Fig 1: Gedling Colliery in the 1980’s. Photo Credit – Gedling Heritage
Gedling Colliery (1899-1991).
Gedling Colliery, in the Nottinghamshire coalfield, closed thirty-years ago in early November 1991 due to deteriorating geological conditions in the Main Bright seam. The colliery was situated three miles east of Nottingham and was sunk by the Digby Colliery Company from 1899 to 1902. Later in the post-World War Two period it became known as ‘The Pit of Nations’ because of its diverse workforce. Thirty different nationalities worked at the colliery at one time or another in this period.
Fig 2: Digby Colliery Co details in the 1935 Colliery Year Book and Coal Trades Directory.
Twin 18 feet (5.5 metres) diameter shafts were sunk initially to the High Hazels seam at a depth of 368 yards (337 metres) and the Top Hard seam at a depth of 458 yards (419 metres). No 1 shaft was the downcast shaft and No. 2 the upcast shaft. The pit bottom areas and associated roadways were completed in 1904 with the High Hazels being designated No. 1 Pit and the Top Hard No. 2 Pit.
Fig 3: Map showing coalfaces worked in the High Hazels seam at Gedling Colliery.
Initial production was from the Top Hard and Main Bright seams, but workings in the latter were soon abandoned. Other attempts were made at mining the Main Bright seam from 1933-38 and last off from 1989 – 1991. The High Hazels seam, originally misinterpreted as the Lower Hazels, was worked exclusively for the majority of the life of the colliery.
Fig 3: Map showing coalfaces worked in the High Hazels seam at Gedling Colliery.
A strike of ganger lads occurred in 1917 which resulted in all them all being fined at Nottinghamshire Shire Hall for being absent from work. Maximum manpower of 3,746 was achieved in 1923 with 3,188 being underground and 558 on the surface.
In 1936, the colliery became part of BA Collieries (Bestwood Amalgamated), a merger of the Babbington and Bestwood Coal Companies, which acquired the Digby Colliery Company.
Fig 5: Vesting Day at Gedling Colliery, 1st January 1947. Photo Credit – Coal Authority.
NCB Days at Gedling Colliery
At Vesting Day on 1st January 1947, Gedling Colliery went into the National Coal Board (NCB) East Midlands Region No. 6 Area, the HQ was at Bestwood. A major modernisation programme took place at the colliery in the early days of nationalisation and from 1952 to 1969 Gedling hit the million tons mark every year except one in 1966/67. Maximum output at the colliery was 1,156,995 tons of coal in 1963.
Fig 6: Anderton Shearer on a Gedling Colliery coalface in the 1960’s. Photo Credit – MuBu Miner collection
In the NCB reorganisation of April 1967, Gedling became one of eighteen collieries in the new NCB South Nottinghamshire Area. Electric winding engines replaced steam winding in 1970, the two electric winders coming from the closed Wellesley Colliery in the Fife coalfield, Scotland which had closed in 1967.
On installation of the new electric winding engines, skip winding was introduced as No. 1 shaft, replacing the mine car system. By this time, Gedling was producing coal for industrial and domestic purposes rather than ESI (Electricity Supply Industry) coal for power stations.
Fig 7: Motorway roadway at Gedling Colliery in 1983. Photo Credit: MuBu Miner collection
Gedling Colliery: The Final Years.
In the 1978/79, a motorway roadway was began to gain access to a new area of coal in the A50 area (Fig. 7). When finished, it was equipped with a high-speed overhead electric trolley loco system that speeded up travel to the coalfaces. The underground loco was capable of speeds up to 25 m.p.h but in reality, it operated with a maximum of 15 mph (Fig. 8).
Fig 8: Underground overhead electric trolley loco at Gedling Colliery in 1983. Photo Credit: MuBu Miner collection
Along with Calverton and Cotgrave collieries, Gedling was seen by the local NCB as being a long life colliery in the early 1980’s. Miners transferred from closed collieries in the early / mid 1980’s. Gedling still had a workforce of around 1,400 but this was halved in 1988 in an attempt to try to make the colliery viable.
