Fig 1: Bread & Roses: Welbeck’s Untold Stories at the Harley Gallery.
Bread and Roses: Welbeck’s Untold Stories and Coal Mining Stories
Two contemporary coal mining art exhibitions at the Harley Gallery in 2026 explore the legacy of coal mining Nottinghamshire and its historic links with Welbeck Abbey and Estate, ancestral home of the Dukes of Portland who were one of the main coal owners in the region. The Portland name is synonymous with former local industrial, transport sites and other locations in Nottinghamshire.
Fig 2: One of the collages as part of Bread & Roses contemporary art exhibition.
Bread and Roses: Welbeck’s Untold Stories
In ‘Bread and Roses – Welbeck’s Untold Stories’, multidisciplinary artist, curator and writer, Jennifer Vanderpool, has created artwork in the form of several immersive floor-to-ceiling collages which links Welbeck with the local coal mining industry, the social and cultural life it supported and the impact of closure and deindustrialisation.
Jennifer originates from Youngstown in Ohio, at one time the centre of steel making in the United States (US). A big influence on her work is the Rust Belt, former industrial regions of the US that underwent substantial deindustrialisation in the late 20th century. The Nottinghamshire coalfield went through a similar transformation from the mid 1960’s to the mid 1990’s.
Fig 3: Demolition of Ollerton Colliery headstocks in December 1994. Photo Credit – Chad newspaper
Bread and Roses: Welbeck’s Untold Stories is on at the Harley Gallery until 4th May 2026. More details at https://harleyfoundation.org.uk/whats-on/event/jennifer-vanderpool-bread-and-roses-welbecks-untold-stories/
Fig 4: Retired Coalmining Surveyor, Bob Bradley, at the Coal Mining Stories Exhibition at the Harley Gallery, 18th January 2026
Coal Mining Stories
Accompanying ‘Bread and Roses’, is ‘Coal Mining Stories’, a contemporary exhibition which explores the links between the Welbeck Estate and the local coal mining industry, celebrating the creativity of that industry and its former coal mining communities. It features the artwork of former Moorgreen miner, Brian Morley, various coalmining artefacts, pottery in the form of commemorative pit plates, pit poetry and sketches.
Fig 5a & 5b: Part of the Coal Mining Stories Display at the Harley Gallery.
Some archival records relating to Welbeck’s historical links with the local coal mining industry accompany the exhibition. The various Dukes of Portland, significantly the 6th and 7th, greatly benefited from coalmining by leasing land to coal companies to sink and develop their collieries, receiving rent and coal royalties in return until the latter finished under the 1938 Coal Mines Act. This followed recommendations by the Coal Commission (the Sankey Commission), with the coal-owners eventually receiving compensation following the nationalisation of the British coal mining industry in 1947.
Fig 6: Bolsover Colliery Co mural (left) as part of the exhibition and 1939 map (right) showing location of its collieries.
Especially prominent in the coal mining link with the Welbeck Estate was the influential Bolsover Colliery Company (1889-1946). They developed six collieries in the region at Bolsover (sunk 1889), Creswell (sunk 1894-96), Mansfield (sunk 1904-05), Rufford (sunk 1911-13), Clipstone (sunk 1922-24) and Thoresby (sunk 1925-28). The latter was the last East Midlands colliery to close in July 2015.
Coal Mining Stories is on at the Harley Gallery until 3rd January 2027. More details at https://harleyfoundation.org.uk/whats-on/event/coal-mining-stories/
Fig 7: Portland Park sign, Kirkby-in-Ashfield. Photo by David Amos
Portland place names in the locality
The Portland name crops up in large parts of Nottinghamshire especially in the parishes of Kirkby-in-Ashfield and Selston. Portland Collieries operated from 1821 until 1916, the pit houses for it where at nearby Portland Row, Selston. The Portland Tramway, an early horse drawn and rope haulage railway, operated from 1825 until 1894, running from the Portland pits to Portland Wharf at Jacksdale where it connected with the Cromford Canal. Portland Park at Kirkby-in-Ashfield has been a popular leisure retreat over the years & continues to be so.
