Colliery Workshops
Burma Road provides access to the light industry and distribution centres that have repurposed some of the original buildings of Blidworth Colliery following its closure in 1989.
The most striking surviving structure being the enormous workshop building that came to dominate the site once the colliery chimney and headstocks were demolished. This red brick building with its cathedral-sized windows, housed the railway engines and rolling stock that once transported coal from the mine after it had been cleaned and sorted on the pit-top.
The colliery workshops lay vacant for some years until finding a tenant who could fully utilise and even expand upon the space available.
FlowerLine is a major player in the floristry supply chain – their distribution centre operates from the former colliery workshops, providing local employment and representing a business transformation that can best be described as ‘moving from pit to petals’ – a perfect example of the ‘greening’ of a former industrial site.
Blidworth Colliery headstocks and workshops, viewed from the Miner’s Welfare cricket pitch in 1980.
To the right of the workshops was the preparation plant and coal loader.
After the coal was brought to the surface in tubs, it was washed and then sorted from the dirt (known as the ‘vend’) before loading onto trucks or railway wagons on the mineral railway which extended eastwards from the colliery connecting with the wider rail network.
Blidworth Miners’ Welfare family outing utilising the industrial railway network in 1961.
Occasionally the railway lines at Blidworth were used to facilitate children’s outings that were organised by the Miners’ Welfare. On these special occasions the colliery trains were used to pull regular railway carriages. As there was no platform at the colliery, villagers would walk directly across the pit yard to the train to climb aboard the carriages.
Next
Progressing a little further along Burmah Road, you come to the next stage in the trail – a short-cut on the right, which runs between the industrial units and the mining village. Select the button below to see what the Colliery Yard short-cut looks like.