REMEMBERING
COTGRAVE COLLIERY

A site to celebrate the history of Cotgrave Colliery.

Commemorating Cotgrave Colliery and the workers, 1962 - 1992.

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Plans for a memorial.

This photograph in the background shows the Cotgrave Colliery site before the Hollygate housing estate was begun looking due west with Cotgrave Country Park in the background. With the building of the Holygate estate all evidence of the pit head has been obliterated. Initially the builders canvassed for street names to commemorate the colliery but that was not taken up.

In February 2014 the group Freinds of Cotgrave Country Park formed a small sub committee to explore the possibility of a rebembrance for the colliery to ensure that the pit and its workers would not be entirely forgotten. Some of the recent ideas for stone sculptures are shown above.

An area of the country park was set aside and the small group began planning. Several ideas were tabled including a scale tableaux of the iconic koepe towers positioned to appear as the real ones would have looked during the three decades they stood. At present the commemoration is set to be a large stone depicting the towers with several other relevant images emerging from the stone. This might be within the existing semi circular fence with benches and a picnic area. Possibly other artifacts of the colliery, including steel rails and an original NCB gate will also be included.

Information boards with links to the History section of this site will help ensure the colliery, its miners and industrial heritage are remembered.

The Colliery

Cotgrave Colliery in the early 1960's.

A modern, efficient site with its distinctive Koepe towers.

Sinking the shaft. Early days for the colliery.

Early plans for a memorial.

Built in the 1960,s Cotgrave Colliery was a modern mine using Koepe winching gear rather than traditional winding wheels. These towers were visible for miles and became a familiar and iconic feature of Cotgrave Colliery.
During its heyday the mine had its own rail system and links. It produced copious amounts of coal which fired the huge boilers at Ratcliffe on Soar power station. The excavations radiated out for miles from the shafts.

Long past the days of pick axes, Davie lamps and pit ponies the miners formed a professional and experienced workforce. They were drawn from all over the country, many from the north east where several mines had recently closed. During the sixties and early seventies the nearby village of Cotgrave swelled from a population of around 700 to one nearer 7,000. An huge new estate was built to accommodate the workers with a new shopping precinct, pubs and Miners' Welfare. Long after the closure of the mine in the 1980's north east accents are prevelent in the town.

The Koepe Towers and colliery buildings are long gone and the shafts filled in and capped. Until the early 20th century the area was empty, derelict and swiftly returning to nature. Now building of an housing estate is in nearly complete. It entirely engulfs the footprint of the colliery except where the nearby country park still offers a clue or two to the once busy mine.

Its important that the mine, and its workers, are not forgotten. Because of this a small group affiliated to the Freinds of Cotgrave Country Park have been working towards designing, funding and creating a lasting celebration.