Nov 1870 Richard G Coke Surveyor

Collieries Sunk or Opened in 1873
Old Dunston (George Orwin), Newbold

Fatal Accidents in 1881
Holbeck, George Thomas Orwin (26), fall of roof 27 Oct 1881 (Might be related)

Colliery Closures in 1881
Dunston (George Orwin), Newbold, Dunston seam

Collieries Closed in 1882
Dunston Hall (George Orwin or Sheepbridge Coal and Iron Co) Dunston or Deep Soft seam, roof coal 1’ 0” (0.30m), clod 7” (0.18m), main coal 4’ 6” (1.37m), floor soft spavin 1’ 0” (0.30m). 6 adits and one shaft. Worked through an old shaft, finished Feb 1882. A separate area with 2 shafts worked by Dunston and Barlow Co met old works all round, Surveyor Richard Geo Coke (547) 1868, finished probably in 1879

Pits Changed Hands in 1882
Wallsend Chesterfield, from Tapton Coal Co Ltd to George Orwin

Colliery Closures in 1883
Old Dunston (George Orwin)

Pits Working in Derbyshire in 1883
Wallsend Chesterfield (George Orwin and Manager) Tupton Threequarters, start

Closures in 1889
Reservoir (James Fell) Newbold, Chesterfield, Tupton 50 yards (46m), Threequarter 67 yards (61m), abandoned 18th Jan 1889 (sunk 1874/75). To the South was Saunder’s old pit at Highfield and to the East was Orwin’s, signed by Arthur H Stokes Inspector of Mines 22nd Apr 1889

Pits in Derbyshire 1894
Wallsend, 60 yds, (55m) Newbold (Owner George Orwin), Under manager WR Orwin (419), 18/3 Tupton Threequarters

Derbyshire Collieries Working in 1900
Wallsend (George Orwin) Chesterfield, Tupton Threequarters 29/3, Undermanager WR Orwin (419 workers)
Derbyshire Pits In 1921

Derbyshire Pits In 1921
Wallsend (Geo Orwin and Sons Ltd) 14 underground and 5 surface workers (Newbold)

Collieries Sunk or Opened in 1922
Stone House (William Orwin) Newbold, Piper

Pits Closed in 1924
Wallsend (G Orwin and Sons), Newbold, 15 underground and 4 surface workers Tupton abandoned 39th Sep

Collieries Closed in 1925
Wallsend (G Orwin) Tupton Threequarter since 1883, 2 shafts 60 yards (54.75m), Surveyor Hubert Blackshaw 20 Oct 1925

Collieries Closed in 1927
Stone House (William Orwin) Newbold, Piper, 29 Jul 1927, single entry short wall working 1925 – 29th July 1927, shaft 8 yards (7m) deep, old workings to northeast, unprofitable and death of owner, Surveyor W Alsop (526)