Image ID: 24585

Brinsley Colliery

Brinsley Colliery
Brinsley
England

A group of miners with their safety lamps at Brinsley Colliery. The safety lamp was a highly sophisticated form of oil or spirit lamp of extremely robust construction, designed to replace open flame lamps or candles which could easily ignite gases. Coal has been mined in the Eastwood area for nearly 700 years. Originally, the monks of Beauvale Priory held the coal mining rights and there may have been shallow workings dating further back to Roman times. By the 1870s the good quality 'top hard' coal at Brinsley had been almost exhausted and a second shaft was sunk in 1872 to a depth of 780 feet. At its peak of production the colliery produced around 500 tons of coal a day and employed 361 men, 282 of whom worked at the coal faces. By 1930, coal reserves had been exhausted but the shafts were kept open until 1970 to access neighbouring pits. The Brinsley Colliery site has now been landscaped and turned into a picnic area. This photograph was taken by the Rev. F W Cobb (1872-1938), who was Rector of Eastwood from 1907 to 1917. Many of his photographs were taken under extremely difficult and dangerous conditions and combine to make a remarkable contribution to mining history during the early part of the 20th century.

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Keywordscoalminingcollieryworkersminerssafetylampsclothingheadstockcagemenindustrialindustry

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