A pit village, colliery village or mining village is a settlement built by colliery owners to house their workers. The villages were built on the coalfields of Great Britain during the Industrial Revolution where new coal mines were developed in isolated or unpopulated areas. Such settlements were developed by companies for the incoming workers.
The 1939 film The Stars Look Down , based on the 1935 novel of the same name by A. J. Cronin, is set in the fictional pit village of Sleescale. The film was shot partly on location at St Helens Siddick Colliery in Workington.
The novel How Green Was My Valley and the subsequent film adaptation of the same name were based in a fictional pit village in the South Wales Valleys. A fictional village in this region was the site of the film The Proud Valley , starring Paul Robeson.
Billy Elliot , set in a fictitious pit village during the miners' strike of 1984–85, was shot on location in Easington Colliery. [8]
Brassed Off was set in "Grimley", a thin veil for Grimethorpe. The depopulation of Fitzwilliam, West Yorkshire was the theme of a song by Chumbawamba and David Peace's novel Nineteen Seventy Four.
Hathersage is a village and civil parish in the Peak District in Derbyshire, England. It lies slightly to the north of the River Derwent, approximately 10 miles (16.1 km) south-west of Sheffield.
Bolsover is a market town and the administrative centre of the Bolsover District, Derbyshire, England. It is 18 miles (29 km) from Sheffield, 26 miles (42 km) from Nottingham and 27 miles (43 km) from Derby. It is the main town in the Bolsover district.
North East Derbyshire is a local government district in Derbyshire, England. The council is based in the large village of Wingerworth. The district also includes the towns of Dronfield and Clay Cross as well as numerous villages and surrounding rural areas.
A model village is a mostly self-contained community, built from the late 18th century onwards by landowners and business magnates to house their workers. "Model" implies an ideal to which other developments could aspire. Although the villages are located close to the workplace, they are generally physically separated from them and often consist of relatively high-quality housing, with integrated community amenities and attractive physical environments.
Shirebrook is a town and civil parish in the Bolsover District of Derbyshire, England. It had a population of 13,300 at the 2021 Census. The town is on the B6407 road and close to the A632 road which runs between the towns of Mansfield, Worksop and Bolsover. The town is close to the Bassetlaw and Mansfield Districts of Nottinghamshire.
Easington Colliery is a village in County Durham, England, known for a history of coal mining. It is situated to the north of Horden, a short distance to the east of Easington. It had a population of 4,959 in 2001, and 5,022 at the 2011 Census.
Atherton is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan in Greater Manchester, England and historically part of Lancashire. The town, including Hindsford, Howe Bridge and Hag Fold, is 5 miles (8.0 km) south of Bolton, 7 miles (11.3 km) east of Wigan, and 10 miles (16.1 km) northwest of Manchester. From the 17th century, for about 300 years, Atherton was known as Chowbent, which was frequently shortened to Bent, the town's old nickname. During the Industrial Revolution, the town was a key part of the Manchester Coalfield.
National Coal Mining Museum for England is based at the site of Caphouse Colliery in Overton, Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. It opened in 1988 as the Yorkshire Mining Museum and was granted national status in 1995.
Creswell Model Village is an arts and crafts style model village in the village of Creswell, Derbyshire, England. The pit village was built in 1895 by the Bolsover Colliery Company to designs by architect Percy B. Houfton for the workers of Creswell Colliery on land leased from the Welbeck Estate. Influenced by garden village principles, it provided the workers with modern facilities; it had a tramway to deliver coal to the houses. Designed around a large oval village green with an access road through the centre, the houses are of varying styles. The Model as it is known, has been refurbished.
Creswell is a former mining village located in the Bolsover district of Derbyshire, England. At the 2011 Census population details were included in the civil parish of Elmton-with-Creswell. Today it is best known for Creswell Crags and its model village. In September 1950 Creswell Colliery was the scene of one of the worst post-nationalisation mining disasters. Elmton Common is an area of allotments for the township of Creswell.
Netherton is a village in the City of Wakefield metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, England. It lies about 4 miles south-west of Wakefield, 3 miles south of Ossett and 1 mile south of Horbury. The village is in the Wakefield Rural ward of Wakefield Metropolitan District Council. The village name is shown on map "Dvcatvs Eboracensis pars occidentalis" from 1646.
Newstead is a village and civil parish in Nottinghamshire, England in the borough of Gedling. It is situated between the city of Nottingham and the towns of Kirkby-in-Ashfield, Sutton-in-Ashfield and Hucknall.
Kiveton Park Colliery was a coal mine in the village of Kiveton Park, near Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England.
The Bolsover Colliery Company was a major mining concern established to extract coal from land owned by the Duke of Portland. At its peak the business was a constituent of the FT 30 index of leading companies on the London Stock Exchange.
Sharlston is a village and civil parish, situated 4 miles (6.4 km) east of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England, and includes the settlements of Old Sharlston, Sharlston Common and New Sharlston. Its population at the 2001 census was 2,756, reducing to 2,663 at the 2011 Census. The village lies in the City of Wakefield unitary district.
New Bolsover model village is a village adjoining the town of Bolsover in Derbyshire.
Emerson Muschamp Bainbridge was an English mining consulting engineer, philanthropist and Liberal Party politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1895 to 1900.
Howe Bridge is a suburb of Atherton, Greater Manchester, England. Historically within Lancashire, it is south west of Atherton town centre on the B5215, the old turnpike road from Bolton to Leigh. The settlement was built as a model pit village by the owners of Atherton Collieries.
Fletcher, Burrows and Company was a coal mining company that owned collieries and cotton mills in Atherton, Greater Manchester, England. Gibfield, Howe Bridge and Chanters collieries exploited the coal mines (seams) of the middle coal measures in the Manchester Coalfield. The Fletchers built company housing at Hindsford and a model village at Howe Bridge which included pithead baths and a social club for its workers. The company became part of Manchester Collieries in 1929. The collieries were nationalised in 1947 becoming part of the National Coal Board.
Bentley Colliery was a coal mine in Bentley, near Doncaster in South Yorkshire, England, that operated between 1906 and 1993. In common with many other mines, it suffered disasters and accidents. The worst Bentley disaster was in 1931 when 45 miners were killed after a gas explosion. The site of the mine has been converted into a woodland.
Citations
Bibliography