Alfreton overlay of coal mine tunnels in the Threequarter seam under the town (improved audio)

You are viewing a Google map with an overlay which is shown with “red lines”
it shows the location of the tunnels of the Three quarter coal seam at a depth of around 783 feet under Alfreton and the surrounding area,
You can also see some of the tunnels of the Low main seam which is 738 feet deep
most of the tunnels are marked with the year the tunnel was dug
the Three Quarter seam which has been mined all over the derbyshire area is 783 feet from the surface and was mined in the Alfreton area from the 1920s up until a year before the colliery was closed
the colliery was closed in 1968 after a total of 82 years of production
The sinking of Alfreton Colliery was completed in 1886 to the Deep Soft seam by the Blackwell Colliery Company
The colliery was fairly isolated from old collieries, the nearest being old Carnfield which can be seen on the overlay to the east and Cotes Park to the southeast
Over the 82 year period at Alfreton colliery several different seams of coal were worked and it was common practice to connect the seams together and also to connect to other nearby collieries for safety, ventilation, water drainage and access purposes
The coal seams were the following
The Deep Soft seam at 456 feet from the surface, it was deepened to the Three quarters seam at 783 feet in 1919.
The Three quarter seam was opened in 1938 from the Low Main seam which was also known as the Tupton seam
it was closed in 1967
The Deep Hard seam was 396 feet from the surface and was opened from the Deep Soft seam
The Low Main seam was 738 feet deep and was opened from the shaft pillar in 1900
the low main seam was dug towards Birchwood and also towards Shirland
Apparently whilst tunnelling in the low main seam towards Shirland the tunnel unexpectedly came out on the side of a hill
If you have any further details about the unexpected tunnel exiting at Shirland or any other interesting stories please leave a comment
Some further information about Alfreton colliery
The Highest manpower at the colliery was 964 in 1951
The highest output was 411,643 tons which was between 1963 and 1964
We are working towards adding more overlays showing the tunnels in other coal seams and collieries around Alfreton
If you have any information, interesting stories or maps for Alfreton colliery and surrounding collieries please leave a comment as we may be able to use the maps and information in future videos
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