1994 - Page 4

Ollerton Was Closed 1994, After 69 Years

- Continued -

In 1934 Monty was married in London at St James Spanish Place on 23rd June 1934 and around 350 men and their families travelled down by train to attend the service. Bert Watson the Surveyor remarked that he thought Monty would never wed because he was wedded to the pit and the village, as every waking hour was spent in its concern.

In 1940/41 Monty was a Special Constable and arranged practices with the Ollerton team as there were many air raid warnings between 10 11pm with the all clear sounding about 1am, when he would go to the Miners Welfare HQ and remain with the Sergeant on duty. Dances etc and savings were arranged for the War effort for weapons and in Aug 1941 £111,298 was raised. A similar collection was made towards the building of a spitfire and a painting of one was hung over the new Canteen counter after 1957. He was promoted later to Manager of all Butterley pits and was based at Ripley. He was made Chairman of the firm in 1946 but died in 1948.

The Triumphant Tug o War Team

On the front row seated from left to right is Bert Watson (Surveyor), Monty Wright (now Agent), Stan Fletcher (Manager) and ? (possibly Pat Murphy Undermanager).
As with all other mines the colliery was taken over by the National Coal Board from 1st January 1947 and was a unit in No3 Area East Midlands Division. A major reconstruction of the colliery began in 1949 with a new pit bottom loco circuit, new Loading points for 3 ton minecars hauled by diesel locos.

Underground locos from 1950

• 2’ 3” (0.69m) Diesels 0-4-0 DMF DM769 1950
• 0-4-0 DMF DM770 1950
• 0-4-0 DMF DM771 1950
• 0-4-0 DMF DM772 1950
• 0-4-0 DMF DM773 1950
• 0-4-0 DMF DM791 1950 all transferred to Welbeck
• 4wBEF 1977
• 4wBEF 1977
• 4wBEF 1978
• 4wBEF 1987
• 4wBEF 1987
• 4w-4wBEF 1991
• 4w-4wBEF 1991, all new
• 4wBEF 1986
• 4wBEF 1977
• 4w-4wBEF 1986
• 4w-4wBEF 1986
• 4wBEF 1982
• 4wBEF 1982
• 4wBEF 1984
• 4wBEF 1984
• 4wBEF 1986. Most were abandoned underground.

By 1959 over 39 miles of underground roadway in the Top Hard needed to be examined, with 4 panels continually working, 5 new ones starting and 6 panels abandoned during the year. By 1972 only 4 panels were working. However these were spread with 1 panel on the North side, 1 panel on the South side and 2 panels on the East side with developments on all 3.

Taken over by British Coal in 1986 from 1st May the pit was producing coal at phenomenal rates from the Parkgate seam some 200 yards (183m) below and had been accessed by steep drifts from the Top Hard horizon in 1975-1976 setting National record rates. The record output of 50,000 tonnes saleable was produced only the week before closure from only 2 panels, a brand new retreat face 42s and a Z panel, 60s.

Ollerton 1 Million Tons Dec 1968

Ollerton produced its first one million tons of saleable coal in 1968 with 1,384 men from the Top Hard seam and the 14th and final one million tonnes in 1993-1994, with a total of 1,530,000 tonnes from the Parkgate seam with 680 men.

The highest ever manpower was 1,838 in 1929. The highest-ever weekly output was achieved for weekending 14th August 1993 with 56,000 tonnes saleable out of 90,330 tonnes of run of mine.
The highest-ever yearly output was 1.829m tonnes in 1992.

No1 shaft winder was electrified in 1975 and No2 winder in 1976.

Safety playlets were written and performed in 1976 by men mainly from the Safety department side, trying to light heartedly show what dangers lurked in the pit, and these performances went down well with the audiences.

Before closure, cupress trees and a grass bank screened the coal distribution area.

A car park for miners covered the area in front and behind the baths and a smaller car park for staff personnel was to the right behind the office blocks.

The headstocks with the lifting girders above were both identical from the beginning, Butterley lattice, and on all occasions when amendments were made, both were kept identical (until a couple of years before closure) unlike the majority of mine headgears.

The modern boiler house and 3 chimneys were to the rear of the pithead baths also and white boarded fencing with trees to the back completed the pleasant entrance from Forest Road, with a new security office and drop bar.

Seams worked: From 1925-1946 under Butterley Co, 12,217,885 tons of Top Hard and 4,196 tons of Main Bright and around 200 tons of Dunsil seam were worked, making a profit for every year, and particularly good returns for the royalties of Lord Savile, the £1 shares on the stock market selling for 53s (£2.65) in 1946.

From 1947-1994 under the NCB a further 24,782,000 tons of Top Hard and 19,500,000 tonnes of Parkgate was produced, making a total of 56.5m tonnes in 69 years. Profits were made every year except 1952, 1973-1974, 1974-1975 and 1975-1976, but even so the grand total for the mine was around £170m plus.

ATM (Advanced Technology Mining) Face Chock

The expensive chock shield supports on the two faces were recovered later and transferred to Asfordby and Thoresby. At one time Ollerton had 5 sets of these supports underground, the only pit in the country to do so, and the first installation in the region giving the first ATM (Advanced Technology Mining) face (1978).

The model village called New Ollerton was built by the Butterley Co to house its workforce in 1925-1927 and every house except a few down Whinney Lane was supplied with electricity, and hot water.

Electric light cables were installed in the shaft with cleats in 1941

19 miles of roadways were open

The McLane method of tipping, with a bucket hauled up the slope on rails and tipping refuse over the top forming a conical heap, was discontinued in 1942

A system using an overhead aerial ropeway to towers using tipper buckets introduced

The number of timber draggers was greatly reduced in 1944 with the introduction of small hp Gate haulages

The first Underground borehole was drilled, firstly up to the Main Bright horizon, then down to the lower measures in 1944

The Main Bright seam was accessed from insets in the shafts; a new Loading point was operational on 400s (affectionately called the Tea Cup handle) for coal from the South East side, but the absenteeism rate soared to 17% in 1945.