Creswell, Derbyshire

Coordinates: 53°16′N 1°12′W / 53.26°N 1.20°W / 53.26; -1.20

Creswell
Signs seen from the corner of Woollen Close and Mansfield Road (2006)
Creswell  Creswell shown within Derbyshire
District	Bolsover
Shire county	Derbyshire
Region	East Midlands
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	WORKSOP
Postcode district	S80
Dialling code	01909
Police	Derbyshire
Fire	Derbyshire
Ambulance	East Midlands
EU Parliament	East Midlands
UK Parliament	Bolsover
List of places UK England Derbyshire

Creswell is a former mining village located in the Bolsover district, near Worksop, Derbyshire, England, United Kingdom. Today it is best known for Creswell Crags and Creswell Model Village but in September 1950 was the scene of one of the worst post nationalisation mining disasters.

Local Government services are provided by Elmton-with-Creswell Parish Council, Bolsover District Council and Derbyshire County Council.

History

Whilst Elmton is mentioned in the Domesday Book, Creswell remained a nearby collection of farming houses until the construction of a turnpike road along the present A616 brought added importance. The arrival of the coal mining industry in the last decade of the 19th century had a dramatic effect on the area and Creswell became the larger community.

Creswell in the 20th century

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 and Creswell Colliery Band was for a long time one of the country’s leading brass bands and had been broadcast several times on BBC Radio.

Creswell Model Village was built in 1895 to house the coal mining families. Expansion of housing continued throughout the 20th century. Officially Creswell is in Derbyshire but very close to the borders of Nottinghamshire and 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 Colliery mining disaster, 1950

On September 26 1950 during the early hours of the morning a damaged conveyor belt caught in a machine at Creswell Colliery and caused the motor to overheat and catch fire, with 80 men trapped beyond the flames. They all persished as a result of the fumes and smoke generated by the fire. As word of the disaster stread Creswell residents responded by rushing to the pithead to offer any type of assistance they could.One miner, who had broken his back several months before, went down the stricken pit with a back brace on to rescue his fellow workers.

There were serious errors that prevented the fire from being extinguished quickly and only fifty seven bodies were initially recovered with twenty three remaining underground for the best part of a year.The fire was only finally put out after the entire mine had been sealed off to starve the oxygen and it was Easter 1951 until it re-opened, when most of the remaining bodies were recovered. The final three victims were recovered on August 11th 1951 nearly eleven months after the initial fire.^[1]

The enquiry^[2] presided over by the Minister of Fuel and Power Geoffrey Lloyd,produced a number of factors involved in the high death rate, including telephones being too far from the face, repair work being done on the "paddy" (the underground train used to convey the men to and from the lift shaft), inadequate air shafts and low water pressure in the fire hoses.^[3]

Amenities

Creswell had two railway stations. Creswell & Welbeck (known locally as Top Station) was opened by the LD&ECR in 1897^[4][5] and closed in September 1939.^[6] Elmton and Creswell (known as Bottom Station) was on the Midland Railway line running between Worksop and Nottingham. The line and station closed in October 1964, leaving the village without a rail service. From 1993 the line was reopened northwards from Nottingham in stages under the name Robin Hood Line. The final section from Mansfield Woodhouse to Worksop was reopened in 1998, with the old Bottom Station reopening as plain "Creswell".

The local landscape had been very beautiful but during the 20th century it was scarred by a century of mining with the black, spoil tips of unwanted debris from miles underground, 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 prehistoric man and Creswell Crags hosts many famous caves. During World War II children used to play in the caves at the Craggs and in the woods behind the Craggs there is a quarry the woods were a great place for sweet chestnuts and Markland Grips popular for fishing, hazelnuts and blackberries.

Creswell in the mid 20th Century supported facilities not to be found in other villages such as a cinema on King Street burned 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, becoming like many others, a bingo hall in the late 1960s. The second facility the village had to offer was the ‘baths’ built in 1924. This was not only a council facility for swimming, it also included slipper baths for the many homes that didn’t have their own bathrooms at this date.

By the mid 20th century the village had one main Church of England parish church and both a Methodist and Baptist chapel. A third chapel had been closed down and was then used as part of the Infant School. A Roman Catholic church was built in the late 1950s.

Creswell Colliery closed in the early 1990s, after the UK miners' strike (1984-1985). Creswell like many other communities throughout the UK had to look for a new direction. A significant drop in population took place.

The Creswell Social Centre (previously called The Drill Hall) has always been the hub of the village; hosting parties and weddings along with sports and entertainment such as wrestling and boxing, both of which have given the Creswell people an event to watch and in many cases the competitors have been from Creswell and the surrounding areas such as Whitwell and Worksop. The Social Centre was managed by local residents Ray and Margaret Adlam from 1980 - 1989. The centre has also had something for the ladies with male strippers being the feature of a 'Ladies Only' night in August 2009.

References

Notes

Sources

• Butt, R. V. J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 1-8526-0508-1. OCLC 60251199. 
• Cupit, J.; Taylor, W. (1984) [1966]. The Lancashire, Derbyshire & East Coast Railway. Oakwood Library of Railway History (2nd ed.). Headington: Oakwood Press. ISBN 0-85361-302-8. OL19. 
• Dow, George (1965). Great Central, Volume Three: Fay Sets the Pace, 1900-1922. Shepperton: Ian Allan. ISBN 0-7110-0263-0. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Creswell, Derbyshire.

• Parish official website
• Creswell Crags official website
• Creswell Band website