# Clipstone Colliery, Notts Oct'12



## prettyvacant71 (Nov 5, 2012)

Hello people

Visited with Skankypants and his mate, Jimba and Ruby1995, really great to all meet up folks and for me to visit my first colliery

History (lazily nicked from wiki)

Clipstone Colliery is a coal mine situated near the village of the same name on the edge of an area of Nottinghamshire known as “The Dukeries” because of the number of stately homes in the area. The colliery was owned by the Bolsover Colliery Company and passed to the National Coal Board in 1947.

The colliery was sunk to exploit the Barnsley seam or “Tophard”, as it known locally. In the 1950s the shafts were deepened to over 1000 yards (920 m) to exploit other seams.

The colliery was closed by British Coal, as the National Coal Board had become, in 1993 and reopened by RJB Mining (now UK Coal) in April 1994, the licence to dig for coal being limited to the Yard seam which is located at a depth of 957 yards (870 m). The colliery was finally closed in April 2003.

The headstocks of the colliery are regarded as the tallest in Europe and the third tallest in the world. They are Grade 2 Listed structures and can be seen all over the district. They are expensive to keep in good repair and there have been a number of appeals, as yet to no avail, to demolish them. But however the Clipstone headstocks are nearly demolished now and no one knows what will happen in the future. 









Arriving early allowed the impressive headstocks to gradually appear out of the mist whilst the sun rose behind them. 






















It was a welcome surprise when Skankypants and his mate showed us the way in, as im usually exploring alone it can often take a while to get into places, it would be great to just turn up and be shown in all the time....it would save me many failed attempts, long recce’s and wasted petrol, which happens far too often, especially if your a long way from home!















Up the creaky cast iron staircase and up onto the roof of the control room








View from the roof








Nature has created its own little roof top water feature








There is a staircase on the sides of the headstocks which had a little barbed wire on it...we decided not to go up any further, others have, but it can be down to how lucky you are feeling on the day...so we gave it a miss!















Turbines 







The huge winders




















One of the two small control rooms....nice array of buttons and big handles




















We found it lying on the floor so made it more comfy (is that a frightening insight into our madness)


























We walked around one of the large rooms beneath the headstocks when we must have disturbed a rather large beautiful barn owl. It paniced at our presence so we all instinctively stood still and quiet, it flew into the glass windows and across the room and back into the windows (a pigeon by now would have probably knocked itself out and dropped to the floor) we all were thinking the same thing...fly out the open window please! Then it flew up and very near to me on the steps, what an amazing bird....pure white feathers with a light brown back, it glided safely through a hole in the broken glass and off into the mist, I’d never been that close to a wild owl before, it was silent and with such a huge wingspan, quite an amazing sight it was. Any way sorry no photos of the bird...but here’s the window it flew out of 














I only hope that some of the local people feel passionate enough about these Grade II listed structures that effort can be made to save them. They must be a prominent landmark for miles around and the landscape would surely be dramaticly changed forever with their loss. Lets hope the usual trick doesn’t happen to Listed Buildings....let them fall into disrepair or turn a blind eye to vandalism or insider thefts to cause the structures maximum damage so that are too uneconomical to repair so are lawfully demolished...that would be a terrible insult to Britain’s Industrial Heritage.

Thanx for takin a look, hope you enjoyed the pics....safe splorin folks


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## steve2109 (Nov 5, 2012)

nice report and pics, great use of angles give a good impression of size, thanks


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## night crawler (Nov 5, 2012)

Great report best I have seen from this place yet which I love seeing well done


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## skankypants (Nov 5, 2012)

It was a realy good splore,think we all had a mooch,that was my second time in,,,as you say Pretyvacant,lets just hope they dont get pulled down,although i think they will be soon....the colliery was literaly the "hub"of what made Clipstone the size it is today...without the Colliery it would have never had the cash injection for housing etc....


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## Ruby1995 (Nov 5, 2012)

nice report there  lol, should have taken a pic of me trying to slink through that barbed wire... i didnt fit lol


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## Silent Hill (Nov 5, 2012)

It seems to be a popular haunt of late. Nice one


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## Lucky Pants (Nov 5, 2012)

Great report and wonderful pictures , looking at the window pic can just imagin the owl flying into the morning mist what a bonus that must have been . Thanks for sharing .


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## ImmortalShadow (Nov 5, 2012)

Great photos and report, it was a fab explore


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## perjury saint (Nov 6, 2012)

*Very nice! Love that first pic...*


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## Wakey Lad (Nov 6, 2012)

First shot is the winner - I saw the owl when i went, but it flew out at the noise of me jumping the fence


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## urban phantom (Nov 6, 2012)

great report thanks


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## flyboys90 (Nov 6, 2012)

Dam good report & photos,so much to see thanks for sharing.


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## Bones out (Nov 6, 2012)

Nice mate, nice  

I likey....... A lot!


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