Snibston No3 Coal Mine | Swannington Heritage Trust (original) (raw)

George Stephenson and his business associates formed the Snibston Colliery Company in about 1830, after his son Robert had alerted him to the potential while surveying the route of the Leicester and Swannington Railway. Snibston No1 Colliery was behind what is now the Springboard Centre and library in Coalville. The coal lay under very hard green stone, which was a challenge, so a second colliery was sunk and after its 1980’s closure this became Snibston Discovery Park.

The Snibston No3 Colliery was operated 1850-1880, then again from 1892-1895. It was handily located next to the railway track between the Incline and Coalville.

The family of Frank Challoner lived in Colliery House during the 1950’s until its demolition due to subsidence around 1980. Read their memories. See our families page for more information.

Swannington Heritage Trust purchased the site of the former colliery house and its gardens plus the mine’s donkey sheds in 1984 to use as a car park for events at the Incline. It has been developed as a nature area.

The large mining wheel was erected as a memorial to Jack Jones (chairman of the Trust and former president of Leicestershire National Union of Miners) and all the miners who have died in Swannington during 800 years of coal mining. The plaque at Snibston No.3 site was unveiled on the 9th May 1997 by David Rathe principal of Coalville Technical College (now Stephenson’s College) whose pupils designed the brickwork.