Shireoaks Colliery

Shireoaks Colliery was a coal mine situated on the edge of the village of Shireoaks, near Worksop in North Nottinghamshire, close by the Yorkshire border.

The Duke of Newcastle owned mineral rights in much of North Nottinghamshire and the original shaft was sunk in 1861. Although the colliery was situated adjacent to the main line of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway, an agreement was reached with the railway company, as owners of the Chesterfield Canal, for a short link to serve the colliery and to ship coal to the River Trent at West Stockwith.

The Shireoaks Colliery Company was formed in 1867 and, in due course, had mining interests throughout the area, including those at Steetley, Whitwell and Clowne.

In 1917 the colliery company gained a lease from the Estates of the 10th Duke of Leeds to mine top hard coal from below the villages of North Anston, South Anston and Thorpe Salvin.

In 1945, the Shireoaks Colliery Company was sold to United Steel Companies and on nationalisation came under the control of the National Coal Board. The pit closed in 1991.