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suzard
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This message was updated on 5/10/2007 10:13:51 AM by suzard

Collieries in Langley Mill
replied on: 5/10/2007 10:12:25 AM

R&H 16 July 1976

"A mere 12 houses stood in Langley Mill in 1783, but 10 years later the Erewash canal was opened and soon there was a valley of pits, with the canal as the focal point.
In 1830 a law suit fought by Mr Mundy of the Shipley Colliery Company, upheld an agreement made in the reign of the first Queen Elizabeth, for him to have the coal in the ground from a line from Aldercar to Milnhay Road on the eastwood side. This put many men out of work, but allowed the others to develop the several ways of getting coal used in the valley.
In his "A short History of Langley Mill" Mr A.S.Perkins tells how the bell pits of the Milnhay Colliery Company, owned by the Smiths, who later turned to milling, were narrow at the top, but wide underground, reached by a chain from a roller at the top.
The first pit to be worked mechanically, was behind where now stands the pottery, the men and coal being hauled up by a horse winding gin. The Cresswell Pit, near the Baptist Chapel, produced the most coal, but others were worked on what later became Turners, on Godkin Farm, Dunstead Hill near Plumptre Road, the Milnhay pits, near the Midland railway lines, and the bridge on Station Road. The pottery pit later turned to steam, probably at the same time as the first steam mill brought about the change from water power.

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