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The Annesley Colliery Company began sinking the two shafts near Kirkby-in-Ashfield in the heart of the Nottinghamshire coalfield during 1860. At the same time a new village was built by the company to house the miners and their families who were brought into area from Leicestershire. The design of New Annesley village reflected the policies and ideas of the company, they built two straight rows of houses along the edge of the colliery site consisting of blocks of eight houses with ten blocks in each row making a total of 160 houses. They were well built and provided with adequate adjoining land which could be worked as a vegetable garden. Larger houses were built for the managers and overmen a little further up the slope of the hill over looking the village and colliery.
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The two shafts were completed by 1865 to a depth of 1,400 feet and the colliery began working the 'Top Hard' and the 'Deep Soft' seam's under the Annesley hills to the west of the pithead. In 1925 the colliery was bought out by the New Hucknall Colliery Company but little changed. During the 1930's Annesley earned itself a place in the history of cricket as the work place of the Bodyline bowler Harold Larwood and Bill Voce.
In 1947 the New Hucknall Colliery Company was nationalised as part of the NCB Nottingham area. There were very few changes in the years following nationalisation but over the decades Annesley became a mechanised pit replacing manual mining methods with modern cutting equipment at the coal face and conveyors to transfer coal to pit bottom replacing traditional tubs. In 1970 coal production switched to exploit new reserves in the 'Black Shale' seam which was worked for the rest of the colliery’s life producing low temperature coal which supplied the power stations of the West Midlands.
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The Colliery was modernised during the late 1970's the original winding houses were replaced by modern steel framed buildings housing electric winders. this modernisation program eventually resulted in colliery merging with near by Bentinck to form the Annesley-Bentinck Complex. The two collieries were linked under ground and Annesley with its two sets of headgear became the main access point for men and materials while coal was surfaced via an incline drift at Bentinck which had the largest coal preparation plant in Europe. Coal was taken from Bentinck to power stations by merry-go-round railway trains operated first by British Rail and later by English Welsh and Scottish Railways while the railway yards at Annesley were cleared.
During the 1984-85 Miners strike in common with the majority of miners in the Nottingham Area, all but 52 of Annesley’s 800 miners broke away from the National Union of Mine workers. Believing that their modernised mine had a future they joined the conciliatory Union of Democratic Mine workers who felt the strike put the future of colliery’s not scheduled for closure at serious risk. They crossed the picket lines and returned to work.
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Annesley-Bentinck was included among the collieries for sale during the privatisation of British Coal; the Winning bit accepted by the government was made by Coal Investments Ltd. However the colliery never operated under its new owners who entered bankruptcy shortly after. Annesley-Bentinck was bought out bankruptcy by its management as Midland Mining Ltd. Following Privatisation production at the colliery reverted to old fashioned long wall mining methods using fast retreat faces. The company has been criticised for using these methods which lead to geological problems at colliery isolating a potential 20 years of reserves on the 'Black Shale' and 'Low Main' seams. In January 2000 Annesley the oldest operating colliery in the UK stopped production and closed
During 1999 the district council recognised the importance of Annesley Village and colliery Pit head including it as a conservation area which provided a measure of protection to the colliery buildings. However in 2004 in breach of the conservation order the No1 downcast Headstock and a number of the colliery workshops and stores were illegally demolished. Fortunately the Impressive Lattice Iorn work No2 upcast headgear survived. It is the last of its type still standing in the UK. The original electrician’s workshop and the later brick built bathhouse also survive today.
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Annesley remains one of the most complete disused examples of a colliery complex still in existence in the UK. As soon as you arrive at the village of Annesley you are greeted by the remaining headgear still emblazoned with a large red letter "A". although it has suffered at the hands of the local taggers it still stands proud. I started my visit to the site by heading towards the closest engine house which stands facing the remaining headgear. These two steel framed sheds are a poor replacement for the original engine sheds and their steam engines. The upcast shed has been completely stripped except for a electricity warning sign on the wall and the powerful overhead crane. Moving over to the down cast engine house which stands opposite the site of the now demolished No1 downcast headgear I was pleased to find that the winding drum remains in situ along with some of the mountings for the electric motors which powered it. Moving down into the flooded basement I came across a number of huge tires which must have been left behind from the machinery used to opencast the colliery's yard following closure.
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After leaving the engine shed I moved over towards the boiler house, a similar steel framed shed it too has been stripped out leaving only a tin first aid diagram on the wall and an can of NCB penetrating oil on the floor. From there I move towards the pit bank over the upcast shaft, passing through the remains of a demolished building lying on a direct line between the modern winding house and the site of the headgear I assumed these remains are what is left of the original winding house.
Arriving at the pit bank I was surprised to find the remains of rails at the mouth of the airlock it has been many years since any coal tubs had raised at Annesley. moving inside I was amazed at how intact the pit bank is. The safety cage around the shaft is still in place although the shaft is now in filled and the cages are gone. Looking up the inside of the headgear which is encased in concrete all the ropes and cage attachments are sill in place. The cages in Annesley appear to have had a double decked arrangement with the lower level connecting to the tub rails leading out through the airlock and stairs leading up to a second loading level for men. Later in the mines life this would have been an advantage in lowering men down to the workings quickly.
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From the pit bank I headed over to the electrical shop, inside is a fantastic array of spare parts now scattered over the floor. carefully picking my way through into the workshop space I excite to find a British Coal donkey jacket still hanging on a peg on the wall. Inside the workshop is a terrible mess electrical diagrams, trade catalogues and reports are scattered across the floor along with a pile of plastic signs for equipment like the panzers, crushers and ventilator fans.
After leaving the electricians workshop I moved over towards the Bathhouse it was linked to the colliery site by a long asbestos sheet tunnel which has collapsed in many places I walked along side this towards the entrance of the bathhouse. Like all colliery bathhouse Annesley's was split into a dirty and clean side with the showers in between. Passing through the doorway I found the remains of a rusted boot greaser in an alcove to the side. Miners would use this to give their boots a protective coating of grease at the beginning of a shift. Past the entrance corridor is a long room with an electric driven boot washer along the wall, it's electric motors would have spun a long circular brush that dirty boots could be cleaned against. Form here I moved into the dirty side changing room where rows of lockers stand against the wall, the floors in here are scattered with discarded work wear, old boots lye on the benches and a tangle of overalls, kneepads and shin guards line the changing space between the lockers. Next I came into the main showers forming an arc between the two changing rooms the showers are a light airy room lined in white tile and lit by large skylights I was amazed to find shower gel still in the dispensers and a series of donkey jackets lined up on the shower screens perhaps posed by other visitors. Leaving the showers I entered the clean clothes locker room where after a long shift a miner would have dried himself on clean towel and got dressed for his journey home. The locker room is a empty place now unlike the dirty side where work clothes have been abandoned the clean side is empty though many miners have left their contact numbers written on the locker side so their workmates can keep in touch.
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The final stop on my visit was the headgear, It was only the second headgear I had climbed so I was quite nervous approaching it, I found my way up onto the roof of the airlock and from there the maintenance ladder climb up along one the headgear's legs to the lower maintenance platform, climbing the stair way is quite nerve racking, although it felt secure it twists towards the top and becomes narrow but before long I was on the platform standing next to the pair of emergency winding sheaves. from there a ladder leads up to the top maintenance platform and lovely view across the colliery and Annesley village. Once I got down I felt an amazing feeling of satisfaction to have been at the top of such a wonderful piece of industrial engineering