IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
John Street, WORKSOP, S80 4DF

Looking along the street with the mix of residential and small stores and businesses.

A significant memorial for this large former mining village.

Looking past the end of Ann Street. The former mining village has a number of traditional village shops and businesses.

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)

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.

The railway closed in the 1960's. The hotel/pub seems to have closed quite recently. The railway was recently reopened for passenger traffic between Worksop and Nottingham. The pub looks like it will become flats!

The tree in the foreground is a Rowan. These were perhaps replacements for trees planted over a hundred years ago.

A very substantial (but sadly closed) pub on the corner of Skinner Street (left) and Elmton Road. The railway station, from which it takes its name, is on an embankment behind the pub.

Closed and boarded up Station Hotel at Creswell http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1092941

Bolsover Council with Action Housing have converted the derelict hotel into fifteen apartments for letting to applicants on the council housing list. The hotel was built in 1875 when the railway service opened. The hotel had been closed for twenty years. There are plans for a similar conversion of the Miner's Welfare building.