At this time work had recommenced in the Main Bright seam again but geological problems were soon experience. The last coal face, MB3’s, started production in May 1991 but soon encountered problems and a decision was made to close the colliery. The last production shift was 8th November 1991.
Fig 9: Gedling NUM branch banner: Brothers beneath the surface: Photo Credit – David Amos
The Pit of Nations
Gedling Colliery was known locally as the ‘Pit of Nations’ because of the diverse nature of its workforce from the 1950’s to the 1980’s. Because of the collieries proximity to the city of Nottingham, many migrants worked at the colliery. They included many from East Europe and the West Indies. One side of the Gedling NUM Branch Banner portrays this diversity with the title ‘Brothers beneath the Surface’ (Fig. 9). Alan Beales, Mining Historian and former Gedling NACODS Branch Secretary, commenting on the workforce diversity at the colliery said “everyone seemed to get on fine”.
Fig 10: Miners of African-Caribbean heritage project event at Mapperley Plains Social Club in 2018. Photo Credit: Nottingham News Centre
Miners of African Caribbean Heritage Project
In 2016 Norma Gregory, the niece of a former Gedling miner, started a project entitled ‘Miners of African Caribbean Heritage: Narratives from Notts’. The project recorded accounts of former African Caribbean coalminers who worked in the Nottinghamshire coalfield, many of them at Gedling Colliery. In 2018, the project was extended to look at black miners who worked throughout the British coalfields. Details of the project can be found at https://www.blackcoalminers.com/
Fig11: Pit of Nations mural at the 1899 café, Gedling Country Park. Photo Credit: David Amos
In March 2019 a Pit of Nations mural was unveiled at the 1899 Café at Gedling Country Park (Fig. 11). The mural depicts Gedling Colliery and is surrounded by thirty flags of nations where migrant miners originated from who worked at the colliery. The café opened in January 2019 as part of the Gedling Country Park.
Arthur Cole’s poem, Pit of Nations – Gedling Colliery, featured in the 2021 publication, Coal in the Blood: An East Midlands Coal Mining Anthology, edited by Natalie Braber and David Amos.
The Pit of Nations
Fig12: Gedling Country Park in 2019. Photo Credit: David Amos
Gedling Country Park
Gedling Country Park is situated on the former colliery spoil heap, which was one of the largest in the Nottinghamshire coalfield. Following the collieries closure in 1991, a tip recycle process took place until 2001 and 200,000 tonnes of coal were recovered from the pit tip. Following this, the former colliery pit tip was landscaped to form a country park and for housing. Work on the Country Park commenced in 2014. More details at https://gedlingcountrypark.com/history/
Fig 13: Gedling Colliery information board at Gedling Country Park.
Fig 13: Gedling Colliery memorial in December 2020. Photo Credit – David Amos
Gedling Colliery Mining Memorial
A mining memorial in the shape of a flame safety lamp was unveiled in Gedling village in 2010 to commemorate the one hundred and thirty-five fatalities which occurred at the colliery during its working life (Fig. 14).
Fig 15: Gedling Colliery motty.
Blog by David Amos
Mine2Minds Education
Posted: 27th November 2021
Revised 31st August 2025
References
Beales, A. A History of Gedling Colliery 1898-1991, unpublished, 2012.
Black miners project website www.blackcoalminers.com
Braber, N. and Amos, D. Coal in the Blood: An East Midlands Coal Mining Anthology, 2021.
Braber, N and Amos, D. Coal Mining in the East Midlands, 2017.
British Coal, Nottinghamshire Area, Welcome to Gedling Colliery, 1986.
Gregory, N. Jamaicans in Nottingham: Narratives and Reflections, 2015.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5U46-ZFvpaU&t=10s A Pit is Reborn: Gedling Colliery, 1948