Image ID: 26267

Bestwood Ironworks and Colliery, Bestwood Village, c 1900

Bestwood Ironworks and Colliery
Bestwood_Village
England

This view appears to have been taken from the Up (southbound) platform of Bestwood Colliery station on the Great Northern Railway's Leen Valley route. The photographer is looking east with the four blast furnaces of Bestwood Ironworks nearest and Bestwood Colliery in the left background. The railway line on the embankment in the foreground is the GNR's link to the Ironworks, which terminated some distance to the left. A back shunt was then needed to enter a fan of sidings at a lower level (on which the two wagons on the right are standing) before the tracks curved round sharply in front of the furnaces. The camera used clearly employed a lens with a long focal length which has served to accentuate the curvature and compress the distance. Both Ironworks and Colliery were operated by the Bestwood Coal & Iron Company, the mine commencing operation in 1876 with the Ironworks following about 1881. Initially there were just two blast furnaces but a third was added around 1889 and a fourth the following year. However, annual records show that only in 1892 were all four in blast and otherwise just three were normally in operation. Although one source indicates the Ironworks closed in 1928, official returns show that use of the furnaces ceased at some date between 1913 and 1921; it is conceivable that the works continued to function after this purely as a foundry. The furnaces were demolished in 1936 and the Colliery passed to B A Collieries Ltd in the same year and then to the National Coal Board in 1947. It closed as a result of geological problems in 1967.

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Keywordsironworksindustryironworkschimneywagonsrailwaycollierycoalminepitm2m2

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