Fig 8: Portland No.2 Colliery, locally known as Jerry Pit after the Butty (Mining Contractor), Jerimiah Lowe. Photo Credit: SLHP archive
Portland Collieries
Portland Collieries, a multi shaft series of collieries, developed and operated by the Butterley Company, were situated between Selston and Kirkby-in-Ashfield and were in production from 1821 until 1916.
Fig 9: Colliery surveyors map showing position of Portland Colliery shafts. Source –David Amos collection
Fig 10: Uncovered remains of Portland No.1 Colliery (Old Isaiah’s Pit) in 2006. Photo by David Amos
The remains of Portland No.1 Colliery were uncovered during excavations in 2005-06. Locally it was known as Old Isaiah’s Pit after the Big Butty (Mining Contractor), Isaiah Rigley. He was the Great, Great Grandfather of the author and features in a long family line of coalminers covering six generations dating from the late 18th century until the late 20th century.
Fig 11: Portland Wharf,Jacksdale, and information board for the Portland Tramway. Photo by David Amos
The Portland Tramway
Portland Wharf at Jacksdale was the meeting place of the Portland Tramway (1825-1893) and a short branch off the Cromford Canal. The Tramway ran from the Portland Pits and Mexborough Colliery to Portland Wharf. The canal eventually became abandoned after World War Two and a row of houses there, locally called Stone Row, were demolished in 1968. A ‘Slag’ embankment remains at Jacksdale and dates from the mid 1840’s when the Midland Railway arrived on the scene, connecting the Portland Tramway to its Erewash Valley line.
Fig 12: Portland Row, Selston, just prior to demolition. Photo Credit – SLHP archive
Portland Row
Portland Row, Selston, built in 1823, was a single terrace of forty-seven pit houses, and is thought to be the longest ever single terrace of industrial housing in Nottinghamshire. It incorporated a Methodist chapel at the rear of No.25, a Tommy Shop (Company Store) operated for a time at No.1, and a school house was built at the far end of the row. The houses were demolished in 1966.
Fig 13: Portland Park, Kirkby-in-Ashfield, in the 1930’s. Photo Credit – Kirkby Heritage Centre
Portland Park
Portland Park, known locally as The Quarries, was bestowed to the people of Kirkby-in-Ashfield in 1914 by the 6th Duke of Portland, William John Arthur Charles James Cavendish- Bentinck (1857-1943). It is a haven for flora and fauna and has always been a popular walking location for miners and retired miners over the years.
Fig 14: Portland Park Visitors Centre, Kirkby-in-Ashfield. Photo Credit – Kirkby Heritage Centre
The trackbed remains of the Mansfield and Pinxton Tramway, a horse drawn early railway which opened in 1819, can be seen here. It ran from Pinxton Wharf, an arm off the main Cromford Canal, to Portland Wharf at Mansfield, a distance of 7.5 miles. The latter is now the site of Portland Retail Park.
Fig 15: Portland Wharf at Mansfield, terminus of the Mansfield and Pinxton Tramway, prior to demolition in the 1980’s. Photo Credit – SB2K archive.
Fig 16: Portland Wharf area at Mansfield in 2016, now the site of the Portland Retail Park. Photo by David Amos
Blog by David Amos
Mine2Minds Education
Posted 25th February 2026
References and further reading
Ad Newspapers, Coal Mines Remembered 2, (2011).
Bolsover Colliery Co. Ltd, Jubilee Souvenir 1889-1939, (1939)
Bradley, R. www.healeyhero.co.uk A Comprehensive History of Mining in the Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire & Leicestershire Coalfields in chronological order.
Griffin, A.R. The Miners of Nottinghamshire 1914-1944, (1962).
Matthews, C. with Hartwell, C. Model Villages of the Nottinghamshire Coalfield, (2022).
Pollard, M. ‘Capitalism, Social Improvement and Spiritual Wellbeing: The Various Schemes of Emerson Bainbridge 1877-1911’ in Midland History, Vol. 49, No.2, (2024)
Portland Path Project, ‘The Portland Path: An Early Nineteenth Century Nottinghamshire Railway and the Collieries it served’, (2012)
Waller, R.J. The Dukeries Transformed: The Social and Political Development of a Twentieth Century Coalfield, (1983).
Workers Education Association (Selston Branch), Aspects of Selston’s Mining, (1988).
Workers Education Association (Selston Branch), Selston Portland Road: A Development on the ‘Goss’ Common, (1991).