IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Colliery Road, WORKSOP, S80 4BX

View north from the bridge by Crags Business Park

The line of houses stretches from here into the centre of Creswell village. No doubt at one time many - probably most - of these would have been occupied by miners and their families.

As at new Bolsover, the houses were built with their backs to the street. There was a tramway that delivered coal to the houses and took away 'night soil' from the ash privies.

Built in 1896 to house workers at Creswell Colliery, the village consists of a double ring of houses, separated by a service road, around a large green in the form of an extended octagon. The houses are built in a variety of different designs. After a period of decline from the 1980s, the village has been turned round with the help of an active residents' Association and a large Heritage Lottery Fund award. The bench in the foreground commemorates the Creswell Colliery Disaster of 1950 and memorialises one of the victims who lived in the Village.

In the early hours of 26 September 1950, a damaged conveyor belt caught in a machine at the colliery, causing the motor to overheat and catch fire trapping 80 men beyond the flames. They all perished as a result of the fumes and smoke. As word of the disaster spread, Creswell residents rushed to the pithead to offer assistance. 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. Serious errors prevented the fire from being extinguished quickly and only 57 bodies were initially recovered and 23 remained underground for the best part of a year. The fire was finally put out after the entire colliery had been sealed to starve it of oxygen, and it did not reopen until Easter 1951, when most of the remaining bodies were recovered. The last three victims were recovered on 11 August 1951, nearly eleven months after the fire. The enquiry, presided over by the Minister of Fuel and Power Geoffrey Lloyd, described 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. (source Wikipedia)

Terraced houses at Creswell

With the generosity of The Duke of Portland and built by the Bolsover Colliery Company during 1903-04 to provide recreational facilities for the Creswell Company Church Lads Brigade to a design by Percy Houghton in the Arts & Crafts style. Houghton was also responsible for design of the nearby 'Model Village'. During the Great War the Drill Hall was converted into an auxiliary hospital, returning back to the Drill Hall at the end of hostilities and later to a public hall.

To the memory of John William Doxey, resident of Creswell Model Village, a victim of the Creswell Colliery disaster in 1950 which claimed 80 lives.

Creswell Model Village is an arts and crafts style model village. The pit village was built in 1895 by the Bolsover Colliery Company to designs by architect Percy B. Houfton for the workers of Creswell Colliery on land leased from the Welbeck Estate. Influenced by garden village principles, it provided the workers with modern facilities; it had a tramway to deliver coal to the houses. Designed around a large oval village green with an access road through the centre, the houses are of varying styles. The Model as it is known, has been refurbished. (source Wikipedia)