Thoresby Colliery: Pit was jewel in the crown

My family have been involved with this colliery for three generations, and it was the ‘Jewel in the Crown’ of the great Bolsover Colliery Company prior to Nationalisation in 1947, the North Nottinghamshire Area of the NCB in its time and now of UK Coal.
Thorsby Colliery.Thorsby Colliery.
Thorsby Colliery.

With the closure of the nearby Collieries of Ollerton, Clipstone, Welbeck, Warsop and Rufford there must be sufficient reserves of unmined coal in the extended take to keep Thoresby working at its present level of 2 million tonnes per annum for many years to come.

The reason given by UK Coal is that the closure is necessary to keep them viable due to the international price of coal and the exchange rate. With the Trent Power Stations of West Burton and Cottam close by and rail connected it seems a strange time to allow the closure even to be considered with world energy sources and prices being extremely vulnerable to change. It shouldn’t be necessary for the UK to import coal from overseas when we have such valuable sources in the UK and bearing in mind the advance of ‘Clean Coal Technology’ enabling this fossil fuel to be used at Power Stations without affecting the CO2 level of previous Base-Load stations.

Definite action is needed to preserve this valuable source of energy and the jobs of the highly skilled workforce based on the village of Edwinstowe. In the days in the 1950’s and 60’s under the amazing management of Sam Thornycroft the Colliery created many production records and I am sure it is still effectively managed. The Prime Minister needs to stop the subsidies for the ridiculous wind turbines and use this money to ensure Thoresby continues to produce coal as it has done for the last 85 years.

Edward Wilkinson

Ashford in the Water

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