Daw Mill was a coal mine located near the village of
Arley Arley may refer to:
Places England
* Arley, Cheshire, a village
** Arley Hall, Cheshire
* Arley, Warwickshire, a village
* Upper Arley
Upper Arley () is a village and civil parish near Kidderminster in the Wyre Forest District of Worcestershi ...
, near
Nuneaton
Nuneaton ( ) is a market town in the borough of Nuneaton and Bedworth in northern Warwickshire, England, close to the county border with Leicestershire and West Midlands County.OS Explorer Map 232 : Nuneaton & Tamworth: (1:25 000) : Nuneaton's ...
, in the English county of
Warwickshire
Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...
. The mine was Britain's biggest coal producer.
It closed in 2013 following a major fire. It was the last remaining colliery in the
West Midlands
West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth.
Etymology
The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...
.
Mine
Daw Mill mined a five-metre thick section of the
Warwickshire Coalfield
The Warwickshire Coalfield extends between Warwick and Tamworth in the English Midlands. It is about from north to south and its width is around half that distance. Its western margin is defined by the 'Western Boundary Fault'. In the northeast ...
(known as the ''Warwickshire Thick'') in the north of the county. It was owned and operated by
UK Coal
UK Coal Production Ltd, formerly UK Coal plc, was the largest coal mining business in the United Kingdom. The company was based in Harworth, in Nottinghamshire. The company was a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. The successor company that con ...
and in 2008 employed 680 people.
The two shafts that served Daw Mill were first sunk between 1956 and 1959, and 1969 and 1971 respectively. The mine was a natural extension of the former collieries
Kingsbury Colliery
Kingsbury Colliery was a coal mine in Kingsbury, Warwickshire, which operated between 1897 and 1968.
History
It was opened in 1897 and changed the nature of the village almost overnight from a predominantly agriculturally based community to a min ...
and
Dexter Colliery
Hurley is a village in the Kingsbury civil parish of North Warwickshire, England. Other nearby places include Wood End, Hurley Common, Coleshill, Water Orton, Curdworth, Atherstone and Tamworth. According to the 2001 Census the population ...
, both of which have also closed. In 1983 an inclined tunnel linking underground workings with the surface was completed. This
drift mining
Drift mining is either the mining of an ore deposit by underground methods, or the working of coal seams accessed by adits driven into the surface outcrop of the coal bed. A drift mine is an underground mine in which the entry or access is above ...
enabled Daw Mill to increase its production capacity as it removed the often time-consuming process of winding coal up the shafts.
Daw Mill was the last surviving mine in a county that once had 20 operating collieries. In 2008 it excavated 3.25 million
tonne
The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton ( United State ...
s of coal, beating a 13-year-old record for annual output at a British coal mine set at
Selby
Selby is a market town and civil parish in the Selby District of North Yorkshire, England, south of York on the River Ouse, with a population at the 2011 census of 14,731.
The town was historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire until ...
in North Yorkshire.
Transport
![66717 , Ogston](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/66717_%2C_Ogston.jpg)
The colliery was situated on the
Birmingham to Nuneaton Line, just east of the former
Shustoke railway station. Trains were operated (post
British Rail
British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...
) mainly by
EWS / DB Schenker but inroads were made by
Fastline
Fastline was created by six railwaymen who undertook a successful management buyout (MBO) of Eastern Track Renewals from British Rail in 1996. In that year they bought Northern Track Renewals from British Rail, and undertook all the studie ...
,
Freightliner and
GB Railfreight
GB Railfreight (GBRf) is a rail freight company in the United Kingdom. As of 2022, it is owned by the global investment company Infracapital.
GB Railfreight was established in April 1999 as the rail freight operating subsidiary of the train o ...
.
Accidents
Three men were killed at Daw Mill in mining accidents in 2006 and 2007. In 2011 UK Coal was fined £1.2 million for safety breaches.
On 22 February 2013, a major fire broke out underground, described as the worst underground blaze in Britain for 30 years. UK Coal and
Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service
Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service is the statutory fire and rescue service serving the county of Warwickshire in the West Midlands region of England.
The service covers an area of and a population of around 546,600 people. It employs 550 st ...
confirmed that 92 workers were safely extracted.
As of 7 March 2013 the fire had still not been fully extinguished.
It was initially estimated that remedial work to the colliery could take between three and six months, making a return to production subject to a further review, resulting in the possible immediate closure of the mine.
Closure
On 14 March 2012 it was reported that UK Coal had begun a consultation process as part of plans for a company restructure which could see the closure of the mine in 2014.
The
Coal Authority
The Coal Authority is a non-departmental public body of the United Kingdom government sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS). On behalf of the country, it owns the vast majority of unworked coal in Great Brit ...
stated in a 2012 report that if
High Speed 2
High Speed 2 (HS2) is a planned high-speed railway line in England, the first phase of which is under construction in stages and due for completion between 2029 and 2033, depending on approval for later stages. The new line will run from its m ...
were to be built, then Daw Mill would be forced to close due to associated development and the effects on local groundworks.
On 7 March 2013 UK Coal announced the closure of the mine, due to the destructive fire which had extensively damaged it, with the plan to make most of the 650 staff redundant.
Land redevelopment plans
In July 2013, the ownership of the Daw Mill site was transferred to property redevelopment firm Haworth Estates after UK Coal went into insolvency.
Haworth subsequently submitted plans to
North Warwickshire Borough Council
North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.
Etymology
The word ''north'' is ...
to turn the land into a business park, which included proposals for an
HGV depot, but withdrew their application in October 2014 after encountering opposition from local residents and councillors, who felt the scheme would be unworkable. One of their key objections was the volume of traffic that would be generated in the local area. Haworth said they would submit a revised proposal. A fresh set of plans were put forward in November. These included a "low-level rail hub", and a one third reduction in the size of the development.
The proposals were further refined, and a second revised application made in July 2015.
Having initially objected to the proposals on the grounds of the size of the road network that would be needed to support the new development, the Highways Department of
Warwickshire County Council
Warwickshire County Council is the county council that governs the non-metropolitan county of Warwickshire in England.
Its headquarters are located at Shire Hall, Market Square, in centre of the county town of Warwick. Politically the county is ...
announced in October 2015 that it would now support the development. The decision prompted local MP
Craig Tracey
Craig Paul Tracey (born 21 August 1974) is a British Conservative Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for North Warwickshire since his election in 2015. Originally from the North East, Tracey settled in North Warwicksh ...
, whose
North Warwickshire
North Warwickshire is a local government district with borough status in the ceremonial county of Warwickshire, West Midlands, England. Outlying settlements in the borough include the two towns of Atherstone (where the council is based) and Co ...
constituency includes the site, to write to the Department urging it to reconsider its stance. His letter highlighted the potential impact the business park would have on the nearby town of
Coleshill, which he said would be adversely affected by the increase in traffic flow. North Warwickshire Borough Council's planning committee unanimously rejected Haworth's proposals on 3 November, citing fears that the development would cause "substantial" harm to the local green belt. Haworth announced that it would appeal the decision.
The
Court of Appeal
A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of t ...
ruled in 2018 that there could be no further appeals and that the land must be restored to green field within the greenbelt.
See also
*
Coventry Colliery
References
External links
UK Coal profile of Daw MillDaw Mill @ Mine-Explorer.co.ukCutting edge information from deep underground document about Daw Mill Colliery
{{Coord, 52, 30, 23, N, 1, 37, 04, W, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title
Coal mines in Warwickshire
Underground mines in England
Coal mining disasters in England
History of Warwickshire
1956 establishments in England
2013 disestablishments in England