"Shonki" Pit

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

thanks, i will have a look at your site

moorgreen... i live near there! well in watnall.. was there a mine there too?

this site is brilliant! :D

i would go back out on my scooter but i got soaked earlier.. coming back from tesco in hucknall.. horried weather.

There were collieries right up Watnall lane into Eastwood at one time.

My underground training was done at Hucknall nNumber1 Colliery, which was situated on the Huchnall side of Rolls Royce works.

Then the next pit along, way before my time though, was Watnall Colliery, just a couple of miles towards Eastwood, then Eastwood Colliery, long since closed down.

Moorgreen used to be No4 area???? workshops, H/Q and stores as well as the colliery.

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

And don't forget Linby Colliery too, as it's really in Hucknall, then Hucknall Number2 where Tesco is now.

[rob237 89]

Moorgreen used to be No4 area???? workshops, H/Q and stores as well as the colliery.

IIRC, Moorgreen was No5 Area Workshops & Stores. The No 5 Area HQ was at Eastwood Hall.

No 1 Area HQ was at Bolsover with Workshops/Stores at Duckmanton.

No 2 Area...there wasn't one..?

No 3 Area Edwinstowe

No 4 Area Teversal?...or vice versa with No 3!

No 5 Area Eastwood/Moorgreen

No 6 Area Bestwood.

Divisional HQ was at Sherwood Lodge, now the Police building.

Cheers

Robt P.

[ube 38]

Were you related to the late Ray Caulton from Highbury Vale, who died tragically young in the 70's/80's?

Former maths master at High Pavement and outstanding rugger player and golfer.

Cheers

Robt P.

not sure on that although i`ve heard the name mentioned.....to be honest some side of the Caulton clan is patchy to me.....caulton isnt what you`d call a common name....pretty local to bulwell n golden valley

[ScooterSam 1]

gosh there were lots of collerys back then! wow..

i didnt realise there were that many..

i know outside of Tescos is a Miners Memorial, i saw that today while riding past.

its amazing how much you can find out when you ask people questions. thanks guys! :D

its a shame they have all gone now, i would have liked to have seen them all standing, i bet it was a lot different back then..

no woman on motorbikes either! (you should be at the kitchen sink love!) LoL!

(havent heard of that surname, but i'm a Sanderson! all my family was born in Nottingham, Grandparents were & there family too.

i looked at some 1900s photos of them awhile back, all the family sat in rows, straight faced.. some were smileing alittle bit tho..

if only they were alive today, what would they think of the world? as it is now.. i always wonder about that.

does anyone else think about that? or just me..

[ube 38]

gosh there were lots of collerys back then! wow..

i didnt realise there were that many..

i know outside of Tescos is a Miners Memorial, i saw that today while riding past.

its amazing how much you can find out when you ask people questions. thanks guys! :D

its a shame they have all gone now, i would have liked to have seen them all standing, i bet it was a lot different back then..

no woman on motorbikes either! (you should be at the kitchen sink love!) LoL!

(havent heard of that surname, but i'm a Sanderson! all my family was born in Nottingham, Grandparents were & there family too.

i looked at some 1900s photos of them awhile back, all the family sat in rows, straight faced.. some were smileing alittle bit tho..

if only they were alive today, what would they think of the world? as it is now.. i always wonder about that.

does anyone else think about that? or just me..

they`d be spinning in thier greaves like a battleships prop.....and if they were here they`d be saying "beam me up scotty"

[denshaw 2,872]

I too started darn pit as an electrician at Moorgreen pit which was on Engine lane. 1970 the year £8 2/6 the wage.

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

Gedling.

Hucknall no1

Hucknall no2.

Linby.

Radford.

Wollaton.

In the shire were..

Newstead.

Bevercotes.

Mansfield.

Harworth.

Kirkby.

Ollerton.

Bentinck.

Pye Hill.

Thoresby.

Welbeck.

Clipston.

Rufford.

Blidworth.

Annesley.

Moorgreen.

Selston.

Sutton.

Bentinck.

Bilsthorpe.

Silverhill.

Teversal.

Firbeck.

Sherwood.

Lodge.

Highpark.

Manton.

Warsop Main.

Shireoaks.

New Hucknall.

Steetley.

Langton.

Cossall.

New Selston.

Oakwood Grange.

And there were more than that, some I can't recall.

