[wolfism]

The remains of a Modernist coalmine in Nottinghamshire … meant to post this a while ago but politics got in the way. Anyhow, cheers to Brickman and Thompski for some useful info. :-)


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Well before 5am one spring morning, the stars were still winking, and Clipstone’s twin headstocks reared up into an indigo-coloured sky. The air was cold, so I put on a couple of layers and set off across a wasteland of coal dust, broken bricks, and other demolition arisings. Clipstone’s headstocks, the heapstead buildings underneath, and the winding house between them huddle together in the middle of a flat plain; in the distance, a bulldozer, full slew and mobile crusher are fast asleep, dreaming about flattening the headstocks, just like they destroyed the rest of the colliery.


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Clipstone was one of a new generation of coal mines, driven immediately after the War to win coal from reserves that might make up for those exhausted during wartime. The colliery was reconstructed on the site of a previous mine. In 1912 the Bolsover Colliery Company had leased 6,000 acres of mining rights from the Duke of Portland – hence the coal field became known as the “Dukeries” – and a test bore found the Tophard seam of coal at a depth of 640 yards. Although work on sinking the shaft was suspended during the Great War, it recommenced afterwards, and by 1922, two 21ft diameter shafts had been completed, and production began shortly after. The village of New Clipstone was built around the mine, a model village of houses grouped in pairs, with generous gardens and streets laid out on a geometric plan. At the centre of the settlement are a Methodist Church, Miners’ Institute, and bowling green. The coal companies were far-sighted in providing well-designed villages and towns for their employees: but it also proves the extent of the pits’ profitability in those days. By WW2, the Tophard seam was almost exhausted, so the Bolsover company drew up plans to seek out fresh coal in deeper strata – but these were overtaken by nationalisation, so when Clipstone was vested to the National Coal Board (NCB) in 1948, they implemented the scheme.


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The design of the surface buildings here owes a good deal to German examples, such as the Zeche Zollverein complex at Essen: with the same cubic-proportioned, unadorned brick buildings, plus steel plate and lattice girder headstocks. Clipstone’s architects were Young & Purves of Manchester, and the original buildings were replaced by new heapsteads, headframes, a fan house, bath-house, and a winder/power house located between the two shafts. The headstocks are the tallest all-metal headstocks in the country; in fact, they were (reportedly …) the second tallest in Europe when built, standing at approximately 65m high, and also owe a good deal to Continental practice. Rather than using traditional winders mounted at the top of the stocks, Clipstone implemented the Koepe winding system. It was developed by the Krupp Company (still in business as ThyssenKrupp, who made the lifts in the last new building I was involved with), which is called "Endlosseilfoerderung", or "endless rope hoisting". The rope coming out of the shaft is lead around the wheels on the winding tower and thence to the winding machine in the corresponding building. You can still see the open traps in the roof of the winding house where the cables passed through. From there the rope is driven by the driving wheel after which it’s sent back vertically into the shaft, after passing around another wheel on the headstock. Effectively, there are two cages fixed to each rope – one moving upwards and the other simoultaneously moving downwards. This endless rope helps to balance out loads, which in turn reduces the size of the electric winding motors required.


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