| Nationality | The Exhall Coal Mining Company was incorporated in 1852 with a capital of £50,000 in £1 shares. In 1857, a limited company was formed by the mine owner, Edward Wilson. The colliery traded as the Exhall Colliery Co. Ltd. until 21 December 1906, when it became known as the Exhall Colliery and Brickworks Ltd.
In 1884, one coalface hit a fault and an enormous amount of water was encountered. The water inflow was too much for the pumps to cope with, and the whole mine had to be evacuated. The workings of the neighbouring Hawkesbury Colliery were separated by a water barrier of solid virgin coal. The risk that it would give way from the water pressure was so great that Hawkesbury Colliery was closed, leaving roughly 600 Hawkesbury and Exhall miners out of work. The water was removed from the shaft at Exhall, and production at both collieries resumed in 1887.
Problems with water continued, and in 1904 a plan to close the colliery was put forward. The plan was abandoned when the Water Board approached the colliery with a proposal to test their water for possible use as a domestic water supply, providing a new source of income. The Water Board decided not to use the Exhall water, instead opting to deepen their own boreholes at Bedworth. This eased the water problems encountered at Exhall, and a new district was opened to the southwest.
In the early hours of 21 September 1915, a paraffin lamp was overturned causing the headgear above the downcast air shaft to catch fire. At the time of the accident, 375 men were working in the pit. Fourteen men lost their lives as smoke and fumes were drawn down the shaft. The overman, Israel Marshall, managed to redirect the smoke away from the district where the men were working by pulling a brattice cloth curtain across a roadway junction. This gave Marshall enough time to lead the remaining 361 men through an old roadway to safety.
By 1938, Exhall Colliery had become unprofitable and was closed and certified abandoned by the H.M. Inspector of Mines on 11 October. On 28 December 1938, a new lease came into effect and the colliery was reopened under new management. The brickworks closed in 1939, and the new company traded as Hawkesbury and Exhall Collieries Ltd. In 1940 it employed 60 men underground and 24 on the surface. By 1943, the company had grown to employ 98 underground and 39 on the surface.
In May 1943, a serious fire broke out underground due to spontaneous combustion. The southwest district was sealed off, and although several attempts were made to reopen it, Exhall Colliery was certified as abandoned on 9 May 1944.
When the coal industry was nationalised in 1947, Exhall Colliery was immediately reopened, and the water pumped out. Production began in March 1947, and by the end of the year 49,506 tons of saleable coal were extracted. A fire broke out in the downcast air shaft pit bottom, and firedamp gas spread through every district of the mine. Exhall Colliery was closed in February 1949, and all but one of its shafts filled in. The remaining shaft continued to pump water for the benefit of Newdigate Colliery until 1974. |
| Source | Fretwell, L. (2005) 'Exhall Colliery', The Warwickshire Coalfield, Vol. 4, pp. 122-131.
Lee, P. (2011) 'The Extractive Industries of North Warwickshire: Coal Mining, Brick & Tile Making, Quarries, Ironstone & Ore Extraction'. [online] Available at: http://www.nuneatonhistory.com/brickyards-quarries--collieries-extractive-industries.html [Accessed 23 March 2021].
Northern Mine Research Society. (n.d.) 'Warwickshire Coalfield'. [online] Available at: https://www.nmrs.org.uk/mines-map/coal-mining-in-the-british-isles/warwickshire/ [Accessed 30 March 2020].
Taylor, V. (2015) 'The Exhall Colliery Disaster'. [online] Available at: https://www.ourwarwickshire.org.uk/content/article/the-exhall-colliery-disaster [Accessed 23 March 2021]. |