Kingsbury Colliery was a
coal mine
Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...
in
Kingsbury Kingsbury may refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Kingsbury, London, a district of northwest London in the borough of Brent
** Kingsbury tube station, London Underground station
* Kingsbury, Warwickshire, a village and civil parish in Warwickshi ...
,
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-Av ...
, 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 mining village, and helped Kingsbury's expansion. Coal extracted from Kingsbury Colliery was used mainly for industry in nearby
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...
, although the Lurghi Gas Plant at
Coleshill was also a major customer.
The colliery operated throughout the first half of the 20th century, and in 1904 the village of
Piccadilly was built close by to house some of the mine's workers.
Following the pit's closure in 1968, some of the land was used for the construction of the
Kingsbury Oil Terminal.
In 2009 a memorial wall was built in Piccadilly to remember those who worked in both Kingsbury Colliery, and the neighbouring
Dexter Colliery. The wall contains the names of all the miners who worked at both mines. The centrepiece of the wall is a
miner's lamp that is always lit to commemorate those who have died and those who remember working down the mines.
Notable employees
Notable people who have worked at the colliery include the footballer
Sid Ireland.
See also
*
Coventry Colliery
*
Daw Mill
Daw Mill was a coal mine located near the village of Arley, near Nuneaton, in the English county of Warwickshire. The mine was Britain's biggest coal producer. It closed in 2013 following a major fire. It was the last remaining colliery in the W ...
References
External links
Kingsbury History Society
Coal mines in Warwickshire
History of Warwickshire
Kingsbury, Warwickshire
1897 establishments in England
1968 disestablishments in England
Underground mines in England
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