Clipstone Colliery
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Clipstone Colliery was built on the site of Clipstone Army Camp in 1926 by the Bolsover Mining Company. It was built as a model village with the latest housing and facilities to provide accommodation and recreation for the mines workers.
In 1912 the Bolsover Colliery Company leased 6,000 acres of mining rights from the Duke of Portland. At the outbreak of war in 1914 the work on sinking the shaft was suspended at a depth of 50 ft. However the surface buildings such as the winding house went on to be completed along with the rest of the colliery.
In 1947 The National Coal Board (NCB) implemented a new scheme and by 1953 All the old equipment including the old steam winders, boilers, and fan, were scrapped and the winding houses, headframes, boiler house, fan house and heapstead buildings etc. Demolished.
These were replaced by new heapsteads, headframes, a fan house, and a winder / power house. Located between the two shafts, with two electrically powered winders. In the case of the winding system, a different form was used, this being a system already adopted in Europe named 'Koepe' or Friction winding. All of this remained virtually unaltered until Clipstone closed in 2003.
The Headstocks are the tallest in the UK standing at approximately 65metres high and are supposed to be the tallest in Europe and third tallest in the world.
The 1950s headgear and winder house were listed in 2000 as an "early example of the 'Koepe' system". Whilst they are not the first built, it seems that they are the earliest in situ example left in the U.K.
Clipstone was closed in 1993 and mothballed. It re-opened in 1994 by RJB Mining (now UK Coal) but was closed indefinatley the same year.
The only thing that remains at Clipstone is the giant headstocks and winding house. Which have only been saved so far under a preservation order, sadly the rest of the site has been totally demolished.
The only thing I can really say about this place is that its awesome in everyway. Inside the winding house virtually everything is still in situ albeit badly vandalized.
With the amount of ground work thats going on around the site though its only a matter of time now before these iconic structures will no doubt be inevitably raised to the ground and another piece of British industry lost forever.
Date : 2009 : Location : Nottinghamshire : Explorers : Havoc : Jaff Fox : Thompski
