Cresswell Colliery

I don't often get angry, but to see the devastation that once was Cresswell Colliery really upset me. A fine example of a whole community thrown on the scrapheap for political ends. What was once one of the most productive collieries in the East Midlands is now a wasteland where even the underground cabling has been stripped out for scrap. The village institute, originally provided by the Bolsover Colliery Company, stands almost derelict and the sports fields appear to be under attack by bulldozers. Only the model village still stands after a massive investment of public money, but what future for the people who live there? I came away very depressed with a society that is prepared to throw people's lives away as they have been throughout the coalfields.

The abandoned track of the former tub circuit leads to one of the shaft buildings which was retained after closure in 1991and used for ventilation and emergency winding for (I think) Welbeck colliery.