A Traveller in Time by Alison Uttley

They say that some books just have a lasting and timeless appeal. For me, one of those books is A Traveller in Time by Derbyshire born author, Alison Uttley. The book, first published in 1939, tells the story of teenage girl, Penelope, who is sent to live on her aunt and uncle’s farm, once owned …

A Female Stone Manufacturer and her Derbyshire Connection

In the Georgian period, women could be business owners, but usually if they were widows who had inherited their husband’s business, or in stereotypical female environments. Yet, there are some examples of women pushing the boundaries that were expected of them. One of these women was Eleanor Coade, who owned an artificial stone factory in …

Henry Eustace Mitton

The Butterley Company of Ripley, founded in 1790, built a name for themselves as engineers (the roof of St Pancras Station being one of their finest achievements), but also had a profitable business selling coal and iron. The success of their coal operations in the first half of the 20th Century owes much to Henry …

Ollerton Pit Village Online Exhibition Goes Live

Ollerton Colliery in Nottinghamshire, as well as its pit village, was designed and built by the Butterley Company in the 1920s. It was largely the brain child of Henry Eustace Mitton, the Agent and later General Manager of the company. The site was meant to be a model for other companies to use, and was …

A Coal Miner in the Home Guard

If you’ve been following some of the Mining the Seams Project posts, you’ll remember that I’ve been researching and writing miners biographies based on compensation forms in our National Coal Board collection, alongside using birth, marriage and death records and newspaper articles. Whilst doing this, I recently found an interesting story about Norman Reynolds, a …

The Mysterious Disappearance of Thomas Severn, the Undermanager at Mapperley Colliery

Thomas Severn was an experienced miner, working as a deputy at both Clifton and Stanley Collieries before moving to work as an Undermanager at Mapperley Colliery. He had been born in April 1875 on land owned by Swanwick Colliery as his father, Thomas Senior, had been a manager there. Thomas Junior had mining in the …

Mining the Seams Update: Part of the National Coal Board Catalogue Goes Live

Throughout the Mining the Seams Project, our main target has been to catalogue the coal mining documents we received from the National Coal Board (NCB), to ensure the public will be able to view them. When the project started in October 2019, it seemed like the target of the first half of the collection going …

Bevin Boys in the Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire Coal Field

During the Second World War, the coal industry faced an employment crisis in spite of coal being an in-demand fuel at the time. Despite mining being a reserved occupation, which exempted those working in it from military service, this only applied to men aged 30 or over. Many men took advantage of this and went …

Matthew Hayes: Undermanager at Birchwood Colliery

Matthew Hayes was once a well-known figure in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire throughout the last half of the nineteenth century. He was best known for his style of Methodist preaching that appealed to the local working classes, especially those from mining backgrounds. It helped that Matthew was born into a coal mining family in Pinxton on …

Explosion at South Normanton Colliery

A large explosion on 15th of February 1937 was the worst disaster seen at South Normanton Colliery. It was possibly caused by someone smoking underground, as cigarettes and matches were found close to one of the dead men. In total 8 men were killed, and another 3 were injured. Searches were made of men before …