1942 - Page 2

• Hirst Hollow (Derbyshire) (Hirst Hollow Colliery Co), Mickley Thin 1’ 8” (0.51m) 1933?, adit and shaft 8 yards (7.3m) up to 17 Jul 1942, EH Bates (875) Surveyor for Fennell, Green and Bates
• Hollis No2 (Hollis Colliery Co), Heage, Mickley, temp closed Jan
• Lee Wood (Leewood Colliery Co Ltd), Blackshale, section: branch coal 10½” (0.27m), clay ½” (0.01m), middle coal 1’ 9” (0.53m), dirt 3” (0.08m), tinkers 3” (0.08m), dirt 9½” (0.24m), scuds 2” (0.05m), bottom coal 1’ 7½” (0.5m), was worked by pillar and stall on a series of levels, also robbing pillars on retreat, abandoned 6 Aug 1942, last coal drawn 4 Aug 1942, financial difficulties, Water feeder from Grasscroft borehole, 3,000 gals per hour plus water from workings giving a total of 6,500 gals per hour. Chiver’s Silkstone adits 1in2.3, Cowley old workings to South, 3 adits, one shaft 8 yards (7.3m) deep, Bull Close old workings to 1894, Brierley Wood old workings, coal and ironstone 1851-1866, Dunston old workings 1in3 from
  1874-1889, plus Monk Wood, Monk Wood Old and Ace pit, Surveyor: G Hurst (798)
• Old Beighton (owner…?) closed after 38 years

The Parkgate Working Finished At Renishaw Park. The Seam Had Also Been Worked At Surrounding Hornthorpe’s, Thirbycliffe And Station Pits. At Birchwood The Low Main Was 143 Yards (130.8m) Deep And To The Yard Seam 178 Yards (162.7m) Finished 9/4/1942. The Deep Soft And Deep Hard Were Worked From Shady And Until 1928 The Low Main And Blackshale Were Worked From Insets In Shady And Victoria Shafts, Arthur Haydn Booth, Surveyor.

Pinxton No6 (Old Soft) Pit (Derbyshire) (Pinxton Collieries Ltd) 113 Yards (103m) Deep Was Closed In Feb 1942. Although Listed As No1 And No6 There Were 3 Shafts At That Site To The Edge Of The Village, One Being A Pumping Pit.

Exploratory roadways in the pit bottom into the Kilburn seam? 166 yards (151.8m) below the Silkstone were aborted by the Pinxton Coal Co Ltd in November 1904. Manager: Bernard Madew (2404), Arthur H Stokes HM Inspector. The Deep Soft had been abandoned previously in Sep 1912 by Pinxton Collieries and signed by EA Hughes (830) Surveyor to the Company. Section: stone bind, holing dirt 1’ 0” (0.30m), coal 4’ 0” (1.22m), underlain with coal and clunch.

In Nov 1919 the Surveyor to the Pinxton Collieries was Geoffrey Blood (3177- 1st?). The Deep Hard ave thickness 2’ 6” (0.76m) was abandoned in July 1937 for the third time and signed for by Leslie H Watson (578), the Surveyor to the Company, the first abandonment being in 1860 (start 1855c), second time 1874 (start 1870c) and signed by George H Bond, Surveyor.

Plymouth No2 UC shaft (Derbyshire) Tupton seam, finished 28th November 1942, (abandoned 28th December 1943). The Old Plymouth shafts had been filled in. At No2 shaft Deep Soft at 103 yards (94.2m) and at No3 shaft 99 yards (90.5m), Low Main (Tupton) at 196 yards (179.2m) deep and Silkstone at 257 yards (235m).

Agent: Percy F Day (3295).
Manager: Les FM Ackroyd (1937)
Undermanager: J Hoten (2nd)
Surveyor: Les H Watson (578).

JCP Taylor succeeded as Superintendent at
Mansfield Woodhouse Mines Rescue Station 1942-1949.

One of the earliest Opencast sites as part of the War effort was at Shipley where the Top Hard, Dunsil and Waterloo seams were very close to the surface at Heanor Gate and Parkfield Farm. Hill Top, Kimberley district, Top Hard, Dec. Opencasting continued at Tibshelf. Opencasting started in Britain as a Wartime measure under the Defence Regulations. Site at Woodthorpe Hall Blackshale. Although opencasting would continue down to a maximum depth of 16½ yards (15m) a Code of Practice would not be issued until 1951. Output for 1942 was 223,000 tons. In later years the opencast workers would be referred to as ‘Sunshine miners’.

Fatal Accidents 1942

• Langwith, Edgar Dobson (58) fall of roof 3 Nov 1941, died 2 Mar 1942
• Pleasley, James Radage (64) hit by a piece of wood 30 May 1942, died 2 Jun 1942
• Pleasley, Fred Smith (43) fall of roof 5 Oct 1942
• Pleasley, Ernest Sampson Harris (16) run over by a loco on the surface 23 Dec 1942
• Shirebrook, Richard William Ward (20) hit by an aerial dirt bucket on surface 31 Mar 1942
• Swanwick, Ralph Edwards (28) fall of roof 28 Feb 1942.

Accidents for the 52 weeks ending December 1942

• North Derbyshire - 35 fatal accidents and 221 serious accidents
• South Derbyshire - 7 fatals, and 27 serious accidents
• Nottinghamshire - 41 fatals and 166 serious accidents
• Leicestershire - 13 fatals and 41 serious accidents

On Friday afternoon shift 4 Dec 1942 there was a fire on a Threequarter coal face at Bond’s Main. Teams of brigade’s men from Chesterfield and Mansfield Woodhouse North Midlands Mines Rescue and men who had just gone home from dayshift attended the scene and the fire was contained.

Average wages per shift:

• North Derbyshire 18s 6½d ( 92¾p)
• South Derbyshire 20s 9¾d (£1.04)
• Nottinghamshire 21s 7d (£1.08)
• Leicestershire 21s 1½d (£1.05½)

Output for 1942:

• Nottinghamshire produced 17.7m tons from 43 pits using 330 coal cutters, 36 pits using 559 conveyors, 92 loaders
• North Derbyshire 14.8m tons, 52 pits using 459 coal cutters, 45 pits using 667 conveyors and 59 loaders
• South Derbyshire 1.4m with 7 pits using 46 coal cutters, 69 conveyors and 5 loaders
• Leicestershire had 13 pits using 108 machines producing 4.05m tons.