Plans to relocate Thoresby Pit Wheels in Edwinstowe take a step forward

A plan to move the pit wheel at the entrance to the former Thoresby Colliery has taken another step forward.
Thoresby CollieryThoresby Colliery
Thoresby Colliery

A planning application has now been submitted to Newark and Sherwood Borough Council.This is all part of a larger redevelopment of the former colliery site which includes up to 800 dwellings, strategic employment site, Country Park, local centre, leisure and recreation facilities, primary school and green space.The proposals will deliver more than 1,000 jobs and have strong local community support.The pit wheel features are currently located at the entrance to the former Thoresby Colliery and have a strong association with the history of the site.Due to the highway works associated with ‘opening up’ the site for redevelopment the features will be removed from their current location and replaced with a new, bolder gateway feature that continues to reference the historic use of the site but also references the future of the site.Therefore there is an opportunity to relocate and repurpose the features to ensure they continue to provide the important local reference.This proposal relocated one of the wheel features to a new location adjacent to Edwinstowe Cricket Club and Swinecote Road.The feature will be repurposed to provide a piece of bespoke street furniture, which provide seating orientated towards the colliery site with views of the restored spoil tip in the form of the new country park.This repurposing and use of subtle contemporary design cues reinforces the cutting edge approach to modernisation that colliery was renowned for.Coun Paul Peacock, from Edwinstowe Parish Council, said: "I think it's good news. They have brought forward plans to develop the former site and the parish council have been involved in the talks and one of the things we were involved with was a planning application to make sure the village benefited. They have made a commitment to do that.."One of these was the winding wheel. I worked at Thoresby and we wanted to see the wheels staying where they were. But I think for commercial reasons they didn't want the entrance to the site to have the wheels on them."Negotiations went on to preserve them and the heritage of the village and it was agreed they would provide one of the wheels to the village which will be installed at the new site."It's a nice site and a lot of people, including visitors, go there as well."I'm really pleased about it."The parish council are taking responsibility to look after it. We will put flowers there and keep it nice.It is intended that a proposal for repurposing the other remaining feature will be brought forward as an integral part of the evolving design approach to the redevelopment of the new ‘village centre’.Coun Peacock said: "The other wheel is going to be placed around the area where the Thoresby shafts were. I think the plan is to create a park as they can't build in that area."They want to mark that the tip was there. But it will around three or four years until they develop that part of the site."We wanted the wheels to stay where they are but that wasn't possible and I think we have got out of this the best possible thing we could achieve."