Image ID: 26283

Engine house at Bestwood Colliery, Bestwood Village, c 1912 ?

Bestwood Colliery
Bestwood_Village
England

A close-up view of the winding engine house at Bestwood Colliery looking north-east. Although dated as circa 1912, the relative cleanliness of the masonry could suggest the photo was taken somewhat earlier, perhaps as far back as the 1870s. The 1,500hp vertical steam engine housed within the building was supplied by R J & E Coupe of the Worsley Mesnes Ironworks at Wigan and featured two cylinders of 36-inch bore. The sinking of Bestwood Colliery was begun in 1871-2 by the Bestwood Coal & Iron Company (BC&IC) with coal production commencing in 1876. The mine was situated in the Leen Valley between Nottingham and Hucknall Library on the estate of the Duke of St Albans with John Lancaster, a Lancashire entrepreneur, the driving force behind the venture. Indeed, the Lancaster family remained key figures in the running of the mine right up to to nationalisation of the coal industry in 1947. By a scheme of partial amalgamation in 1936 the BC&IC sold its colliery undertakings to B A Collieries Ltd, bringing Bestwood under the same control as the neighbouring mines at Babbington, Bulwell, Calverton (then under development), Cinderhill and Gedling. At this date the pit was working the Top Hard, High Main and Main Bright seams with 1,892 employed underground and 374 on the surface. The annual output was an impressive one million tons and the mine is said to have been the first in the country to reach this target. Household, manufacturing and steam coal were produced. The Chairman and Managing Director was Captain Claude G Lancaster and the colliery manager A E Booth. In 1946 the driving of a surface drift was started and this was operational by 1951. It took the form of a sloping tunnel that descended at 1 in 4 to the High Main seam and was extended to reach the Main Bright in 1959. Appropriately, it was named the Lancaster Drift and latterly all coal was taken out this way, the shafts being retained only as a standby and to move men and materials. In its later years Bestwood Colliery, always a 'dirty' pit, was beset with geological problems and coal extraction ceased in 1967 when it was merged with nearby Linby. Final closure occurred in 1971 when all mining activity on the site finished. While the rest of the complex was then demolished, local pressure caused the winding engine house and its engine to be retained as a feature when the industrial devastation around the pit was reclaimed to form Bestwood Country Park. Since 1987 this important structure has been listed Grade II-star and is also a Scheduled Ancient Monument. After many years of uncertainty, between 2008 and 2010 a major restoration project was undertaken at a cost of

Date: c 1912

Organisation Reference: NCCC002293

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