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

IIRC, Moorgreen was No5 Area Workshops & Stores. The No 5 Area HQ was at Eastwood Hall.

No 1 Area HQ was at Bolsover with Workshops/Stores at Duckmanton.

No 2 Area...there wasn't one..?

No 3 Area Edwinstowe

No 4 Area Teversal?...or vice versa with No 3!

No 5 Area Eastwood/Moorgreen

No 6 Area Bestwood.

Divisional HQ was at Sherwood Lodge, now the Police building.

Cheers

Robt P.

Thanks for that Rob, wasn't sure, hence the question marks.

There must have been a number 2 area at one time, or we'd have been number five area.

Maybe during the 50's during the big closings of uneconomic pits, they closed so many down there was a reorganisation and dropped the number 2 area?

[ScooterSam 1]

wow! what alot of mines...

(im moving back to my parents, so i wont be able to get online much.. long story, controlling boyfriend. but i'll be alright

i bet it was very different back then, and smokey too..

[rob237 89]

There must have been a number 2 area at one time, or we'd have been number five area.

Maybe during the 50's during the big closings of uneconomic pits, they closed so many down there was a reorganisation and dropped the number 2 area?

Yes, quite probably so...I didn't join the NCB until '58.

The main reason that I remember them is that I was able to play cricket in the very strong mid-week East Midlands cricket league of the time, and had the chance to visit the Area's - which all had outstanding sports facilities, thanks to CISWO.

In a Eureka moment...recalled the last piece of the Area jigsaw was:

No 7 Area covered the even earlier closing Leicester Coalfield, with the HQ at Coleorton and the Workshops at Bretby. The NCB's Scientific section was also at Bretby, under the leadership of TV's famous Dr Jacob Bronowski; star of numerous BBC egg-head programmes of the time. When around, he'd umpire the No 7 Area cricket matches, complete with his permanent smile and a long scientific explanation why he'd declined your LBW appeal...wonderful character!

He lived at one time in the exquisitely named nearby village of Barton-in-the-Beans...

Their collieries included Rawdon, Ellistown, Snibston, Church Gresley, Swannington, Bagworth, Coalville and Moira - all located in a relatively confined area of South-West Leics.

Cheers

Robt P.

[Limey 242]

I worked for the South Mids area, as noted - HQ at Coleorton Hall! But their area workshops were at Swadlincote (Swad Shops). The mines also included Donisthorpe (where I did my face training), Whitwick, Measham, and several others. The area actually extended down into Warwickshire and included several mines around Nuneaton. The area covered three seperate coalfields: South Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Warwickshire.

Donisthorpe had the last operating steam winder - in use until the day the pit closed in 1989! The engine is now in storage at Snibston awaiting restoration!

Coleorton Hall has been converted to luxury private residences! It was a very imposing place for a young Student Apprentice to visit! Incidentally, some of the oldest underground coal mining in Britain went on in the area, and some ancient "room and pillar" workings were uncovered at an opencast operation nearby (Lount) a few years ago!

[rob237 89]

Gedling.

Hucknall no1

Hucknall no2.

Linby.

Radford.

Wollaton.

Rather surprised that you have omitted your very own Clifton...

Calverton, Cotgrave, Cinderhill/Babbington and Bestwood too.

Cheers

Robt P.

[rob237 89]

I worked for the South Mids area, as noted - HQ at Coleorton Hall! But their area workshops were at Swadlincote (Swad Shops). The mines also included Donisthorpe (where I did my face training), Whitwick, Measham, and several others. The area actually extended down into Warwickshire and included several mines around Nuneaton. The area covered three seperate coalfields: South Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Warwickshire.

Surely the South Midlands Area [Divisional HQ at Coventry] was a totally different entity from the East Midlands No 7 Area, based at Coleorton? Or were changes made post 1964?

Cheers

Robt P.

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

Rather surprised that you have omitted your very own Clifton...

Calverton, Cotgrave, Cinderhill/Babbington and Bestwood too.

Cheers

Robt P.

I slipped up on the C&P, those were on the original page, but late in the day and I started the copy too low down Rob.

Here's the "head" of the list thats missing.

Babbington. The first deep mine in the "concealed" coalfield.

Bestwood.

Calverton.

Clifton. 265 yards deep, sunk in 18**, seams worked, Deep Soft, Deep Hard, Piper and Tupton. (Low Main seam) Other seams known, Top Hard at 70 yards from the surface but unworkable due to being in water bearing strata, seam thickness approx 6 feet.

