28 YEARS ON: Closure of Mansfield Colliery

Mansfield miners having a drink after their last shift.

The mine was affectionately known as ‘Crownie Pit’ to locals and was sunk in the early 1900s on the site of the old Crown Farm.

At the height of its production, it produced one million tonnes of coal each year and employed 2,600 men.

Former miner Dennis Bonnner Dennis remembers how he and his colleagues were only given the news of the pit’s demise just 10 minutes before it happened on 26th March 1988.

“We were breathless,” said Dennis. “It was like someone had hit us on the head with a 40-pound hammer. We had all gone prepared for the closure of Calverton to be announced.

“It was a great place to work - everybody was friendly and we had a lot of imported people from the north-east. It was a real family pit.