Creswell, Derbyshire
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Creswell | |
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  Creswell shown within Derbyshire |
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| District | Bolsover |
|---|---|
| Shire county | Derbyshire |
| Region | East Midlands |
| Constituent country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | WORKSOP |
| Postcode district | S80 |
| Dialling code | 01909 |
| Police | Derbyshire |
| Fire | Derbyshire |
| Ambulance | East Midlands |
| European Parliament | East Midlands |
| UK Parliament | Bolsover |
| List of places: UK • England • Derbyshire | |
Creswell is a village located in Bolsover, Derbyshire, England near Worksop. Local Government services are provided by Elmton-with-Creswell Parish Council, Bolsover District Council and Derbyshire County Council. Whilst Elmton is mentioned in the Domesday Book, Creswell remained a neaby collection of farming houses until the construction of a turnpike road along the present A616 brought added importance. The arrival of the mining industry in the last decade of the 19th Century had dramatic effects on the area and Creswell became the larger community.
[edit] Creswell in the 20th Century
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Creswell expanded throughout the 20th century after a lease was obtained from the Duke of Portland in 1889 for the top hard seam of coal in the area and Creswell Colliery came into being. The Bolsover Colliery Company owned the pit until it was nationalised in 1947. Creswell Colliery was often regarded as one of the most efficient pits in the East Midlands coalfield. The colliery was also well known for its sporting and social activities. Creswell Colliery Band was, for a long time, one of the country’s leading brass bands and had broadcast several times on BBC Radio.
Creswell Model Village was built in 1895 to house the mining families. Expansion of housing continued throughout the 20th century.
On the night of September 26th 1950, 80 men were overcome by smoke and fumes and perished underground at Creswell Colliery. 23 bodies remained underground for a year until it was safe to remove them. After that event some people often referred to Creswell as "the village of bored housewives".
Living in Creswell often gives something of an identity crisis. Officially Creswell is in Derbyshire. But that eastern part of Derbyshire is very close to the borders of Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire. It is only a short journey to Nottinghamshire or Yorkshire. Creswell has a Nottinghamshire postal address with a Yorkshire postcode. Creswell Colliery was in the North Nottinghamshire coalfield but miners holidayed at the Derbyshire Miner’s Holiday Camp.
Creswell had two railway stations. The first one (Top station locally) to be closed (1940's) was Creswell & Welbeck on the Great Central line. Elmton with Creswell, the second (bottom station) was one stop on the Midland Railway line running between Worksop and Mansfield. It was closed by the Beeching cuts in the early 1960s but was reopened in the 1990s as the Robin Hood Line.
The local landscape had been very beautiful but during the 20th century it was scarred by a century of mining. Scarred with the black, slag heaps of unwanted debris from miles underground; Scarred with the air-born pollution from the pit chimneys, always belching out smoke; Scarred by poor architecture and housing.
Beyond the village, the landscape has two very unusual features: Creswell Crags and Markland Grips. Both are dolomitic limestone gorges but the former is much more important,as it has been identified as the home to pre-historic man. Creswell Crags hosts many famous caves.
Creswell in the mid 20th Century supported a few special facilities not to be found in other villages.A cinema on King Street burnt down in the 1930s but was replaced (on Elmton Road) by a stylish art deco cinema called the Regors after being built by the Rogers family in the 1930s. The Regors cinema, like many others, became a bingo hall in the late 1960s.
The second great facility the village had to offer was the ‘baths’ built in 1919. This was not only a council facility for swimming, it also included slipper baths for the many houses that didn’t have bathrooms.
By the mid 20th century the village had one main church (Church of England) and a Methodist and Baptist chapel. A third chapel had been closed down and was then used as part of the Infants School. A Roman Catholic church was built in the late 1950s.
Creswell Colliery closed in the early 1990s, as part of the political abandonment of coal as a major fuel. Creswell like many other communities throughout the UK had its heart ripped away and had to look for a new direction. A significant drop in population took place.