50 yards south of the shafts was a major fault with a 95 yard throw downwards.

There were 15 seams considered to be unworkable.

Because of the fault and all coal being worked out around the north, west and east workings, two drifts were sunk from pit bottom to the deep hard seam on the other side of the fault, all workings then were to the south. The drifts were called Stone Head and South Main Returns.

Cotgrave.

Started working the deep soft seam to the north, but had geological problems due to a soft floor and roof. Roadways converged, eventually during the mid sixties the seam was abandoned. Deep hard became the next seam to be worked to the south, east and west of the colliery. Last seam to be accessed was the Parkgate seam, below the Tupton, (Low Main).

Gedling.

Hucknall number1

Hucknall number2.

Linby.

Radford.

Wollaton.

[Beefsteak 305]

But why is it called "Shonki pit"?

[rob237 89]

Could have been a derivative of 'Sankey'...

Sankey's works, which were adjacent to the colliery, made bricks in Bulwell for several centuries.

Cheers

Robt P.

[Limey 242]

Surely the South Midlands Area [Divisional HQ at Coventry] was a totally different entity from the East Midlands No 7 Area, based at Coleorton? Or were changes made post 1964?

Cheers

Robt P.

It must have changed after 1964 - there were no offices in Coventry at all that I knew of - but I didn't sign up until 1970 and I think a number of the old "Areas" had been consolidated by then. In fact, the South Midlands Area (possibly called "Region" but I can't remember) included the Kent coalfield!

[ube 38]

Shonkey meant poorly made, bit of a mess etc..

Don't know how Newcastle Colliery got that name though, but it was situated somewhere not too far from the centre of Bullwell. There was a backroad from Hucknall number1 pit going past the tips and came out near the bus terminus Number?? I walked that path many times when I was at the training centre, Hucknall number1, and never realised I had walked through "Shonkey" pit top area.

bit of a mess ie:- the winding engine being a loco turned upside down.....lol

Newcastle was at whitemor

[rob237 89]

Newcastle was at whitemor

Took its name from the owner, the Duke of Newcastle - hence the Whitemoor pub of that name.

Newcastle Colliery site later became Newcastle Wharf, to where Cinderhill/Babbington coal was transported by rail.

The Duke of Newcastle also built the Park Estate...Newcastle Drive etc...

Cheers

Robt P.

[ube 38]

Took its name from the owner, the Duke of Newcastle - hence the Whitemoor pub of that name.

Newcastle Colliery site later became Newcastle Wharf, to where Cinderhill/Babbington coal was transported by rail.

The Duke of Newcastle also built the Park Estate...Newcastle Drive etc...

Cheers

Robt P.

Well`ill go to the foot of our stairs.....That messter had alot of pokers in alot of fires around Nottingham

Nice 1 Mr.P.

[blenheim 0]

Shonkey meant poorly made, bit of a mess etc..

Don't know how Newcastle Colliery got that name though, but it was situated somewhere not too far from the centre of Bullwell. There was a backroad from Hucknall number1 pit going past the tips and came out near the bus terminus Number?? I walked that path many times when I was at the training centre, Hucknall number1, and never realised I had walked through "Shonkey" pit top area.

[poohbear 1,360]

The Duke of Newcastle also built the Park Estate...Newcastle Drive etc...

Cheers

Robt P.

More like he paid some blokes 10 quid a year to build it for him....

[Ashley 288]

I'd heard of that pit when I was serving my apprenticeship for Lord Robens in the 60's. There used to be a footpath from very close to the bus terminus at Bullwell that went all the way through to Hucknall number 1 pit, at that time our training centre. If my memory recalls correctly, someone told me it was off that footpath towards the Bullwell end.

The reason I know of the footpath was to save money, just a short walk along it, save half our bus fare, all paid for by my benevolent employer the NCB!

That footpath from the 44 terminus ran past hucknall runway, once saw a crashed P2 Lightening near it, somewhere near it (maybe on it? I say that as a substantial bridge under the GCR) ran a midland railway branch line to hucknall no.1, that crossed hucknall lane (or is it nottingham rd there?) via a level crossing, yet to see a photo of such, but that path nowhere near shonki which I believe was off the road that ran originally through to watnall lane but was closed with extention of hucknall runway

[radfordred 6,284]

Proper mesters