Harworth Colliery. Production commenced 1924. (1)

HISTORY: The Nottinghamshire Union Mining Company commenced the sinking of the pit at Harworth in 1913. WWI halted the sinking and led to the mine coming under government ownership before eventually passing to the British firm of Barber, Walker and Co, who took possession in 1917, but did not restart the sinking…until 1921. A newspaper article describes the colliery as having ‘towering reinforced concrete headgear over two shafts, as at the Bentley Works, Doncaster, the Power House remains incomplete at this point but that huge working apparatus is already onsite’, noting that the winding was to be powered by electricity rather than steam, unlike most local contemporary pits (Gainsbrough and Worksop Times, 1923). The winding gear was constructed by Metropolitan-Vickers (in use until the late 20th century). By 1925 the POWER HOUSE was mostly constructed and is shown on an aerial photograph of this date (britianfromabove epw012887). Yet the 1932 OS map does not depict the Power House. This is possibly due to it not being fully completed when it was surveyed in 1929. By the OS map of 1938 the Power House and connection to the shafts are depicted. New winding towers were built in 1989 and 1996 over the Number 1 and Number 2 shafts re-spectively. Harworth was branded at the time as the super pit. However, in 2006 the colliery was mothballed, after which there was much discussion and evaluation in an attempt to reo-pen the pit. However, the decision was announced in 2014 that Harworth Colliery would not reopen. (2)
BUILDING DESCRIPTION:
Four major phases of development at the Site: the initial sinking of the pits (1910-1920); the construction of the Power House along with Bircotes village (1920-1930); mid- 20th-century alterations and additions and; the late 20th-century development which included major chang-es to the Power House and the construction of the concrete Winding Tower over number 1 shaft. (2)
COLLIERY ENTRANCE & BOUNDARY WALL: The original historic entrance to the Colliery led from Colliery Road to the north. This entrance was flanked by two decorative brick piers either side encased in concrete blocks which imitated stone. The two central piers were taller in height and supported a wrought iron gate that allowed for vehicular access. To either side was a cambered arch leading to an outer pier. Within each archway was a pedestrian en-trance with a timber gateway, painted black. This was all topped with concrete copings except for the central piers. A historical photograph shows that the central piers were originally capped with acorn finals. A redbrick boundary wall led from either side of the original gate to the east and west, providing a barrier between the Site and the domestic housing on Colliery Road. (2)
1920s POWER HOUSE – a redbrick, 8-bay structure, with 3-bay cross gables at either end. Designed in a decorative piersand-panel style, with concrete cladding imitating a stone finish. The modern extensions to the east and west dated to the last phase of the development, as did many of the alterations within the Power House. Originally, the building would have housed two winders, one to the east and one to the west. Cables would have connected the winders to the original concrete headgear for both shafts and down into the mine. The electric winder by Metropolitan and Vickers was also of some historical significance having functioned for such a long period and having been an engineering marvel at the time of its conception. After this time the Power House’s function changed and it was altered accordingly. The Power House is not particularly distinctive and has been much altered. Despite winning a Civic Trust commendation in 1990, the winding tower is not of outstanding architectural quality or techno-logical interest, although it has some social significance as a very late example of colliery ex-pansion and modernisation at a time of national decline of the mining industry. (2)
1989 Concrete WINDING TOWER - stood at 79m tall over the Number 1 shaft. It was rectan-gular in plan, with a flat roof and reinforced with two concrete buttresses to each corner of the main structure. The upper half was clad with blue and yellow decorative plastic. It was a sin-gle-phase purpose-built structure of extremely late origin in terms of national coal mine devel-opment. It was designed for the transportation of coal, workmen and materials between the coalface and the surface and superseded earlier traditional headgear to improve the produc-tivity of the mine. It is known through written records that this was used predominately for coal transportation. Its value lay in the ingenuity of its design whereby the Tower had to be con-structed around and over the former headgear without interrupting the continuous coal winding operations, allowing the removal of the redundant gear and commissioning of the new tower during a three-week holiday period. Its great structural advantage was its cellular design which provided walls of considerable strength to withstand suctions from ventilation fans in upcast shafts, with the economy of materials. The Tower received a commendation in the 1990 Civic Trust awards (Boucher, 1991). (2)

<1> Notts County Council, 1992, Nottinghamshire Minerals Local Plan, Consultative Draft, p 155 (Published document). SNT1519.

<2> Wessex Archæology, 2015, Harworth Colliery - Historic Building Record (Unpublished document). SNT5828.