A unique piece which could easily be lost to time

Bevercotes Colliery

(BR Class 58 with loaded train at Bevercotes colliery. From Wikipedia).

This is the second coal mining check from the UK I’ve posted about, but this one is interesting in its own ways. Classed as Retford’s colliery, Bevercotes was the world’s first fully automated mine and was sunk in 1954-1958 by the National Coal Board. The colliery was situated away from the main road to the north of Wales by some 7km south of Retford. The pit was shielded by trees, but the 2 tower headgears could be seen from the surrounding countryside. It went into production in July 1965 though the mine was closed for approximately 2 years 1964-1966 whilst shaft repairs were carried out as water was issuing through the concrete walls in huge amounts. The colliery was, alongside Cotgrave Colliery, one of two new collieries opened in the county of Nottinghamshire in the 1960s. A coal preparation plant was commissioned in 1965 that could prepare of 600 tonnes of coal per hour. The total output was supplied to High Marnham power station. Overall, the tonnage was a disappointment, for hailed as the first ‘push button pit’ in the world, it took 15 years to accomplish a yearly tonnage exceeding 1 million tons. The colliery was closed on 7th May 1993 after 36 years of production and turned into a nature reserve.

Michael Szepeta posted a video on YouTube with video and still images from Bevercotes and its workers. In the description for the video, he added several points to the information above:

Located in Bevercotes to the north of Ollerton, Bevercotes Colliery had the first sod cut in 1952 for £5 million. A new pit with expected reserves for 100 years of production from three seams. Bevercotes Colliery was the first fully automated mine and was hoped to eventually be a manless coal mine.

The mine had a safety record of 4 Fatalities.

HealeyHero.co.uk has a lot more detailed information on the mine and its working.

Automated mining

In July 1965, Movietone news hailed the mine as “a working experiment which will eventually lead to a completely automated pit, controlled by a computer. When it begins production later this year, it will be the world’s first automatic coalmine.” The video shows some of the “push button” operation.

The mine also ran into trouble with the unions. The New York Times of October 12, 1966, noted: “Britain’s super coal mine, totally automated and electronically controlled to dig coal faster than any other, has not produced a pound of coal. The reason is that Nottingham’s trade unionists voted down a Coal Board proposal to give Bevercotes a higher wage structure based on a seven-day week and 24-hour-a-day operation.

Britain already led the world in developing Remotely Operated Longwall Faces, an armoured conveyer that travels back and forth across narrow coal seams, shearing off the coal. This had been successfully combined with remotely controlled roof supports whose hydraulic props can be walked forward as the conveyor advances. Lord Robens decided that every stage, from moving the coal on conveyers through shafts, to carrying it up 900 yards to the surface, through washing, grading and sizing, to loading on specially built railway cars, should be remotely controlled. This mine, which formerly would have produced about 1.25 million tons of coal a year with 2.000 men, would now extract 1.5 million tons with 700.”

(A worker at the ROLF controls, from MiningHeritage).

MiningHeritage has a little more on the ROLF system: “Remotely Operated Longwall Faces (ROLF) were trailed in the East Midlands at Bevercotes, Newstead and Ormonde collieries in the early 1960’s. Despite failing at Bevercotes, it was relatively successful at the other two collieries. Whilst the ripping and stable-hole part of the operation was still manned, the shearing, operation of the face hydraulic supports (chocks) and panzer were all automated, being operated by one man from a console in the gate.”

Mining automation has continued to progress:

• Australia uses specialised remote guidance technology to continuously steer longwall equipment by plotting its position in three dimensions, removing personnel directly from hazards and thereby increasing the safety of the process.
• China operates fleets of fully autonomous, 100-ton mining trucks.
• AI can automate and optimize various processes in the coal industry, making them more efficient and accurate. It can determine optimal parameters, analyse coal demand to predict future trends and prices, optimize energy consumption in mining and processing — and more. The big news for the whole industry is the joint launch of the Pangu Mine Model by Huawei and Shandong Energy Group, the world’s first commercial AI model for the energy sector and the coal industry in particular.

The last traditional deep coal mine (Kellingley) closed in 2015, ending a historic era.

Bevercotes site now

The site of Bevercotes colliery is now overseen by the Woodland Trust. They describe the area as: A former colliery this wood has lots of open spaces and is well loved by local dog walkers. Lots of management work is ensuring that the area is returning to established woodland and is beautiful on a frosty winter’s day

(Wetlands and trees at the former site of Bevercotes Colliery. From AllTrails).

AllTrails add: “This is a fantastic trail in an old colliery. This wood offers a lot of open area and is popular among local dog walkers. A lot of management work is being done to ensure that the area returns to established woods and looks stunning on a chilly winter day. This area is suitable for people of all ages and fitness levels.”

Obverse

The check is rectangle, about 25mm x 18mm. The obverse of the token features a hole in the top-centre, with the number 1593 stamped.

Reverse

The reverse of the token is blank, although the imprint of the stamped numbers can be seen.

This token is a great example of the need to record those little bits of history we come across. This check has only the number 1593 stamped into it. There is no way to know where it came from or what it was used for just by looking at it. It’s meaning could so easily be lost to history.

I found this piece online, and in discussion with the seller, confirmed that the piece was from the estate of a worker at Bevercotes. He also had some round checks with the mine name on them, however had already sold those to someone else. He noted those (round) ones would be pay/wages checks. The rectangle ones are lamp checks, which would be placed near or on lamps, or taken from lamps, so miners would know when & if the lamps had been checked. 

(Wage check from Bevercotes colliery, image from HealeyHero.co.uk).

I really appreciate pieces like this where I feel like I can at least ensure that whoever is custodian of this piece after me, will still know where it came from. Have you got any pieces you wouldn’t know what they were from if you hadn’t got the information relatively directly? Do let me know!