Coventry Colliery
| Location | |
|---|---|
| Location | Keresley |
| Country | England |
| Coordinates | 52°27′25″N 1°31′41″W / 52.457°N 1.528°WCoordinates: 52°27′25″N 1°31′41″W / 52.457°N 1.528°W |
| Production | |
| Products | Coal |
| History | |
| Opened | 1911 |
| Active | 1917–1991 |
| Closed | 1991 |
| Owner | |
| Company | 1911–1924: Warwickshire Coal Company 1924–1947: Coltness Iron Company 1947–1991: National Coal Board |
Coventry Colliery was a coal mine located in the village of Keresley, close to the town of Bedworth, England. Closed in 1991, the site today has been redeveloped as a distribution park, owned by Prologis.
Wyken Collieries Ltd had started to extract coal from coal seams within the Warwickshire Coalfield from 1862, across three mining developments in North Warwickshire:
In 1902, the company commenced trial excavations at Keresley north of Coventry, and soon discovered a viable coal seam. The sinking of a new mine was sanctioned by an Act of Parliament, but not started due to economic problems.
On 14 February 1911, the investors in the Wykens Collieries formed the new Warwickshire Coal Company Ltd, to take over the mines of the Wykens company and develop the coal seam at Keresley. The sinking of the shafts of the Coventry Colliery were begun immediately. By 1913, the shafts had reached below the geographical reach of the single 114 feet (35 m) shaft of the Hawkesbury Junction steam engine pump house supplying water to both the Coventry and Oxford Canals. Originally built in 1821, it housed a Newcomen steam engine, which was brought from Griff Colliery, where it had already worked for 100 years. Named Lady Godiva, it was decommissioned in 1913 but left in place, moved to the Dartmouth Museum in the 1960s. This geographic resource meant that the colliery had an immediate outlet for its pumped-out water ingress.
With the twin shafts sunk to a depth of 720 yards (660 m), the mine began operating in 1917. Originally, the colliery had its own branch from the Coventry Canal, but in 1919 with the return of the men from the First World War, production increased. A separate and new 2 miles (3.2 km) private railway was constructed from the LNWR's Coventry to Nuneaton Line at Three Spires Junction.
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